25 Fresh and Crunchy Cucumber Recipes You'll Crave (2024)

FAQs

What are the crunchiest cucumbers? ›

Kirby Cucumbers

They have a range of skin color from yellow to dark green. Kirbys are wonderfully crunchy for eating raw, but flavorful enough to be perfect for pickling too. Sometimes, they're even sold under the name "pickling cucumbers."

Salt the slices first. No matter the salad recipe you're making, salt the cut-up cucumber beforehand. The extra step allows them to release some of their water — keeping them extra crisp even when they get tossed with the dressing.

Cucumbers pair wonderfully with tangy dressings. Whip up a quick dressing by combining plain yoghurt, lemon juice, minced garlic, and a pinch of dill or parsley. Toss the sliced cucumbers in the dressing just before serving.

Long English Cucumber

Long English Cucumbers have a good crunch with thin, delicate skin that's easy to digest. The best part: you don't even need to peel them—just slice 'em up and eat them as the perfect quick snack. This type of Cucumber is great in salads as well as a ton of other things, too!

Choosing the right variety of cucumbers is important if you want crunchy pickles. Some varieties, such as English cucumbers, become particularly soft during fermentation. Choose small, firm cucumbers. Pickling cucumbers, Kirby and Lebanese cucumbers give good results.

No matter how you dress them, salting and draining sliced cucumbers maximizes crunchy texture.

Add 1 Tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of salt to the cut-up cucumber. Mix and let it sit aside for 30 minutes; this will help the cucumber stay nice and crunchy. After 30 minutes, dump out all the excess liquid.

We also recommend keeping ethylene-producing fruits and veg separate from your cukes—find a full breakdown here. Once you've washed and wrapped them, the best way to store cucumbers is in the crisper drawer (a.k.a. produce drawer) of your fridge, set on high humidity with the fan closed.

Therefore, most of the time, the combination of cucumber and tomato is advised to be avoided. Additionally, they both have a completely different way of digestion, so this combination must be avoided as it can lead to stomach upset."

That's why chefs and home chefs from Asian cuisine have been using this technique of crushing cucumbers before slicing them for a long time. The reason for this is most likely to make sure the vegetable dries out a little bit. This way, it will become more flavoursome and it can absorb other flavours better.

What are number 1 cucumbers? ›

1 consists of cucumbers which are fairly well colored, fairly well formed, not overgrown, and which are fresh, firm, and free from decay, sunscald and from damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign materials, freezing, mosaic or other disease, insects, cuts, bruises, mechanical or other means.

Striped Armenian is one of the sweetest cucumbers. It has small seeds and thin skin. Though it looks like a cucumber, it is actually a melon—a species of Cucumis.

When it comes to the nutritional content of cucumbers, there is generally not a significant difference between different varieties in terms of essential nutrients. Most cucumber varieties are low in calories and provide hydration, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Gherkins are short and stubby, with bumpy skin that tends to be a light shade of green. Though they can be eaten raw, gherkins are most commonly pickled and served on a relish tray, or to top off a Bloody Mary. Don't want to pickle your own cucumbers?

Suyo Long cucumbers are thin and cylindrical, growing up to 45 centimeters in length. The edible skin is dark green and thin, with a ridged and knobbed texture. When young, these cucumbers may bear small, soft spikes that can easily be removed by rubbing the skin.

Kirby cucumbers

These small, super-crunchy and mild cucumbers are usually six inches long or less and have bumpy skins and firm flesh. They are the most common variety of pickling cucumbers and are usually recommended in pickle recipes but they're equally as good in salads and diced into gazpacho.

Bittermelon (also called bitter gourd, balsam pear, karella, alligator pear, ampalaya and foo gwa) is a member of the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). Its scientific name is Momordica charantia and it is a vigorous vine that can cover a trellis in a couple of months and start producing harvestable fruit in 90 days.