The benefits of cucumber
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What cucumber does
What this vegetable does
When the heat leaves you tired, or swelling is on your mind, bring cucumber to the table in a salad or as pickles.
How to eat it
Slice cucumber thinly, rub it lightly with salt, then add vinegar and sugar for a light pickle.
A yakuzen note
Cucumber is said to cool the body and clear excess heat.
This vegetable, driedDried cucumber →
Cucumber is a sweet summer vegetable, cold in nature, held to settle excess heat trapped in the body and moisten a dry throat. Its appeal is juiciness and a crisp texture, and it suits daily care when the heat leaves you with heat trapped inside, or when you want something for summer. From raw salads and sticks to pickles, vinegared dishes and cold food, it is the clean-tasting staple of the summer table.
TOC
When cucumbers are in season, the kinds, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what cucumbers do, deliciously, knowing the season, the kinds and how to choose makes them easier to use. Their appeal is juiciness and a crisp texture, and they are a gourd-family vegetable in season in summer.
In season in summer, a gourd-family vegetable high in water
Cucumber is a gourd-family vegetable like watermelon and melon, and it is the young fruit on the vine that is eaten. Open-field cucumbers are in season in summer, roughly June to September, and those grown in the sun are juicy with a fresh green aroma. Greenhouse cucumbers keep them in the shops all year, so they are available in any season. More than nine-tenths water, their appeal is a crisp bite. Good raw and clean-tasting, of course, and usable in pickles, vinegared dishes and stir-fries: a valuable vegetable in summer.
Shiro-ibo, Kaga-futo and suyo cucumbers
Cucumbers vary in skin and texture by variety.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Shiro-ibo cucumber | The most common. Thin-skinned with a crisp texture |
| Kaga-futo cucumber | A thick, large Kaga vegetable. Peeled, it works in simmered dishes and with a thickened sauce |
| Suyo cucumber | Wrinkled and spiny on the surface. Thin-skinned with a snapping bite |
For everyday use, the thin-skinned, easy shiro-ibo cucumber is handy. The thick, firm-fleshed Kaga-futo cucumber can be peeled and used in cooked dishes such as simmered dishes and those with a thickened sauce. The wrinkled, spiny suyo cucumber has a snapping bite that suits pickles. Small mini cucumbers work as they are, as sticks or with miso. Choosing by dish is what brings out what cucumber has.
How to choose them and how to roll them in salt
When choosing good cucumbers, these points make it easier to tell.
- Deep green and taut, without worrying whether they are straight
- Even in thickness, firm and dense in the hand
- Spines and bumps standing up prickly, showing freshness
Rolling a cucumber on a board with salt, which is called itazuri, takes off the surface spines, brightens the colour and helps the seasoning in. Shredded, sliced into rounds, sliced thin, or smashed: how you cut it changes the texture. Salted and squeezed, it softens and takes to dressed and vinegared dishes. If the green aroma of the skin bothers you, peeling it in stripes with a peeler softens the feel in the mouth. Rubbing the two cut ends together to draw out the harsh-tasting sap also softens any bitterness.
How to eat cucumbers
Cucumber works widely, from raw salads to pickles to vinegared dishes, drawing on its juiciness and crisp texture. Here are the standard ways.
In salads, as sticks, and pickled
What brings out the most in cucumber is its crisp texture raw. Cut into rounds or rough chunks alongside a salad or cold tofu, its juiciness is a pleasure. Cut into sticks and eaten with miso, as morokyu, it makes an easy snack. Pickled, whether a light salt pickle, a nukazuke, a soy-pickled kyuchan or a Western pickle, it has you reaching for rice and works as a palate-cleanser. Smashed and broken apart, it takes seasoning readily, and dressed with sesame oil and garlic it makes a clean-tasting dish. Chilled, it is fresher still.
Vinegared, in cold dishes and in stir-fries
Cucumber goes well in dressed and cold dishes too. Salted and dressed in sweet vinegar with wakame and whitebait, it is exactly right for a hot day. Grated into cold dashi as hiyajiru, or as a topping for hiyashi chuka or somen, it brings a sense of cool. Stir-fried Chinese-style over high heat and seasoned with salt or oyster sauce, it gives a crisp texture different from raw. Cooked briefly, the bite remains. It is also a useful way to use up cucumber left over from raw dishes.
How to keep cucumbers
Cucumbers are vulnerable to cold, so wipe them dry, wrap them one by one in kitchen paper, put them in a plastic bag and stand them upright in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. Over-chilling makes them spoil easily, so avoid the coldest parts of the fridge. Use them within three or four days. When you have a lot, slice them thin or salt them and freeze them in portions, ready for vinegared and dressed dishes. Pickled, they keep and work as a palate-cleanser. Grated and frozen, they are handy for cold soups.
Alongside this, it is worth knowing about The benefits of tomato a gourd-family vegetable likewise held to settle summer heat, and a summer vegetable likewise held to cool excess heat in the body, The benefits of eggplant as a guide when building a summer table.
Cucumber, in season in summer, is a summer vegetable whose juiciness and crisp texture you can enjoy in salads, as sticks, pickled, vinegared and in cold dishes. Thin-skinned shiro-ibo, Kaga-futo for cooking, suyo for pickles: using each for the dish at hand brings out what it has. For daily care in the season when heat builds up inside, bring cucumber to your table.
