Home Grown Tomatoes: Cold Cucumber Salad

Cold Cucumber Salad

Home Grown Tomatoes is a weekly Vegan/Vegetarian column written by Giovanina Bucci

Well this past weekend was spent at yet another fabulous wedding down in Bisbee, Arizona.  Bisbee is an incredibly quirky, enchanting old mining town that sits right on the Mexican border.  The houses rest on hillsides where stairs run up and down the neighborhood.  It's the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and from the moment you drive in, it immediately feels like a warm and inviting place to spend the weekend.  

There were six of us who rented this completely kick ass house that was so colorful and perfect for hosting parties.  On Friday night, we cooked a ridiculous amount of food, grilled outside, met new friends, drank cold beers, and laughed until the wee hours of the night.  On Saturday, we utilized the heck out of some leftovers for an 'anyone who's in the neighborhood' breakfast and then prepared for what turned out to be a completely amazing evening.  

Nicole and Traveler's wedding was held in one of the most beautiful settings I've ever been to - it literally felt like we were sitting in an enchanted garden, there were flowers and trees galore adorned with all kinds of white lights.  It was stunning and relaxing all at the same time - how they pulled that off, I have no idea.  But they did, and it was such an honor to share in their very special weekend. 

So I speak of all of this scrumptious food that was made all weekend and I come to you today with a cucumber salad?  I beg not to ask what you're thinking right now.  I forgot to take pictures of the bratwurst.  Sorry!  Anyway, this salad is super light and almost acts like ginger in its ability to cleanse the palate on a plate full of flavor.  It's incredibly easy and is yet another recipe that has all kinds of options and leeway.  I stuck with the simple of simples for this one.

2 large cucumbers, sliced

1/2 sweet vidalia onion, chopped 

1/2 - 3/4 C. apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)

1 1/2 Tbs. raw cane sugar

dash of celery seed

dash of white pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Chop, slice, measure and mix!  You'll definitely want to prepare this dish ahead of time so that you can refrigerate it for at least an 1 hour before serving.  Give the first taste test after about an hour, once the ingredients have really soaked in and settled, that way you can give it a legitimate chance!  Not only is this really light and refreshing, but it also balances out the often heavier summer salads, like potato and pasta.
  

And I'm not going to lie, I'm loving the hot pink contrasted with the color of cucumber in these pictures :)  Well whip this up and see what you think!  You could definitely add other light flavors like sesame or spice to liven it up as well.

Enjoy -

Giovanina

P.S. I got a 4.0 my first semester of Grad School... so apparently all of the mind numbing school venting I've been able to do on here really paid off!!