Sunday, August 30, 2015

Cucumber and radish salad


Radishes are bitter, you say? Indeed, on their own they can be. That bitterness can bring a blessing when combined with other ingredients that are mild and benefit from a stronger companion. One of such ingredients is cucumber. Garlic, red onion, mint or radish render a supporting arm to the slender cucumber in popular salads.

When I was a child, the radishes were more of a late spring and early summer vegetable. Further into the summer they developed a bitter taste that no one enjoyed. The weather or the varieties of those days somehow were not suitable to grow a young second crop. Now one can find the young radishes at the market almost throughout the year.

On a hot day cucumber is an additional source of hydration thanks to its high water content.
Breathing in the smell of freshly cut cucumber and eating a cold cucumber soup or salad refreshes like a gust of cool mist bursting from nozzles onto sweating customers in a terrace restaurant on a piazza in Italy in the August heat.


Cucumber and radish salad
Ingredients for 2-3
1 long salad cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 bunch of ca. 10 radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced
a few sprigs of fresh dill, chopped
(optional: young dill flowers)

Sauce
1 tsp honey
1tbsp (Dijon) mustard
1 tbsp apple vinegar
3-4 tbsp rape seed oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place the cucumber and radish slices into a bowl.

For the sauce  mix all ingredients together until a thicker sauce is formed.

Mix the vegetables and dill with the sauce. 
Leave to marinate in a fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Or serve separately as I have done here.


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