Persian cucumbers have ruined it for me! When you grow up eating cucumbers in the way that Americans eat apples and oranges, you are in for a disappointment the first time you cross paths with an ordinary cucumber. Persian cucumbers are delicate, high on cucumber flavor, and low on the chalky/bitterness factor. Their skins are sweet and soft, though frequently peeled and sprinkled with salt and pepper, allowing the cucumber to be eaten as you would eat a banana.
When it comes to selecting cucumbers, I always choose this tender and flavorful variety if I can. When I don’t have access to the Persian variety, my go-to is the English cucumber. I feel quite cheated by the regular variety of cucumber as by the time I have peeled the tough and thick skin, I then have to deal with the big, pesky, watery seeds that deliver a good dose of bitterness.
Cucumber salads are very common in Iran, and of
This is a slightly different variety in that it uses apples instead of tomatoes and the dressing is a little more complex.
Salad-e seeb torsh ba kheeyar
Ingredients
Herbs marinate
- 1 cup cilantro, fresh
- 1/2 cup mint, fresh
- 1/2 cup basil, fresh
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons lime juice, fresh
Vegetables
- 3 apples (Fuji, Pink lady, Honey Crisp), diced into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
- 8 Persian cucumbers, diced into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
Instructions
- Wash and clean the herbs and lay on a towel to dry.
- Roughly chop the herbs and place all the ingredients for the herbs marinate in a food processor and process until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.
- In a large serving bowl combine the diced apples and cucumbers and toss with the dressing and serve.