Our garden has started producing cucumbers like nobody’s business, so expect some more cucumber recipes from me in the near future. My next attempt will be refrigerator pickles, because I need to find some way of using all this stuff. There are about 20 blossoms on that plant. I’ll probably have to give some away, but I’m going to do my best to not have to do that. I’m also pretty close to having a bumper crop of jalapeños, so be prepared for some Mexican recipes as well. And zucchini. And our tomatoes just started to turn. Yikes.
My goal here, since I was serving it alongside a Korean BBQ inspired chicken, was to make something resembling kimchi, just minus the fermentation and with a decent amount of added fat for the keto part. This one involves a couple hours of marinating, so don’t make it unless you have time for it to really soak in.
Start with two large English cucumbers. Those are the seedless variety. You can use the seeded ones, just scoop them out before proceeding. Keep the peels on, because you’ll need them to sort of hold things together. Slice them lengthwise down the middle, and then crosswise to make half-moon shaped chunks that are about 3/4 of an inch or so thick. Put them in a gallon-sized ziploc freezer bag.
Now here’s the fun part. You get to hit them. Take the flat side of a meat mallet or a rolling pin and hammer them. You don’t want to pulverize them, just break them apart a bit. That’s why you keep the skins on, because it keeps them from being a complete mess. They’ll look like this when they’re ready.
Make the marinade next. For this you’ll want 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (tamari or coconut aminos will work depending on how clean your keto is), and a tablespoon each of chili oil and sriracha. Whisk those together, and then pour it over the cucumbers. Be careful, because you may have punctured the bag they’re in. Either transfer them to a new bag or double bag it to avoid a leaky mess. Leave them outside of the fridge for two hours with the bag laying flat on the counter, flipping once. If you make this with my Korean BBQ chicken, you can put the bag back in the fridge when you start the chicken, so the cucumbers can cool a little bit. Just before serving, drain the marinade from the bag. If you’d like, sprinkle it with sesame seeds before serving.
Spicy Smashed Cucumber Salad
Equipment
- Meat mallet or rolling pin
Ingredients
- 2 English cucumbers
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp chili oil
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
Instructions
- Slice the cucumbers lengthwise, then into half-moon slices that are approximately 3/4 inch thick. Put them in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Smash them with the flat side of a meat mallet or a rolling pin until they're all cracked down the middle.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili oil, and sriracha, and whisk until emulsified. Pour over the cucumbers, being careful to either double bag them or transfer them to another bag to avoid any leaks that may have been caused by the smashing,
- Seal the bag and put it on a countertop, keeping the cucumbers in a single layer, for two hours, flipping the bag after an hour. They can be served at room temperature or refrigerated for about 20-30 minutes before serving. Drain the bag immediately prior to serving. Sprinkle each serving with sesame seeds right before serving, if desired.
- Macros are difficult to calculate due to the fact that most of the marinade ends up being discarded. Assuming that each serving has 1 tablespoon of marinade clinging to it (which is probably an overestimate), macros are as follows: 73 calories, 5 grams net carbs, 1 gram protein, 5 grams fat. This does not count the sesame seeds.
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