Persian Sumac Cucumbers Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between a cucumber and a Persian cucumber? ›

A Persian cucumber is a small, tender cucumber with a smooth exterior, thin skin, and very few seeds. They're narrower than regular cucumbers and have a crisp interior and mild flavor, and they tend to be less watery than other cucumbers.

Persian cucumbers are cucumbers similar to Kirby, Japanese, lemon, Armenian, and English cucumbers. They are characterized by their cylindrical shape and smooth skin. These vegetables can be eaten with or without the skin, and the flavor will stay the same.

Instead, the best place to store Persian cucumbers is at room temperature or in your refrigerator's crisper drawer, on the door, or towards the front of a shelf, where temps are a little warmer.

As many as you want provided you are eating other vegetables. Cucumber will provide you with potassium, fiber, vitamin C as well as other nutrients.

Most cucumber plants contain a bitter compound called cucurbitacin, which can be present in the fruit as well as the foliage. One of the most common reasons why a cucumber is bitter is due to heat stress. If a plant is stressed due to heat, it may start producing bitter cucumbers.

Persian cucumbers are thin-skinned and only grow to be about five to six inches long and remain quite narrow. These baby cukes are nearly seedless and extra crisp rather than watery, and have a mild, sweet flavor that's easy to fall for.

Persian cukes are great served in any raw application—as a dipper for dressings and hummus, sliced thin and tossed in a salad, cut into large chunks and tossed with peaches for a simple salad, and much more.

When it comes to making the best cucumber salads, I find that unless you take the time to properly salt and drain the cukes, the end product is watery, limp, and less than tasty. This easy extra step makes extra crunchy slices, takes almost no effort at all, but gives a big payout in the crunch department.

Dry the cucumbers thoroughly, as excess water on the surface can encourage spoilage. Once your cucumber is clean and dry, wrap it in a clean kitchen towel or paper towel. This will help to keep condensation and humidity at bay, preventing sogginess, mold, and overall deterioration.

Should you peel your cucumbers for cucumber salad? Again, it depends on the variety and maturity of the cucumber. English or Persian cucumbers have thin skins which you do not need to peel. Regular market cucumbers may have thicker peels that can be tough and bitter, so it's best to peel those.

What kind of cucumber is best for salads? ›

Lemon cucumbers

Ideal for salads and pickling. What's more, lemon cucumbers are easy to grow making them a popular summer vegetable to brighten up the vegetable patch and summer salads.

For this recipe, we recommend using a seedless variety, such as English cucumbers. English cucumbers are the long, slim ones you usually see wrapped in plastic at the grocery store; not only do they have small, nearly imperceptible seeds, but their skins are thin, smooth, and sweet, eliminating the need to peel them.

Flavor: Persian cucumbers are sweeter and less bitter than regular cucum.

"Unlike slicing cucumbers, English cucumbers are thinner and boast tiny, immature seeds that are virtually imperceptible, hence earning the term 'seedless'," Bower explains. "Persian cucumbers take it a step further with even fewer seeds, rendering both options exceptionally convenient and easy to digest."

The aforementioned Persian cucumber is the cucumber of choice due to the fact that it is mainly a seedless cucumber with thin skin, making easy to digest. They tend to be shorter than English or Armenian, so they are easier to use up. Great for pickling, Kirby cucumbers have a thicker and bumpy skin.