fresh summer cuke salad

Growing up, we always had a huge garden. Tomatoes, beans, beets, carrots, corn, potatoes and cucumbers are just a sampling of the vegetables that could all be found in abundance – and we took full advantage. As kids, we would sometimes just roam the rows of the garden for an afternoon snack. It was sometimes a lot of work, but I never minded.

It also meant that we dealt with a lot of fresh produce in the summer that we had to preserve or just make meals from. We had tons of special favorites from fresh salsa and marinara to this one I’m featuring today – fresh cucumber salad.

I love piling this mix of pickled sweet onions and cucumbers on my meat (for the guys) and veggie burgers off the grill. You can also eat it just like it is. There’s something so refreshing about it, and I just had to share.

Fresh Summer Cucumber Salad
2-3 medium sized fresh cucumbers
1 medium sweet onion
3/4 c. distilled vinegar
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 c. cold water
salt & pepper

Peel and slice cucumbers and onion into manageable, bite sized pieces. Lay the cucumbers out on a tray, and sprinkle with salt. Allow the cucumbers to stand for 15 minutes. Toss into a colindar and rinse.

Place the salted and rinsed cucumbers into a medium sized, sealable container along with the onions. Add the vinegar, sugar and water. Stir well and add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. You can eat this immediately, but if you give it at least twelve hours to soak, it’s even better.

Store in the fridge in your sealable container – or if you’re like my mom use your extra quart jars. This salad will keep well in the fridge, but you won’t have to worry, since it’ll disappear quickly!