Cucumber Salsa

There is a bit of a running joke in the gardening community about zucchini. They are incredibly prolific, and no matter how much you eat and give away, there always seem to be more and more and MORE. Unless you are me. Then you canโ€™t grow a zucchini to save your dang life.

Seriously. Zucchini are so easy-to-grow, so bountiful, that there is even a holiday to give them away to your neighbors. But I can count on one hand the number of zucchinis Iโ€™ve successfully grown over the years. What can I say, itโ€™s a curse!

Mockup of the pages of the Ultimate Healthy School Lunches eBook
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Now cucumber? Friends, I can grow you some cucumbers.

Cucumber Salsa - Ingredients

Iโ€™ve never grown a cucumber plant that produced less than 457 cucumbers. And over the years, Iโ€™ve gotten quite skilled at using up all that crisp, cool, cucumber-y deliciousness. This crisp, cool, and spicy Cucumber Salsa is one of my new favorite ways to do so!

How is this different than regular salsa?

In this salsa, tomatoes play second-fiddle to the cool and crisp cucumbers. I chose red and yellow tomatoes for a bit of a fun burst of color, and I think they are so pretty against the simple background of the pale green cucumber chunks.

Tomatoes are a strong and acidic flavor and that makes standard salsa bold and a bit in-your-face. This salsa is mild and light, but still full of flavor. It is great paired with lighter fare, because the salsa wonโ€™t overpower other flavors. We had it on fish tacos! It was flavorful enough to make the taco delicious, but mild enough to let the whitefish flavor shine through. Itโ€™s equally as good piled high on a tortilla chip!

Cucumber Salsa

What is in this cucumber salsa?

To make this cucumber salsa recipe, you’ll need cucumbers (duh), red onion, and tomatoes for the bulk of the veggies. Mix those with some jalapeรฑo, garlic, and cilantro, and you’re almost there!

To finish, you’ll mix some lime juice with cumin, red wine vinegar, and a little salt, and stir that into all the veggies. A little rest in the fridge and you’ve got salsa!

The key to any good salsa is an even chop. Iโ€™m a huge fan of the โ€œroughly chopโ€ school of culinary skills most of the time, but in the case of salsa, you want to get every piece of flavor in each bite. That requires an even chop. Take a little bit of time to cut your veggies well and youโ€™ll be rewarded with a pretty salsa with a well-balanced flavor.

What else can I do with (too many!) cucumbers?

Some of my other favorite ways to use up a windfall of cukes:

Cucumber Salsa

Cucumber Salsa

Yield: 4 cups
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Use your bounty of cucumbers in this crisp, cool, and spicy Cucumber Salsa. It pairs perfectly with lighter fare!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups seeded and diced cucumber, about 2 medium (peeled, if desired)
  • 1 cup diced red onion, about 1 medium
  • 1 cup diced, seeded tomato, about 1 medium
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, about half of one bunch
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 medium jalapeรฑo, seeds and membrane removed, finely minced (see notes)
  • 1/4 cup lime juice, about 2 medium limes worth
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Salt, to taste
  • Tortilla chips, for serving

Instructions

  1. Combine cucumber, onion, tomato, cilantro, garlic, and jalapeño in a medium-sized bowl, set aside.
  2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients.
  3. Pour dressing over veggies and toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

Notes

Jalapeรฑos can be tricky. Some can be mild as bell peppers and other are spicier than all get outโ€”and there is no way to tell until you taste it. If youโ€™re heat-adverse, put on gloves, and then go ahead and make sure to remove seeds and membranes from the jalapeรฑo (these parts are really spicy), and mince finely. Add the jalapeรฑo a little bit at a time until you reach the desired spice level.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 32Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 79mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 1g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

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41 Comments

  1. I seriously look forward to Tuesdays to hit refresh to see your new post. However, it seems like more times than not, it’s essentially an old post reposted. I can get on board with a less frequent posting schedule but combined with old content, it’s frustrating. I’m a big fan of yours, and I know that you have to do you, but I hope you take this comment constructively. I agree with the other comments-your personality is almost missing now. I completely understand and applaud your desire for privacy for your family, but I feel like there is this wall up and you’re on the other side too. I don’t want you to lose readers and I’m afraid with all of the recent changes, you just might.

    1. Hi Vicky! You didn’t sound harsh at all. Thank you so much for your feedbackโ€”I really value it!

      I assumed that reducing my number of posts and working on older content would put some folks offโ€”but, as I mentioned below, right now, itโ€™s really important to me to make sure every piece of content on Wholefully is in impeccable shape. There are thousands of posts that millions of people visit each monthโ€”and, if Iโ€™m being honest, Iโ€™m not proud of a whole bunch of them. So Iโ€™m working on that.

      You might see these as just old posts reposted, but the only thing thatโ€™s the same about them is the name/recipe concept. They are completely rewritten, redone, retestedโ€”and Iโ€™m so proud to see some of my great ideas from olden days getting refreshed and brought out into the light. My ideas back in 2010? Awesome (sometimes). My execution? Not so hot.

      Iโ€™m sorry you feel like my personality is missing from Wholefullyโ€”itโ€™s been a real struggle for me to strike the balance between what makes me feel comfortable and what my (amazing!) readers crave. I hear you, and Iโ€™ll keep that in mind going forward. Again, thank you for your feedback, and thank you for being such a long-time reader!

  2. Just stopped by to say I really miss your non-recipe posts! What’s going on w/ your garden this year? How about your chickens? those are the posts I love the best.

    1. I’m sorry you’re missing that content! Wholefully is mostly healthy-food focused now-a-daysโ€”for a wide-variety of reasonsโ€”but feel free to check out my personal IG account for some more behind-the-scenes style updates: https://www.instagram.com/wholefullycass I also share lots of personal stories in my weekly newsletter!

      Also, if you want to read why I made this shift, I talked it through in my Annual Report back in December (scroll down to the “Major Philosophy Shift” header): https://wholefully.com/wholefully-2016-annual-report/

      (P.S. No garden this yearโ€”we’re taking a break for the season, but pumped to get back at it next year. And chickens are greatโ€”we just got three new baby chicks!)

  3. I’m writing because I’ve been fan forever and I think feedback is good, I hope?
    I’ve really noticed since you scaled back to once a week posts, and with many of them as updated posts, there is a special something lacking in the blog – you!
    It seems you used to be more interactive in your comments, and infused your personality and life into your posts.
    There is nothing wrong with the content of what you post now, but as I’m sure you know, there is A LOT of similar content out there and it’s the author who sets it apart.
    I’m sure as your life has changed it’s changed the blog for you too, I don’t doubt that, and perhaps your readership has grown and I’m totally off base. I just feel like my interest has waned a bit, and I might not be the only one.
    All the best to you!!

    1. Hi Georgia! Thanks so much for your feedback (and yes, itโ€™s goodโ€”always give me feedback!). And youโ€™re very right, as my life has changed, and as I have evolved as a person and a parent, so has my website.

      Wholefully used to be a place for me to chronicle my life and tell my personal stories, and to be honest, that just isnโ€™t how I see or use this space primarily anymore. Iโ€™ve become incredibly protective of my life (for privacy sake and also for I-love-this-job-too-much-to-burn-myself-out sake), and I know that makes the content a little less juicy.

      I know that isnโ€™t what many folks want to hear (Iโ€™m sorry!), but I have to be authentic to what Iโ€™m comfortable with, and at this moment, itโ€™s less of a focus on me, and more of a focus on the delicious, healthy food that Iโ€™m so passionate about.

      I feel so proud of the content I produce for Wholefully, and itโ€™s shame to hear that you feel like my content is lost in a sea of similar content. I try to strive to make sure the work I do is the cream of the crop, but if you donโ€™t agree, then I need to get back to work! ๐Ÿ™‚

      I totally understand if you arenโ€™t interested in following along anymoreโ€”like I said, folks evolve! Thank you so much for your feedbackโ€”Iโ€™ll definitely keep it in mind as I move forwardโ€”and thank you so much for being a long-time reader!

  4. This looks so fresh and colorful! Love any twist on salsa, so many things to pair it with.

  5. I used to eat my salsa spicy, but now I’m joining you and Babyface in the wimp zone…just a tiny bit of spiciness for me now. This must be a good year for cucumbers in our neck of the woods…I just made cucumber and onions the other day, now I just may have to make this salsa to use up some of the other cucumbers I picked…are your pepper plants producing well? Mine are loaded, just wish my tomatoes would get ripe…oh well, off to the farmers market Saturday morning…

    1. Our peppers are producing very well, but the with the last few days of hot sun, a few of our red peppers got burnt before ever turning red. ๐Ÿ™

  6. Hi, this salsa sounds absolutely great.

    Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been lurking here for a month or so. I really enjoy reading your blog. I’m from Holland and this blog gives me an opportunity to find out how real americans live. Instead of what you see on the reality shows.

    1. Thanks so much for ready! And the mast majority of us are definitely not like the reality shows, I promise. ๐Ÿ˜€

  7. this looks delicious and refreshing. I love the combo of cucumbers and tomatoes. Hey you should try making some sort of frozen cucumber sorbet. Didn’t you get an ice cream maker recently? I bet that would be yummy ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Oh wow! I need this salsa pronto!! I like my salsa on the spicy side and since my kids won’t touch salsa with a 10 foot pole, it’s all mine..and i suppose I could share with the husband ๐Ÿ˜‰

    1. Definitely add some more jalapeno to this then if you like it hot! Babyface and I are wimps. ๐Ÿ˜›

  9. This looks way yummy, and before I saw that you had it on fish tacos, I thought “wow, that would be delicious on a fish taco!” haha.

    I love spicy salsa. I also like chunky salsa. Doug likes mild flavors and thin, liquidy salsa. I usually do kind of in between for us. But I need to try this and make some fish tacos!

    1. I bet you had the best fish tacos where you grew up didn’t you? Mmmmm! And boo to the liquidy salsa!