Do you ever find yourself enjoying a nice, cold refreshing salad and thinking how much better it could be with a little kick of heat to add some zing? Well folks, I have solved your conundrum with today's recipe, Crispy Cucumber and Jalapeno Salad! You can enjoy the cold and refreshing crisp bite of fresh cucumbers backed by a kick of heat from jalapenos that are quickly cooled off with a creamy dressing. It is a great way to use fresh produce from your own garden or cheat with a couple canned goods to save a few minutes when you are in a hurry. Relax though, because while the sound of fresh jalapenos may sound frightening to some, the reality of it is the dressing extinguishes any residual heat making this salad enjoyable by all....Let's Get Cooking!
Prep work for this amazing summer salad is quick and easy. Begin by slicing a couple English or several Persian cucumbers into small bite-sized pieces. You can certainly use regular cucumbers, but you will have to deseed and peel them so save yourself the trouble and use the good cukes, eh? I have found that quartering the cucumbers lengthwise then slicing them works well for this particular salad. You could dice them into small cube-like pieces and treat this as a salsa for snacking as well. Either way you choose to go about it will work fine so pick a style or method and slice away! You want about 2 cups total when it is all said and done.
Next, finely dice a red onion into small pieces. Red onions tend to be a bit milder and can be enjoyed raw much more so than a white or yellow onion, but you could certainly substitute in a Sweet Vidalia, for example, just as well. Grab a handful of cilantro and parsley and give them a rough chop as well. I think fresh herbs are pretty amazing as is, but a few chops help bring out those amazing flavors so slice them at will! Now as I mentioned in the introduction, the next two ingredients, tomatoes and jalapenos, can be either diced fresh or simply drained from a can and enjoyed either way. You can find diced jalapenos or spicy green peppers near the Mexican/Latin section of your local grocery store and our old go-to Rotel is known everywhere so don't feel pressured to use completely fresh ingredients. It's perfectly ok to be a little lazy.....sometimes! Other than those ingredients, go ahead and measure out some sour cream and freshly mince some garlic.
All these bright colors not only look amazing, but they will be quite tasty as well! Now that everything is prepped, there are two ways to go about this salad. If you plan on enjoying it immediately, go ahead and combined all the prepped ingredients with the lime juice, lemon juice, cumin, and a sprinkle of salt. If you intend to consume it much later or throughout the week as meal prep, then only combine the veggies in one container and make the creamy dressing in another. The acidic juices and salt will take the crispness right out of the cucumbers, so I highly suggest combining all the ingredients only when you are ready to get your grub on! I made mine as a side salad for dinner so I went ahead and combined everything.
If you plan on using this salad as part of your weekly meal prep, I suggest putting the sour cream, lime and lemon juices, salt, and cumin into a mason jar so you can shake it up just prior to adding it to your salad. Otherwise, just realize everything will get a little bit soggier and mushier as the days go on so try to limit this salad to a day or two max once all the ingredients have been combined together. Otherwise, that wraps up this refreshing Crispy Cucumber and Jalapeno Salad! The recipe card below makes 4 nice portions for a dinner or meal prep so keep that in mind next time when you have too many fresh ingredients you are trying to use before they go bad. I hope this delicious salad makes it to your table soon and you enjoy it as much as I do.....Just Keep Cooking!
CRISPY CUCUMBER AND JALAPENO SALAD
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