Tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, mango salsa – so many salsas. But have you considered Cucumber Salsa? It’s crunchy and fresh and as punchy as you want it to be. My version includes Aleppo pepper, something I’ve only learned to use in the past year. It’s just a bit hot and a bit smoky. You could omit it in this recipe and the Cucumbe Salsa would still be crunchy and fresh, but if you’re looking for punchy, then Aleppo pepper is for you!
We were overwhelmed with cucumbers in the garden this year, so I found myriad ways of using them – stir-fried cucumbers with ground pork, cucumber sorbet, water-bath canned cucumber salad, cucumber relish, and of course, Cucumber Salsa. Cucumber Salsa is a great accompaniment for Enchiladas Rojas, but it would even be great as vegetable salad along-side grilled pork tenderloin or chicken.
Cucumber Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 Roma tomato
- fresh cilantro
- 1 lime
- 1 t Aleppo pepper
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Prep the cucumber – Peel and deseed the cucumber. Slice vertically into 1/4-inch strips, the chop the strips across so that you have a 1/4-inch dice. Add to a medium bowl.
- Prep the other veg and the lime and mix to combine – Mince the red onion. Destem and deseed the tomato, then chop it into a 1/4-inch dice. Chop the cilantro (stems and leaves) to yield 1/2 cup. Zest and juice the lime. Add the onion, tomato, cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, and Aleppo pepper to the bowl with the cucumber.
- Finish – Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Let rest for about an hour before serving.
P.S. – If you’ve ever made any of my recipes, I’m hoping that you printed them out and you still have them. The backups that my hosting provider maintains were corrupted somehow, so when this blog went into the nether lands while I was trying to migrate to WordPress (long, sad story), my current hosting provider was only able to restore my site from where it was in October 2023, which means I’ve lost nearly a year of content. I’m trying to recreate what I’ve lost, so if you have any snippets of anything from the previous year, please send it to me! For the record, I did NOT cry. There’s no crying in blogging!