First and foremost - sorry for the photo quality. I usually don't have to do food photos shoots at about 9 at night - so I had to shoot inside with my tripod. Second, the pictures should be able to capture the disturbing amount of cucumber and feta salad I had to make. I think the easiest way to explain why I ended up with so many cucumbers (resulting in so much cucumber/feta salad) is to say it was the farmers fault. Well, that's not entirely true and I shouldn't totally blame the farmer. I was at the farmers market on Saturday where I purchased a copious amount of fruit and veggies. One very kind farmer was even nice enough to (essentially) give me a bunch of free apples - so many that I had to go into the Bivouac and pass them out because I wouldn't have room for them in my fridge! Anyways, I wanted to buy some zucchini because I wanted to make a savory Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake. So I went up to a farmer (who was selling zucchini), asked to buy a basket of zucchini, and I though he sold me a basket of zucchini. Jump to this evening when I started peeling what I thought were zucchini's... and they were cucumbers. A lot of cucumbers. I have no need for this many cucumbers - so I had to improvise. After some browsing on the internet and a quick trip to Kroger later, I give you: Cucumber & Feta Salad!
I am surprised by how good this is! When I take a bite - feel like I am nibbling on Greece. I think I will make some pita chips tomorrow to eat this with... but I will also bring A LOT of this into work tomorrow because there is no way I can (or will) eat all of this. Please see this photo of reference (and note the size my camera lens cap) to see HOW MUCH I have:
I will post the normal, feasible sized recipe. I had to quadruple and a half the recipe just to use up my cucumber stash.
Cucumber and Feta Salad
Adapted from David Lebovitz
Ingredients:
- 1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced into pea-sized pieces (I did small cubes)
- coarse salt
- 8 ounces feta cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon water
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small red onion, peeled and finely-diced
- 1 tablespoon (each) chopped fresh mint, parsley and fresh dill
Directions:
- Place the cucumber pieces in a colander, mix with a light sprinkling salt, and let drain 30 minutes to an hour, shaking the colander from time to time.
- Crumble the feta into a bowl and mash together with the olive oil, lemon juice, water, and a few turns of black pepper.
- Mix in the cucumbers, onions, and herbs. Taste, and add more salt if desired.
