Introduction:
This recipe is one of my comfort foods. It’s healthy, it’s quick, and I can eat a lot of it. After all, cucumber is mostly water, so why not? One of my tricks when I had to lose weight was to gorge myself on just vegetables – I felt full, and yet I was still able to lose weight. If I felt hungry a half hour later, I had more vegetables. Crazy, but it worked. I also felt pretty good.
There are a few more prep steps here – the cucumbers must be chopped. But that doesn’t take too long – seriously. I haven’t found any grocery store with pre-cut cucumbers, or I would have used those! One other thought – I show my cucumbers here peeled, but you DO NOT have to do this. I usually don’t. I think the peel is healthy. Just make sure you wash the cucumbers well, because you they aren’t getting cooked in this recipe. I also don’t bother removing the center seeds. Some purists think you have to – but at the end of the day, I don’t have the time or patience to do it, and it still tastes good. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 2-3 big cucumbers, diced
- Cooking oil (whatever type you prefer – I used olive oil)
- Mustard seeds
- Ajwain seeds
- Cumin seeds
- 1 big handful of chopped cilantro (fresh or frozen)
- Cumin powder
- Curry powder
Step 1:
Take your whole cucumbers (it doesn’t matter if you scraped the peel off – just make sure you washed them!) and chop them up. I chop small, but it doesn’t really matter how small or big your pieces are. Experiment!
Step 2:
Heat up a large pot with 2 spoons of cooking oil. When the oil is heated up, toss in 1 spoon of mustard seeds. If they do not start popping in a few minutes, turn up the heat and wait until it happens.
Step 3:
Add one spoon of ajwain seeds to the pot. Add a pinch of cumin seeds. Toss in your cilantro and stir. Add one spoon of cumin powder. Add one spoon of curry powder. Stir the whole mix.
Step 4:
Turn off the heat. Add your diced cucumbers to the pot and stir. Add 1-2 spoons of salt, stir again, and you are done! Remove pot from heat, and serve!
Final Thoughts:
As I said earlier, this is one of my favorite comfort foods. I usually eat this dish plain, or with cooked quinoa, white rice, or brown rice. Tortillas also work. But you can eat it plain – it’s an Indian cucumber salad!
