Cucumbers have a delicate taste and contain a large number of useful trace elements. Therefore, in cooking, these vegetables occupy one of the first places in popularity.
Pick your recipe
Cucumbers in cooking are an ingredient in many dishes, and they are used both fresh and boiled. Also, these diet vegetables can be used as a side dish for meat dishes. As for dishes with boiled cucumbers, the most popular of them are soups, lecho (or stew) and salads.
Pickle
This soup is considered to be a classic of Russian cuisine. To prepare the pickle, you will need ingredients such as meat broth, cucumber pickle, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, cereals (rice, pearl barley or oatmeal) and meat cut into small cubes.
Cucumbers in pickle should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes, otherwise they will become too soft. Since pickles or pickles are traditionally added to this soup, their cooking time should be such that they remain slightly crispy. Pickled cucumbers boil much faster than fresh ones.
For the soup, you need to finely chop the potatoes (3 medium tubers), you also need carrots (1 piece), cereals (100 grams), cucumbers (2-3 pieces), pork or beef (500 grams), water (2-3 liters). First you need to cook the meat, adding bay leaf to the broth. If desired, you can add fried onions and green roots to the broth. Potatoes with cereals should be cooked for about 15 minutes, then add cucumbers. Before cooking, they are cut into strips or cubes and placed in a pan with broth and other ingredients, after which the soup is cooked for about 5 minutes.
Vegetable Lecho
For cooking lecho, you can use large and overripe cucumbers. Ingredients for lecho: cucumbers (2 kilograms), tomatoes (1-2 kilograms), sweet bell pepper (1-2 pieces), garlic (4 cloves). Salt, sugar, butter and vinegar are added to taste.
Vegetables must be cut into strips or cubes, then mix all the ingredients except the cucumbers, and cook for 15 minutes, then add the cucumbers and cook for another 10 minutes. A few teaspoons of vinegar and garlic are added after the dish is ready.