Thai Cucumber Salad

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Originally uploaded by lesliegardner

I found myself with an overabundance of cucumbers both from the CSA and the generousness of a coworker. One good thing to do with too many cucumbers is to peel them and add them to fruit smoothies. They add a nice cool refreshing taste without detracting from the fruit. This is another thing:

Peel and chop cucumber
drizzle with fish sauce (start with a little and add more later - it's easy to overdo it with the fish sauce)
drizzle with rice vinegar
add some lime juice if you have it
shake on some crushed red pepper
add chopped thai basil
add a little salt but not much due to the fish sauce
toss all together
taste and adjust ingredients
sprinkle on some chopped peanuts right before serving

Green Bean Tabouleh

I'm a little behind on green beans from the CSA and I just got another pound this morning! Time for action! I also had a bunch of parsley so I thought: Tabouleh. Because what else can you possibly think when you look at parsley besides: garnish?

First I poured boiling water over 1C of Bulgur for about 15 minutes


Then I sliced about a pound of green beans into small Os and microwaved them in a bowl with a little water in the bottom for three minutes.


In the food processor, I pulsed 1/2C raw almonds into small pieces and toasted in a dry skillet.


Also in the food processor, I mixed up a small bunch of flat leaf parsley (about the size of my open hand) with 2 cloves of garlic. To this I added the juice of 1 lemon, 1/8C olive oil and 1/2t salt. (possibly more of these last two ingredients, but at least that. I didn't realize it would be good enough to post so I was using the freepour method!)


The result is SO tasty!


So much that I would even go as far as to say that the nuts are optional. If you do use them and don't plan on eating the salad immediately, store them separately and add with each serving so they keep their crisp.

Per 1C serving w/nuts:
Calories: 223, Fat: 11g, Protein 7g
w/o nuts:
Calories 153, Fat: 5g, Protein 5g