After I prepared the zucchini for the raw vegetable sesame noodles, I wanted to play with my spiral slicer
some more! So I made a simple cucumber salad with borage flowers.
Borage is a plant I grow in my herb spiral, as well as mixed in with my vegetable plantings. It is said to be a useful companion plant for tomatoes and cucumbers. I love looking at and eating the gorgeous blue flowers; the leaves are edible, as well.
It’s been a great year for cucumbers in my garden because of all the rain we’ve had. For this salad, which fed just one person (me!), I picked a beautiful cucumber and easily created a pretty ribbon out of it with the spiralizer tool.
If you don’t have a garden, choose the nicest medium-large cucumber that you can find (and if you’d like to make a bigger salad, you’ll need more cucumbers). If your cucumber(s) is/are not organic, go ahead and peel it/them.
In addition to the cucumber(s), you will need:
coarse sea salt
rice vinegar
toasted sesame oil–optional
borage flowers (if you don’t have these, you can garnish with another edible flower or use chopped fresh herbs or toasted sesame seeds instead)
Among its many medicinal uses, borage has a reputation of helping with skin complaints, hormonal imbalance, and anxiety/depression.
Because cucumber contains so much water, you will want to drain the spiraled cucumber after you slice it. Use a colander over the sink and/or pat it dry with a kitchen towel. And once your cucumber ribbon is not so wet, you can I cut into it a bit to make the salad easier to eat.
To compile the salad, place your cucumber in a small bowl or on a plate. Sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt (not too much, or you’ll end up with a lot of liquid pooling under your salad) and drizzle with rice vinegar and a bit of toasted sesame oil, if desired. Garnish with your borage flowers. Serves 1.
