Cucumber and radish salad

Radishes are bitter, you say? Indeed, on their own they can be. That bitterness can bring a blessing when combined with other ingredients that are mild and benefit from a stronger companion. One of such ingredients is cucumber. Garlic, red onion, mint or radish render a supporting arm to the slender cucumber in popular salads.

When I was a child, the radishes were more of a late spring and early summer vegetable. Further into the summer they developed a bitter taste that no one enjoyed. The weather or the varieties of those days somehow were not suitable to grow a young second crop. Now one can find the young radishes at the market almost throughout the year.

On a hot day cucumber is an additional source of hydration thanks to its high water content.

Breathing in the smell of freshly cut cucumber and eating a cold cucumber soup or salad refreshes like a gust of cool mist bursting from nozzles onto sweating customers in a terrace restaurant on a piazza in Italy in the August heat.

Cucumber and radish salad

Ingredients for 2-3

1 long salad cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1 bunch of ca. 10 radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced

a few sprigs of fresh dill, chopped

(optional: young dill flowers)

Sauce

1 tsp honey

1tbsp (Dijon) mustard

1 tbsp apple vinegar

3-4 tbsp rape seed oil

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Place the cucumber and radish slices into a bowl.

For the sauce  mix all ingredients together until a thicker sauce is formed.

Mix the vegetables and dill with the sauce. 

Leave to marinate in a fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Or serve separately as I have done here.

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Roasted radishes

Cucumber and melon soup

Cucumber salads and chilled soup
Chilled cucumber and strawberry soup