Friday, July 27, 2012

Lemon Cucumber Tofu Salad


One thing I really love about having a garden is that I can grow all sorts of cool heirloom plants that I can't find at the grocery store or many farmers markets.  One of my favorite veggies in my garden is lemon cucumbers.  They are these precious little cucumbers that have the coloring of a lemon and are shaped kind of like a small apple.  They taste a bit different than regular cucumbers, but aren't lemony at all as you would imagine. 

Look how cute they are!
I didn't have to look much further than one of my favorite cooking blogs, 101 Cookbooks, to find a great recipe for my lemon cucumbers.  This recipe caught my eye, and has been a hit in my house all summer (I have had a ton of lemon cucumbers!).  You could easily substitute regular cucumbers if you would like.  Definitely give a lemon cucumber a taste if you can find them!

  • 2 (or more) lemon cucumbers, quartered then sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
  • 1 handful of fresh dill (about 2/3 cup loosely packed)
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 big pinches of salt
  • 8 ounces extra firm tofu
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds
  • 1/2 of a large, ripe avocado
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1.  Toss the cucumbers, dill, olive oil, lemon juice and salt together in a medium bowl. Let sit for at least 20 minutes tossing gently once or twice along the way.


2.  In the meantime, cook the tofu. Cook the tofu and a pinch of salt in well-seasoned skillet until the tofu is firm, golden, and bouncy. Set aside.


3.  Just before serving cut the avocado into cubes.

4.  Spoon the cucumbers out of the lemon-olive oil mixture into a large salad bowl. Add half of the remaining dressing, the tofu, and half of the nuts. Gently toss. Taste. Add more dressing or salt if you like. Sprinkle the avocado across the top of the salad and gently toss once or twice to distribute it throughout the salad. Serve topped with the remaining pine nuts.



1 comment:

  1. I'm recommending lemon cukes on my blog so I'm providing a link to your blog on mine! I hope it was okay to use a photo from your site.

    http://synapsesong.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete