Got cucumbers and need salad ideas? Here are two recipes

Cucumbers are so ubiquitous to salads that they risk being underrated. There are more ways to have this cooling fruit—not vegetable—than munching on it mindlessly during meal times. Two chefs share how cucumber salads can be elevated with ingredients that don’t easily come to mind: curry powder and fresh mangoes.

Curried Cottage Cheese and Cucumber Salad 

Serves 2

Ingredients

100 grams paneer, cut into rectangles

1 cucumber

1 tomato

1 red capsicum

1 yellow capsicum

1 large iceberg lettuce

1 orange

1 pomegranate

6 black olives

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs dijon mustard

2tbs vinegar -

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper, crushed

1 tsp curry powder

Method

1. Coat the paneer with curry powder and allow it to marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Grill the paneer until it’s cooked and keep it aside. Once it’s cooled, slice them into juliennes.

3. Deseed the coconut and slice into roundels.

4. Deseed the tomatoes and capsicums, and slice into juliennes.

5. Clean the lettuce and tear it into one-inch pieces.

6. Chop the orange segments in halves and deseed.

7. Take a medium-sized bowl to make the dressing. Add olive oil, Dijon mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

8. Now, add the paneer, tomato, red and yellow capsicum and lettuce and mix well.

9. Take a serving bowl, place the salad and garnish with orange segments, pomegranate seeds and olives.

Note: Chicken can substitute paneer.

Krishna Kishore, Executive Chef, The Bheemili Resort managed by Accor

Cucumber Mango Salad

Cucumber Mango Salad by T. Vinay Kumar, Executive Chef, Novotel Vijayawada Varun.
Cucumber Mango Salad by T. Vinay Kumar, Executive Chef, Novotel Vijayawada Varun.

Serves 2

Ingredients

80 gms cucumber, peeled and diced

20 gms cherry tomato, diced

60 gms fresh mango, peeled and diced

2 tbsps lemon juice

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Crushed black pepper

Freshly chopped mint

Method

1. In a medium-sized bowl, make the dressing. Add lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and crush black pepper, and mix until all the ingredients well combined.

2. Throw in the diced cucumber, mango and tomato and mix well with the dressing.

3. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and serve.

Recipe by T. Vinay Kumar, Executive Chef, Novotel Vijayawada Varun