Cucumber Salad with Chile and Roasted Peanuts

Mike and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year and I have been busy of late looking for ways to use all the delicious produce that we bring home each Tuesday. I must say that overall this has been a very positive experience for us, and while cooking has eaten up a lot of my time, I have really enjoyed it.

Of course, sometimes the folks at Denison Farms give us a thing or two that I'm not so excited about. One of those things is cucumbers. So when we got a couple of cucumbers in our box this week, I decided that I'd bring them to our church potluck and let others eat them. I had recently found a cucumber recipe that looked fairly tasty, though not tasty enough to merit us eating that many cucumbers on our own. Well, it turns out it was tasty, so tasty that folks at church requested the recipe and wondered why I had decided to share it.

The recipe comes from a cookbook called Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, a cookbook author I've recently discovered and highly recommend (I especially like her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone). Regrettably, I didn't take a picture of the salad, though that's probably just as well as it didn't look nearly as good as it tasted.

Cucumber Salad with Chile and Roasted Peanuts

1 long cucumber
1 bunch scallions
1 serrano chile, finely diced
grated zest and juice of two limes
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
4 teaspoons roasted peanut oil
1/3 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
6 mint leaves, slivered
6 Thai basil leaves

1. Peel the cucumber, halve it lengthwise, and cut it into long strips. Or remove long thin slices with a vegetable peeler. Thinly slice the scallions on the diagonal, making them long and thin. Combine the cucumbers, scallions, and chile, in a bowl.
2. Combine the lime zest, juice, soy sauce, sugar, and oil.
3. Toss the vegetables with the dressing, then add the peanuts and herbs and toss again.

Notes: I made a number of modifications to this recipe. I sliced the cucumber and scallions thinly but in short strips (what I would describe as "normal" pieces). I substitued canola oil for some of the peanut oil, which I ran out of. Finally, I didn't include chiles, lime zest or juice, mint leaves or basil leaves as I didn't have any, but did add a little dried parsley.