5 Quick Summer Recipes for Garden Cucumbers

For the past few summers, I've slowly been learning to grow my own fruits and veggies. I started with tomatoes; I tried growing them in pots, and in garden beds. I moved on to beans and lettuce, then tried carrots. This summer, I added fine herbs and cucumber.

Sometimes I wonder why more people don't have gardens at home, it's so easy! I mean, if you want to open up a business and maximize productivity, maybe not, but if you just want to garden for pleasure, you should seriously consider it.

Back to cucumbers. So I planted like, 8 seeds. I thought I'd plant a few more than I wanted because you always have loss. Some seeds don't germinate, others die when they're baby plants, and sometimes you get pests that eat your crop. I guess I was super lucky because none of that happened to my cucumber plants.

In case you don't know, cucumbers aren't like carrots. It's not one cucumber per seed. The plant grows into a really long vine which produce about 10-15 fruits per plant.  So we're looking at about 100 cucumbers in a matter about 2 months. Yeah.

My toddlers have taken a liking to picking and eating directly from the garden, so quite a few disappear daily. But I still have a LOT. So, I had to come up with ways to use them. Here are 5 of my favorite.

Have you tried growing your own fruits and veggies?

CUCUMBER MINT INFUSED WATER

Not so long ago, I shared my coconut lemonade recipe and although this is my go-to recipe for a nutrient boost and intense thirst quenching relief, I wanted something a bit more neutral in taste for the office. You can never have too many refreshing drink recipes for the summer.

Ingredients

Cucumber
Mint
Water

Directions

Wash, cut, mix. Let sit for a few minutes and enjoy!

I was pretty surprised at how much you can taste the cucumber in the water. It's super refreshing. You could even add a bit of lemon juice if you wanted. Once you're done you can either eat your slices of cucumber, or pour yourself another drink!

CUCUMBER CREAM CHEESE TOAST

I don't know about you, but when it's really hot outside, the last thing I want to do is eat a hot and heavy meal. Sometimes it's a spinach + lemon salad, sometimes it's some guacamole, but lately, with all these cucumbers growing in my garden, I had to get creative.

To be honest, it was a really hot day and I didn't want to cook. I just felt like eating a piece of bread. We had just spent the morning in the pool and the kids wanted to eat freshly picked cucumbers, so I thought we could make some cucumber sandwiches. 

Since my son is allergic to eggs, I usually replace mayo with humus. That day though, I had none in the fridge. I did find some cream cheese, which I buy to make the frosting for my egg free cupcakes. So bread, cucumber & cream cheese... just some protein missing. Seeds! I added a bit of chia and hemp.

Ingredients

Bread
Cream cheese
Cucumber
Seeds (Optional - I used chia and hemp)
Salt + Pepper (Optional)

Directions

1. Toast your bread + spread some cream cheese.
2. Wash + slice your cucumbers in the long using a mandoline.
3. Add some cucumber slices over the cream cheese then sprinkle some seeds, salt + pepper.

GREEK SALAD with OLIVE OIL

Oh my god you guys. Have you ever tasted freshly picked garden tomatoes? They're god sent. Seriously, it's like eating extra sweet and juicy grapes. Can you imagine? Winter grocery store tomatoes, you are a crime to nature.

Ingredients

Cherry tomatoes
Cucumber
Feta cheese cubes
Olive oil (you could also use reduced balsamic vinegar as a dressing)
Red onion (Optional)
Salt + Pepper (Optional)

Directions

1. Wash and cut all your ingredients (I leave out the onions because they're too strong for my toddlers).
2. Put everything in a salad bowl.
3. Add some olive oil, salt + pepper.
4. Instead of #3 you could also bring some balsamic vinegar to a boil and drizzle over your salad.

COLD YOGURT CUCUMBER SOUP

This totally sounds like mush doesn't it? Lol. I promise you it's not, it's actually quite refreshing and super delicious. Plus, it's fast, nutritious, and cold (such a treat on a very hot day!).

Ingredients

1 cups of plain yogurt
2 cucumbers
1 clove garlic
Salt + Pepper (Optional)

Directions

Just clean and peal the cucumbers and garlic, and blend everything together. Season to taste and enjoy!

CUCUMBER CREAM CHEESE BITES

Just feel like eating a snack? Grab a cucumber, a knife, some cream cheese and dried fruit. Slice, dip, sprinkle and enjoy some cucumber cream cheese bites!

Maple Buckwheat Crepes

Buckwheat is such an interesting and nutritious ingredient. Did you know it's packed with iron? In my books, it's a super food.

When I was little, my grand mother often made us buckwheat crepes. As children, we didn't really care for them so she would drown them in maple syrup. Growing up, I developed a finer taste in things, and so buckwheat has become on of my flours of choice.

You make the buckwheat crepes, add a bit of salty butter, a drizzle of maple syrup, and you've got yourself a little party in your mouth. Maple syrup is just so out-of-this world delicious that I want to spread it over everything I eat. Oh wait, I already do. That's a fact.

Oh, and this crepe recipe is egg free! So if you need to make some for a person with allergies, this is a perfect choice. :)

Do you like maple syrup or are you more of a honey person?

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of buckwheat flour
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of Oil (I use canola)

This recipe makes about 12 small sized crepes or 6 big ones.

DIRECTIONS

1. I use the my Kitchen Aid blender to mix everything together. I just dump all the ingredients in and blend. I find the mix easy to pour into the pan that way.

2. Before I start making the crepes, I make sure the pan is already hot (heat on medium). I don't know why but when I pour the mix into the pan as it's heating up, my first crepe always ends up sticking to the pan. Annoying. Trust me.

Easy + Healthy Spinach Cream

There's nothing quite like warm soup after a fun day playing in the snow. Need I say more?

Not too long ago, my in-laws cam e to visit us from Mexico. My mother-in-law made this delicious meal called Mole Verde. Essentially, it's a sauce made with greens and seeds. You serve it on top of meat, usually bird. I also like it on rice!

Anyway, we had a whole bunch of spinach and broccoli trunks left over so I thought it would be a good time to use up some of my homemade chicken broth to make a new and delicious soup for the upcoming winter months.

I just got around to taking pictures of it to share with you, hope you like it!

INGREDIENTS

Spinach (a handful)
1 small potato
Cream
Chicken broth
Water (as needed)

OPTIONAL

1 small onion
2 tbsp butter
Salt + pepper
Leftover greens

You want about a handful of spinach per 2 cups of liquid. Enough so that the broth covers all your greens so they can cook evenly. If you don't have broth, you can just use water, it'll just taste a bit different but still good, just add a bit more spices! As for the cream, just add as much as you like for the desired consistency, you could also use milk. If a lot of liquid evaporates, don't forget to add a bit of water!

DIRECTIONS

1. Chop the vegetables.
2. Boil everything.
3. Blend and add cream (or milk!). At this point you can also season with spices and butter.

I like to sprinkles a bit of grated cheese on top for added flavor, the I serve it with crackers. Enjoy!

What kind of soups do you like to make at home?