The Ina Garten Cucumber Salad I’ve Been Making for 20 Years—It’s Genius

In the early 2000s I worked in an Irish pub with a high volume in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was in Charlotte for the cooking school, and the job allowed myself to take part in class in the morning and to get into the pub from 4:00 p.m. to midnight in good time.

During my layer while I cooked endless burger and “Irish nachos” for people who enjoyed the Guinness Pints ​​of the pub, I kept the little tube TV in the kitchen on Food Network, where I watched a steady stream of Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay and Ina Garten.

I got as much information from INA in my working hours as from my formal training, and to this day I still use the tips that I learned from this time that I saw for the favorite cook of all the most popular hambeptons.

One of the most opened tips that I learned from garden Drain the cucumber for a salad so that they remain crispy and do not make the salad watered.

Strictly salted cucumber for a few hours, explained the garden, allows you to remove your water (cucumbers are mainly water) so that when they are combined with spicy yogurt and acid cream, they are kept their texture and create a beautiful, creamy but crispy end product.

The result is worth the effort, and almost 20 years later I still do my creamy cucumber salads in the same way.

How to make Ina Gartens creamy cucumber salad

The most important step in Gartens creamy cucumber salad is the first – to the disc cucumbers and the red onion, and put them in a column over a bowl with 1 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt. Cool for at least four hours or overnight.

At the same time, the garden also contains a simple yogurt in a sieve with paper towels over a bowl. This is essentially created by Labneh, an ingredient in the Middle East, which was less common in Gartens cookbook. Back to the basicscame out in 2008.

You can still strain the yoghurt like the garden, or you can use Greek yogurt or laboratory and skip this step – the salad will still be satisfactorily creamy and delicious. As soon as the cucumbers and onions (and possibly the yogurt) have released their liquids, combine them with freshly chopped dill, champagne vinegar, salt and pepper and serve cooled for maximum cooling quality.

Tips on the creamy cucumber salad from Ina

• Exchange the tense yogurt for Greek yoghurt or laboratory to skip the step.
• As soon as you have combined all the ingredients with the exception of salt and pepper, try the salad and add more salt if necessary. Some reviewers found that the salad is too salty. Use your judgment (and kosher salt instead of table salt) to avoid overlap.
• This recipe requires a lot of yogurt and sour cream, which represents an extremely rich salad that borders on Tzatziki. You can reduce the amount of “dressing” (yoghurt, sour cream and vinegar) that you expand to the cucumbers if you prefer a different ratio of cucumbers to cremy-goodness.
• Save the tense cucumber and onion fluid and give Gazpacho, a Bloody Mary, taste, or to make a simple vinaigrette.