This salad is easy to rustle up, requires no special ingredients or equipment and is a delight to eat any time of day or year – fresh, sweet, crunch, herby, tart, sour, spicy all make an appearance in the combination of apples, pickled cucumbers, green peppers – bell or jalapenos and my all-time favourite cilantro.
Did I mention great for every occasion from weeknight dinners to festive ones? Cool.
So, go ahead – use your favourite apples, your favourite cukes – deseed, don’t deseed, big, small, peel, don’t peel, do you.
The only thing I advise is cutting all the ingredients roughly the same size. No quite salsaesque but small enough to enhance the eating experience.
Ingredients
- 1 small cucumber
- 2 sweet apples
- Juice of half a lime
- Green peppers – half a bell pepper or a couple of jalapenos – deseed if you like
- Handful cilantro (and or mint)
- Salt and chili flakes to taste
Pickling the cucumber: Begin by peeling the cucumber if you’re using a thick-skinned one. When I use those, I find the skin too tough. Scoop the seeds and soft centre out by running a spoon down the length. Cut the cucumber into strips, lengthways and then into dice.
These days, I opt for mini cucumbers which I dice like that – skin and all.
To this cucumber dice, add a sprinkling of a teaspoon or salt – less if you’re using kosher salt. Sprinkle some sugar too, about a teaspoon and a half, some dried red chili flakes for a bit of bite, and 1 – 2 tablespoons of whatever vinegar you’ve chosen. Toss so everything is combined then set aside and work on the other ingredients.
I like to incorporate the pickling juices into the salad, so I don’t strain out the liquid before serving!
Chop the apples – skin on, skin off – up to you. If using skin-on, rinse in warm water to get rid of any wax if your fruits aren’t organic. Add to the salad.
Reserve the cores for making pectin. For your jams and Zobo Jelly :-)! Then add to the pickling cukes.
It’s the turn of the green peppers to be chopped up…into small dice. Then add to the bowl!
Grab a fistful of cilantro. I-can’t-live-without-you-Cilantro. Slice the leaves finely. Sometime I add mint. For all you cilantro haters 🙂 and those who have a genetic disposition to it tasting like soap, use parsley instead or add some mint, scent leaf, basil – whatever soft herb floats your boat.
Add them to the apple mixture….
In my version today, I added two types of onions – raw and pickled. Green and purple is one of my favorite food colour combinations ever!
Combine. By stirring. With spoon or fork. Taste and season with some salt – play up that swalty, baby!
And voila, your salad is ready to be devoured!
You could add radishes to it, or spring onions, anything you like – do you!
And that is the end.
Peace, love joy and lots of sweet, sour, tart, crunchy, fresh, juicy salad in your life x
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