RECIPE: Simple Summer Cucumber Salad

Winter denial.

The inspiration for this, oddly enough, was an Asian cucumber salad my family eats often with sliced cucumbers, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. I wanted to go sweeter, and thought -- what's a more summer taste than mangoes? The avocados sort of just ended up there.

I was serving this with a salty, spicy chili, so I went for very few and fresh flavors. If this was more of a centerpiece of the meal, I would probably add salt, pepper, and potentially even dried red pepper flakes.

Summer Cucumber Salad
10 minutes, serves 4-6

2 large cucumbers

2 limes

1 avocado (ripe, but still fairly firm)

1 mango (ripe, but still firm)

a few springs of cilantro

1. Peel the cucumbers using a vegetable peeler.
2. If you are like me, clean up all the peels that missed the trash can.
3. Slice the cucumber in half length-wise, and use a small spoon to scrape out the seeds from both halves. Then slice the cucumber into small diced pieces and put in a large bowl.
4. Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and then cut into roughly 1/2-inch cubes and add to bowl. 
5. Peel the mango and slice into similarly sized pieces, adding to salad. I was going to add 2 mangoes, and then one ended up being far too gooey and ripe. Tragically, I just ate that one off the skin.
6. Chop the cilantro, removing extraneous stalk pieces, and add to bowl. 
7. Quarter one lime and squeeze juice into bowl. Toss gently with a large spoon or two to mix lime juice and cilantro evenly.
8. Thinly slice the second lime to use as a garnish. Serve immediately, while the ingredients are still cold from the refrigerator.