Cucumber, radish and dill salad with foraged watercress and lemon creme fraiche

June 16, 2017 Published by Dina

Local farm cucs are not yet available here but I found these little ones the other day at the store and made this fresh cuc salad to go with a pasta dinner. I still had the elongated French breakfast radishes from this recipe and a bag of gorgeous wild watercress from our local forager Scott Moran, so I combined them with the cucs together with lots of fresh dill from my garden.

Instead of cutting them crosswise I thought I’d cut them on a mandoline into long ribbons and echoed the shape with the long radishes.

For dressing I combine homemade creme fraiche that I tend to have in a jar in the fridge with a little plain yogurt to lighten it up and add tang. A squeeze of lemon, lemon zest a little dill, salt and pepper is all it needed. If you’d like you could add a light drizzle of finishing olive oil on top. If you don’t have creme fraiche you can use just yogurt or a mixture of yogurt and sour cream.

The salad was pretty and green and I didn’t want to mix it with the dressing so served it on the side instead.

Enjoy.


 

Cucumber dill salad with lemon creme fraiche


Serves 2-4

Ingredients:


4 short summer cucumbers

3 radishes

A bunch of watercress leaves and short stems

A generous handful of fresh dill

Salt and pepper

1 cup Creme fraiche

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from 1 small lemon or to taste

Salt and pepper

Fresh dill


Directions:


Slice the cucumbers vertically on a mandoline type slicer into thin elongated ribbons and place in a salad bowl. You can use a knife but unless you have good knife skills the mandoline does a better job and you get even-thickness slices. My suggestion is not to trim the ends of the cucs, it looks better with rounded edges.

Lightly trim the root end of the radishes and trim off the greens on top, leaving about 1/2-1″ of the greens attached. Slice the radishes vertically on a mandoline and add to the cucumbers in the bowl.

Add the fresh dill and watercress to the cucumbers and toss with plenty of salt and a little pepper.

Combine creme fraiche with yogurt, lemon zest, salt and pepper and mix to combine.

Lightly fold in the dill and lemon zest, leaving some to scatter on top.

You can drizzle the dressing over the salad or serve the dressing on the side.

Enjoy.


 

French breakfast radishes


 



 

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