Cucumber Salad with Sesame: A recipe from Talimpu

I was cooking my lovely stuffed tomatoes, and while they were baking I was catching up on reading my regular foodie blogs. I came across a post from Talimpu describing a Cucumber Salad with Sesame and I knew that I had to have this for lunch.

In the West we don’t think of sesame as a natural accompaniment for cucumber. Nor do we eat cucumber warm or cooked – cucumber is strictly a salad vegetable.

In the East and Orient their cuisines incorporate cooked cucumber, and in the Chinese influenced worlds, associate sesame with it as well. One of my favourites is rice wine and sesame oil with spring onions/shallots and cucumbers. You can even heat the oil a little before pouring over the vegetables.

This gorgeous recipe from Talimpu is a warm cucumber recipe. It involves sesame seeds, which add a touch of the dramatic to the dish. I didn’t have any peanuts on hand, so I used pinenuts for a delicious twist. I also used toasted sesame oil to accentuate the sesame flavours. Today, this salad was a wonderful starter before serving my stuffed tomatoes. Thank you Talimpu for posting it. Delish.

Cucumber Salad with Sesame

Source : inspired by Talimpu ‘. You can see the original post here.
Cuisine: Fusion
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 5 mins
Serves: 4 – 6 people, depending how you use it

ingredients
3 Lebanese Cucumbers
1 Tblspn raw unsalted peanuts (or use pinenuts or hazelnuts for a different taste)
1 Tblspn black sesame seeds (use white if you don’t have black)
1 green chilli
1 tspn cumin seeds
a pinch of asafoetida powder
coriander/cilantro
salt to taste
1 – 2 tspn oil – toasted sesame, olive, or peanut

Method
Peel and chop cucumbers into small cubes. Remove the stems and finely slice the green chilli. Finely chop the coriander/cilantro.

Heat a small pan, add the sesame seeds and toast them for a minute or two. Watch carefully, as they overcook very quickly. Remove from the pan and keep aside.

Add the raw peanuts or pinenuts to the pan and sauté them until roasted. Remove them from the heat and crush the nuts with a pestle.

Heat the oil in the pan and add the cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the cumin seeds turn brown, add the green chilli, and remove the pan from the heat.

Add the cucumber, and salt. If it splatters too much, cover the pan until it dies down. Stir through and allow the cucumber to warm. You can put it over a very gentle flame for a moment or two but no longer.

In a mixing bowl, combine the cucumber mixture, crushed nuts, toasted sesame seeds and chopped coriander/cilantro. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

People are saying:

• I wish I was says

I wish I was … Sesame and Cucumber Salad

• Nostophia says in a Nosh Links post:

Normally, you think of cucumber as a cold ingredient, but there are dishes were the cucumber is served warm like in this Cucumber salad with sesame and pine nuts. Just looking at the pictures makes my mouth water. [A Life (Time) of Cooking]

Read some more:

• My Diverse Kitchen has a cucumber dish with lentils that also sounds divine.

The Cucumber Series

• Cool as a Cucumber Curry
• Cucumber Salad with Sesame
• Simple Cucumber Salad
• Simple approaches to great food
  

The Salad Series

• Bruschetta al Pomodoro
• Chana Chat with Chat Masala
• Travel Thursday #8: Channa Chat by the Beach
• Chickpea Keep It Simple Salad
• Chickpeas with Ginger Root Salad
• Peppers Shining Salad
• Pomegranate and Banana Salad
• Raw-ish Beetroot and Carrot Salad
• Simple approaches
• Simple Cucumber Salad
• Tomato Salad
• Watermelon with Haloumi

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