Switzerland: Cucumber and Tarragon Salad
Spontaneous Cuisine: A Swiss Recipe
When the days are hot and sultry, few things can be as refreshing as a cold cucumber salad. In Switzerland, we make it with sour cream and tarragon, while in France they cook the cucumbers slightly and then add crème fraîche and chives.
This salads goes perfectly with a grilled chicken breast or any white fish. It also goes perfectly with smoked or natural salmon, in which case you might want to replace the tarragon with fresh dill or dill seeds.
Ingredients
2 cucumbers 200 g sour cream or plain yogurt 6 branches of fresh tarragon, chopped finely 2 tsp. coarse mustard, type “Moutarde de Meaux” 2 Tbs. mayonnaise 2 Tbs. white wine vinegarInstructions
- Wash cucumbers.
- Slice into thin slices (I don’t peel them in order to maintain the fiber).
- Spread slices out on a cutting board or work surface and salt on both sides to remove water. Leave for 1 or 2 hours.
- To make the sauce, beat mustard, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar with a wire whip until it becomes creamy.
- Add sour cream or yogurt and beat until thoroughly blended.
- If there is water standing on cucumbers, wipe them dry with a paper towel.
- Put dried cucumbers into sauce and fold until cucumbers are entirely covered with sauce.
- Fold in tarragon.
- Leave to rest in refrigerator for at least one hour.
- Serve cool.
Suggestions: You can vary the seasoning according to taste: fresh chives, paprika, mustard seeds. Use your taste buds to decide!
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Wow..such a simple yet so healthy and flavorful salad, Jonell! Love the freshness of veggies and herbs in it.
Thanks, Sanjeeta. It’s a great summer dish.
It’s almost like a Western version of cucumber raita!
I could add:1) Food porn: cooking food just to take picrtues of it and upload them on Flickr2) Prebiotics (inulin, FOS )3) Quick Response Code and Tracking Code that deliver information via cellphone4) Mood food (for exemple Jones Soda with pharma gaba)5) Gluten free diet even for people that don’t have celiac disease6) Caramel + salt (Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate by Starbucks)Too bad stevia has been prohibited here in Europe
It’s rather like a Western version of cucumber raita!