Vegetable

Cucumber

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a cool, crisp fruit eaten as a vegetable—high water, mild flavour, and thin or thick skin depending on type. Slicing cucumbers suit salads and sandwiches; ridge and Kirby types pickle well; Persian and Japanese types are thin-skinned and low-seed for snacking; greenhouse “English” long cucumbers are seedless and mild. Bitterness at the stem end comes from cucurbitacins and is worse in heat-stressed fruit. Eaten raw with salt, yoghurt, vinegar, or chilli; cooked briefly in stir-fries and braises in some Asian kitchens; essential to pickles, raita, gazpacho, and cold soups. Store cool but not icy-cold if you want to avoid chill damage on thin-skinned types; keep away from ethylene-producing fruit that softens them. Peeling and seeding reduce bitterness and wateriness when needed.

Also known as: Gherkin, Pickling Cucumber