We put in a couple of cucumber plants a couple months ago and they've gone nuts! Even giving away some to friends that come along there is still about ten sitting int eh cool room. There is only so much salad and cucumber sandwiches you can eat so does anyone have any (edible!!!) ideas of what else to do with them?

Pickles!

A cucumber salad uses up a lot - you slice them as thin as you can, and use a light vinaigrette, or a sour cream dressing. No other veg in the salad, just paper thin cuc slices.

And, yes, of course, pickles.

Okay, so when you say pickles I think of gherkins. Couple inches long kind of thing? Is that what you mean?

I 1 chilled seedless cucumber (about 16 ounces)
1 (6- to 8-ounce) firm-ripe avocado
2 scallions, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup well-shaken chilled buttermilk
1 1/2 cups cold water
PreparationCut cucumber into 3 equal pieces, then coarsely chop 2 pieces. Quarter avocado lengthwise, then pit, peel, and coarsely chop one half.

Blend together chopped cucumber, chopped avocado, scallions, minutest, buttermilk, water, and 1 teaspoon salt in a blender until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Chill soup, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Cut remaining cucumber and avocado into 1/4-inch pieces and stir into soup. Season with salt. Thin with additional water if desired.
I suppose you could make gallons of this and freeze it...

How big are yours? You can slice them for bread and better pickles, if they are too big to pickle whole.

There really isn't a lot of versatility in cucumbers, is there? You can't cook them.

I'll never forget the horrified looks on the faces of my Dutch relatives when they came to visit me in 1996. I was cooking zucchini and they'd never seen zucchini. They thought I was cooking cucumber and clearly thought I was insane!

One thing to keep in mind with plants of this family is that you don't have to wait until they are big to pick them. People are always complaining of having so much zucchini, but you won't, if you pick them when they are the size of your finger. They taste better then too. Cucumbers are the same.

We usually pick them at about eight inches I guess, I knew they could be picked earlier but not that small - must remember that as the next crop of them are starting to flower. The other thing is though that you sometimes can't see them! One day it will look like nothing is there ready to be picked and voila! 24 hours later there's a monster cucumber!

How about Jamie Olivers Cold Cucumber soup? A friend made it for Christmas lunch and said it was realy good. Perhaps someone has his book and could post it in the cooking section.
Pity you can't freeze cucumbers. I planted some beans and gem squash this year, we had a lot of rain and they have taken over the back yard. I can freeze the beans but have the same problem with the gem squash. Luckily they don't spoil easily so can be kept a long time. Too bad we can't swop veggies Copago.

I'm sure at least one dish from our local Chinese takeaway has cooked cucumber in it, and it's delicious so there must be recipes out there for them.
You can also make face packs from them too

OOOh yes, you could keep some slices in the fridge to put on your eyes before a heavy date!

I make a dish in the summer time that has cooked, actually sauteed, cucumber in it. It's simple and quick also. Just drizzle some olive oil in a pan, add a couple cloves of garlic (if you like it), peppers, cucumber, summer squash, and zuchini. Just cook it up quickly while stirring, just until veggies are softened, but still crunchy. It's delicious, healthy, and the most time spent is chopping the veggies. I have also added tomatoes, with the juice and seeds removed, and just about any other fresh vegetable I have on hand. Sandy

I didn't know that there was that much you could do with a cucumber!

I love this site - it challenges me to look outside of my usual range. The following page may be useful:

Cucumber Recipes!

*Edited to Add* This is from the same site that Copago found the Chicken in Cucumber Lemon Sauce recipe.

If they are slicing cucumbers, I just eat them raw with ranch dressing. If they are the smaller picklers, they make gread bread and butter pickles.