How to Stuff a Cucumber: Food Tip of the Day - Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Who on Earth would want to stuff a cucumber - and why? I would have asked myself the very same questions, less than a week ago!

The background to this idea is very simple. Although I love cucumber and eat it regularly, there can be no disputing that it is a little bit lacking in the taste department, at times. This is due in considerable part to its extremely high water content, with the core and seeds being almost entirely comprised of water. It was one night, therefore, while preparing guacamole and finding that I had made too much for my purpose that I decided to try stuffing the rest of it in to a cucumber.

Firstly, I determined that stuffing a whole cucumber may prove too awkward by the means I intended employing so I first of all cut the cucumber in to circa 4" pieces. I then took a long metal skewer and used it to carefully poke and scrape the core out of the pieces of cucumber, before carefully stuffing the resultant empty centre with guacamole, using a small measuring spoon and the aforementioned skewer. This is a little bit messy and awkward to do on the first attempt but the results make it well worth persevering.

I then wiped each end of the cucumber pieces with clean kitchen paper (purely for cosmetic purposes) before wrapping them tightly in clingfilm like Christmas crackers and refrigerating them for a couple of hours. The cucumber could then be sliced as normal and served as normal - only now containing an extra little bit of taste in the centre to surprise and hopefully delight the unwary.

Although I used guacamole, there are of course an infinite number of substances with which the cucumber can be stuffed. I hope that you will try it out for yourself, experiment a little and come up with something truly delicious to suit your own tastes.