Green and Gold Cucumber Salad

Greetings! I’ve got a lovely crisp cucumber salad for you, complete with my hometown’s school colors — green and gold.

I’m a North Reading Hornet, through and through; a forever fan of my alma mater. In fact, I live less than a half mile from the very place where I wore the Hornet uniform, where I practiced, played, cheered, and fought for victories. I even made up a sort of song honoring our colors during volleyball season. My aging memory disallows perfect recall, but it went something like this:

Green and Gold, the mighty bold!
Bump, and set, and spike that ball.
Turn a dive into a roll;
We are gonna win it all!
(Continue with similarly corny lyrics in second verse…)

In addition to sports and songwriting, I did me some traditional learning, too. The teachers made sure I knew my Latin, anatomy, trigonometry, writing, and the classics books. But, thanks to my cheerleading friends, I can spell, too.

BE AGGRESSIVE. BE AGGRESSIVE!
B-E   A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!

And the word that means strong or rugged. You know….

T-U-F-F, North Reading Hornets are TUFF, TUFF, TUFF!

I swear, we have a really, really good academic reputation…

Summer salads, in any color, are welcome this time of year. If your fridge is anything like mine, it is bursting with produce, and this cucumber salad is a great way to combine the different ingredients in fun ways. This salad features two types of cucumbers (the lemon cucumber, with yellow skin, and a regular green cucumber), plus red onion, green pepper, and celery.

Check out these beauts! I had never heard of a lemon cucumber before…

You can, of course, make this with just green cukes, or scallions instead of onions, or a different kind of pepper, or, just double up on the celery instead. This cucumber salad is flexible. The very simple dressing is one of my favorites; oil, vinegar, dry mustard, salt and pepper.

For color’s sake, I did not peel my cucumbers, a luxury I relish during local produce season (I always peel those wa xed up cukes from the grocery store. ICK!) You can certainly peel your cukes as well, if that’s your preference. But, sadly, that means they won’t be green-and-gold, and, thus, you will no longer an honorary member of NORTH READING HORNETS fan club 🙁

Green and Gold Cucumber Salad
Serves 6

Prep time: 15 minutes     Cook time: Zero

1 green cucumber, chopped (seeded, if desired)
1 lemon (yellow) cucumber, chopped (seeded, if desired)
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/4 large red onion, diced
1 small green pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar (or balsamic)
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine vegetables in a small mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients (oil through black pepper). Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Toss vegetables and dressing together. Refrigerate until ready to use, or serve immediately.