Various Ways to Eat Cucumbers to Beat the Summer Heat
When summer heat is at its peak, it's common to feel irritable, lose your appetite, or even suffer from internal heat, all of which can severely impact daily life. Here, Sina Traditional Chinese Medicine introduces various ways to prepare cucumbers—a common, appetizing, and heat-relieving dish for the summer.
Freshly Squeezed Cucumber Juice
1. Cucumber Juice: Preventing Mouth Ulcers
Cucumber juice offers excellent taste and nutrition and can be used in the summer to prevent oral diseases.
If you're tired of stir-fried or cold-dressed cucumbers, drinking a glass of cucumber juice once in a while offers a unique flavor and can also help prevent the common oral ailments of summer.
Preparation Method: Briefly marinate fresh cucumbers with a little sugar, or simply add cold water to a juicer and extract the juice for direct consumption.
How to Drink:
You can drink a glass of cucumber juice in the morning to help refresh your digestive system. Because cucumbers are rich in vitamins, they can help alleviate inflammatory symptoms and are effective in treating mouth ulcers.
If you find the diluted cucumber juice a bit bitter, you can add a little honey to taste.
Health Benefits:
Research by American nutrition experts has also found that drinking a glass of cucumber juice daily can prevent hair loss and nail splitting, and can even enhance a person's memory.
As is well known, cucumbers are diuretic, strengthen the heart and blood vessels, regulate blood pressure, and prevent excessive myocardial tension and arteriosclerosis. Experiments have also found that eating a whole cucumber is not as effective as drinking cucumber juice.
2. Cucumber-Filled Dumplings: Appetizing, Blood Pressure-Lowering, and Digestion-Promoting
During the hot summer, many elderly people lose their appetite. Nutritionists suggest that for lunch or dinner, the elderly should eat filled foods like dumplings or buns, which are not only nutritionally balanced but also easy to digest. If you've never had cucumber-filled dumplings, you should give them a try. They are not only cool and refreshing but can also prevent heatstroke, lower blood pressure, and prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Preparation Method:
When making the filling, grate the cucumber into fine shreds, chop it slightly, and squeeze out the water. Do not discard the squeezed water; keep it in a bowl for later use. Beat two eggs with an appropriate amount of salt and scramble them in a wok, breaking them up as you cook them—the finer, the better. Let the scrambled eggs cool. If you prefer a richer filling, you can also add some tofu.
Then, mix the cooled eggs, tofu, and cucumber shreds with five-spice powder, chicken essence, minced green onions, and ginger, and stir well. When making the dough, add the cucumber water. This will make the dough more chewy and improve the flavor.
3. Bonus Harvest—Cucumber Peel Tea
While the cucumber flesh is used for the filling, the peels can be used to make a cucumber peel tea that clears heat and reduces internal fire.
First, dry the cucumber peels in the sun. Once dry, rub them by hand into small pieces. Add 10 grams of dried cucumber peel to 200ml of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the water has been reduced by half. This natural tea can be drunk several times a day to effectively relieve common summer ailments like headaches and fever.
3. Straw Raincoat Cucumbers: Sweet and Sour, Refreshing, and a Great Rice Accompaniment
Straw raincoat cucumbers are crisp and delicious, and the slices remain tightly connected when picked up. People who are accustomed to drinking congee for breakfast can use straw raincoat cucumbers as a pickle. For lunch or dinner, it serves as a refreshing and appetizing cold dish.
Preparation Method:
For straw raincoat cucumbers, it's best to use a larger cucumber. Start from one end and cut at a 45-degree angle in the same direction. The closer the cuts are, the more flexible the cucumber will be.
If the cucumber is very crisp and your knife is not sharp, it's easy to cut through. So, it's best to place two chopsticks under the cucumber for support. A Western-style kitchen knife is generally easier to control for even cuts; if you don't have one, a sharper Chinese chef's knife is preferable. First, make straight cuts on one side of the cucumber. Since it's resting on the chopsticks, you can cut without worrying about cutting through. After one side is done, turn it 180 degrees and cut diagonally.
First, slice the chili peppers and soak them in cold water. Dry-roast white sesame seeds in a dry pan over low heat until they turn yellow, then remove and let them cool completely. Heat oil in a small pan, add Sichuan peppercorns and the chili pepper slices, and remove them immediately as they start to change color to make a peppery oil. Then, in a bowl with the straw raincoat cucumbers, add a little fragrant vinegar, white sugar, salt, and the peppery oil, mix well, and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour. When eating, tear the cucumber into small pieces and sprinkle with white sesame seeds. This method of preparing straw raincoat cucumbers gives them a great texture and exceptional flavor.
The elderly and children should not eat too much in the summer because the cool nature of cucumbers and the spiciness of the chili can irritate the stomach. Therefore, it's best to eat straw raincoat cucumbers with a staple food.
4. Smashed Cucumbers: Excellent for Beating the Heat
In the summer, the heat can be unbearable, often leading to irritability. Cucumbers are rich in many nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, iron, carotene, and vitamin C, making them the best vegetable for the summer.
Preparation Method:
For cold-dressed cucumbers, it's best to smash them with a knife until the surface cracks, then chop them up. This way, the juice and pulp won't splash everywhere. After chopping the cucumber, you can make a dressing with a little light soy sauce, an appropriate amount of aged vinegar, chicken essence, sesame oil, and minced garlic. If you want fresh and refreshing cold cucumbers, pour the dressing on just before serving. If you prefer a stronger flavor, you can mix it in advance and let it sit for a few minutes before eating. Although this method enhances the flavor, some of the cucumber's moisture will be lost.
Many people like to add pork head meat, pig's trotters, or other meats to their cold cucumbers. This is not a very scientific approach. Cucumbers are easily influenced in taste and nutrition by other foods. Adding meat can mask the cucumber's fresh flavor, significantly diminishing its appeal. It also increases the fat, protein, and cholesterol content of the dish, making it difficult to serve its original purpose of cooling and relieving summer heat.
Therefore, when eating smashed cucumbers, it's best to have no other accompaniments to truly highlight the cucumber's unique characteristics and value. Because it is a raw dish and cucumbers are inherently cool in nature, the elderly, children, and individuals with a cold stomach should still consume it with caution.