Gazpacho, slaw are as cool as a cucumber

September 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Ellise Pierce

McClatchy Newspapers

PARIS

There’s a reason the cuke is the star of its own clich .

Slender and elegant, bumpy or smooth-skinned, cucumbers really do have a cooling effect on the body, which is why they’re perfect in summer salads, soups and sides.

Part of the gourd family, which includes watermelon, zucchini, pumpkin and squash, cukes have a great nutritional profile: They’re low-cal (just 13 per cup), and contain vitamins C and A, as well as potassium, magnesium, folate, dietary fiber and the mineral silica.

Around for an estimated 10,000 years, cucumbers were used more recently by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans for their skin-healing properties (they’re known to prevent water retention and be good for swelling and sunburn, too. Maybe that’s the secret to feeling slimmer when leaving a spa — not the fancy facials or the two-hour massages, but merely the cucumber slices floating in the pitchers of water.)

Here in France, the much-loved monarch Louis XIV loved cucumbers, and when they’re in season, as they are now, not only are they abundant, they’re also cheap, as in one euro for a 2-foot-long cuke. (I wouldn’t dare call this an English cucumber — not out loud, at least — but that is exactly what this is.) So I buy up these cukes as long as baguettes, bring them home and slice them up for whatever I can think of. Sure, I put them in salads, but I’m always trying to give what’s familiar a new twist.

For example, these two recipes — cucumber-avocado gazpacho and cucumber-fennel slaw, both inspired by this year’s hot and humid Paris summer. The creamy gazpacho has not one speck of dairy, yet is silky and smooth and, although cooling, also has a cowgirl kick at the end. (Read the recipe for the surprise ingredient.)

The cucumber-fennel slaw might also be called cucumber spaghetti, because the long curls of cucumber are more easily twirled on your fork than they are simply scooped up, so it’s fun to eat and surprising, too — who knew cucumbers could impersonate noodles?

This is what happens when you play with your food.