Lemon Cucumber Tofu Salad Recipe from 101 Cookbooks

When I was at Ward’s Berry Farm a few weekends ago, I noticed an odd looking little veggie called a Lemon Cucumber. I had never actually seen one of these before, but they seemed so familiar. Then I remembered reading a recent blog post on 101 Cookbooks about these little cukes and decided to buy some to experiment with. The recipe I was remembering was Lemon Cucumber Tofu Salad.

101 Cookbooks author Heidi explained Lemon Cucumbers well:
For those of you who have never encountered a lemon cucumber, you can see a picture of one up above. They don’t taste like lemon, they taste richly of cucumber. Another thing you might notice is how fragrant they are when sliced. I look for lemon cucumbers with good skin – because I rarely peel them. And although they may seem to have seeds that are larger than conventional cucumber, I eat the seeds too.

I set out to make her recipe, with some slight variations, noted below.
101 Cookbooks: Lemon Cucumber Tofu Salad Recipe
Note from Heidi: I served this over a platter of cooked mung beans (which I love), but I imagine it would be delicious over salad greens, brown rice or soba noodles as well. And if you can’t find lemon cucumbers, you can substitute regular cucumbers, no problem.

2 lemon cucumbers, quartered then sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices (I used 4)
1 handful of fresh dill, about 2/3 cup loosely packed (I used approx. ¼ cup)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 big pinches of salt
8 ounces nigari extra firm tofu
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 of a large, ripe avocado (I used a whole avocado)

Toss the cucumbers, dill, olive oil, lemon juice and salt together in a medium bowl. Let sit for at least 20 minutes tossing gently once or twice along the way.

In the meantime, cook the tofu. Cook the tofu and a pinch of salt in well-seasoned skillet (I’ve been trying to stay away from non-stick) over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until the pieces are browned on one side. Toss gently once or twice, then continue cooking for another minute or so, until the tofu is firm, golden, and bouncy. Set aside.

Note: I used my pre-frozen tofu to cook the tofu in this dish. I’ve written before how much I love cooked tofu when it has been previously frozen.

Just before serving cut the avocado into cubes.

Spoon the cucumbers out of the lemon-olive oil mixture into a large salad bowl. Add half of the remaining dressing, the tofu, and half of the pine nuts. Gently toss. Taste. Add more dressing or salt if you like. Sprinkle the avocado across the top of the salad and gently toss once or twice to distribute it throughout the salad. Serve topped with the remaining pine nuts.
Serves 2 – 3.
I served this salad over an Israeli Couscous blend. Israeli Couscous looks a lot like Dip n’ Dots ice cream! But of course tastes nothing like ice cream. This blend contained some seeds and lentils in it as well, and is from Trader Joes. I used all of the lemon-olive oil dressing on my salad, since I was dressing the couscous as well.

Like all of Heidi’s recipes I’ve made, this one came out amazingly. Funk loved it, too, and said it was AWEsome. I can’t really duplicate his excitement in this blog, but it really was a winner, and I learned that anything with crispy cooked tofu and avocados will woo Funk. He actually wasn’t too pleased that I was taking leftovers for lunch. I practically had to hide it in the fridge, away from his crispy-tofu-avocad0 death grip!

You can easily make this recipe using regular couscous, or serve over beans, greens, or noodles as Heidi mentioned. I think it would also taste good over orzo pasta. And no need to go hunting for lemon cucumbers, since a regular cucumber will do just fine. Just be sure to make a big batch. You’ll want leftovers.