I refuse to concede that cucumbers are unglamorous – they’re far too inoffensive to warrant such a slander. Though come to think of it, 'inoffensive' is hardly less insulting than 'unglamorous'. Perhaps the notion that cucumbers are boring, insipid in the worst case, is why they are somewhat overlooked as a vegetable.
This current reputation couldn’t be further removed from how cucumbers were viewed in ancient times. Jane Grigson in her Vegetable Book tells of how Ur-Nammu, who lived in Mesopotamia 4,000 years ago, built a temple to the God Nanna to protect his cucumber garden. Similarly, the Roman emperor Tiberius loved cucumber so much that he instructed beds to be constructed and mounted on wheels so that they could be rolled out into the sunshine during the day and returned to shelter as the evening turned chilly.
So, a little more reverence for cucumbers, please.
Below are three quite different recipes for preparing cucumbers. It was difficult to only choose three, as I find cucumbers so delicious and so easy to celebrate in ways other than pickles or as a dipping instrument. I have chosen recipes that are perhaps slightly more out of the ordinary to demonstrate their wide potential.