What should be done to the cucumber before eating? Or should I do something else?
Cucumber is one of our most popular vegetables. Adobe Stock / AOP
To rinse or not to rinse? That’s a question that might come to mind when you unwrap a cucumber from plastic.
The answer to the question is given by the executive director of the Kauppapuutarliito Niina Kangas.
– We recommend that all vegetables be washed before use, including domestic ones. Washing is recommended so that the dust and other possible dirt on their surface is washed away, says Kangas.
So the plastic around the cucumber does not mean that the cucumber was washed before packing. The purpose of the plastic film is to protect the cucumber from bumps and it is particularly important in terms of shelf life. The plastic wrap can extend the shelf life of the cucumber for up to a week.
According to a study by the Norwegian Natural Resources Agency, if 1–2 percent of the cucumber remains uneaten, the environmental impact of this loss is greater than that of the production of plastic film.
The Finnish Food Agency provides instructions for processing vegetables on its website:
1. Wash your hands before you start cooking.
2. Wash your hands also after handling soiled roots, for example.
3. Handle raw vegetables and cooked foods with different utensils or clean the utensils carefully in between.
4. Wash the vegetables before use. Wash root vegetables eaten raw both before and after peeling.
Make a delicious salad
Cucumber is one of the most used vegetables in salads. Below is the recipe for a clever pasta salad.
Prepare the salad the day before, but mix it just before eating.
A salad put together in a jar stays good longer when the dressing is at its lowest. Pasi Liesimaa
Macaroni salad in a jar
3 jars
6 dl cooked macaroni
300 g of natural canned fish
1 red onion, sliced
1 bell pepper in strips
1 fresh cucumber, sliced
3 dl cherry tomatoes, halved
1 dl chopped dill
1. Assemble the salad in the jar in the following order: Put about 1 l of salad dressing on the bottom of the glass jar first. Then macaroni, cucumber, tomato, red onion, paprika, wild fish and dill.
2. Close jar and store in the refrigerator.
Salad dressing
1 cup of whipped cream
1 tablespoon of mustard
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
0.5 dl olive oil
0.5 tsp of salt
a pinch of black pepper
1. Mix all the ingredients together until smooth.