• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Recipe Idea Shop

Comfort Food With A Healthy Twist

  • Soups
  • Recipe Index
  • About
  • Contact Us
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Soups
  • Recipe Index
  • About
  • Contact Us
search icon
Homepage link
  • Soups
  • Recipe Index
  • About
  • Contact Us
×

Recipe Idea Shop » Vegetables

Delicious Cooked Cucumber With Butter And Herbs

Published: Aug 13, 2021 · Modified: Jul 17, 2022 by Lois · This post may contain affiliate links.

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Who knew Cooked Cucumber would be so delicious? Julia Child, of course. Her herb-baked cucumbers got me excited enough to develop my own recipe. Everything's better with butter and herbs, right? So, maybe you've been asking yourself can you cook cucumber? How about making them as a vegetable sauté? I'm here to tell you yes, you can cook cucumbers! And also to show you how to do it. 

baked cucumbers

Cooked Cucumber Is Tangy, Sweet And So Good

Cucumbers are a healthy vegetable, low in calories and low in fat, made mostly of water, that is often used in pickling. You also see raw cucumber sliced and added to salads (here are 38 Easy Cucumber Salad Recipes). But there are many other ways you can enjoy this delicious veggie. You can make stir-fry cucumbers, for example, adding in some seasoning and putting some cheese on top, if you like. 

I never thought I'd need a recipe for Cooked Cucumber, but then, I don't usually plant a garden. Last year, I threw a few cucumber and squash plants in the garden area at Valley Friends Meetinghouse and then I neglected them. There were just a couple of tiny cucumbers and then this happened. Look at that! Cucumbers for days. 

large, overripe cucumbers

Those of you who have grown cucumbers before probably know that if you have neglected them or they stayed hidden when you were picking the others, you may end up with a cucumber that has grown huge like this. Once they become overgrown, they turn yellow and also can be tough. But these can actually be great cucumbers to use for cooked cucumber. There is even a Korean recipe called Nogak that uses these overgrown cucumbers. 

Have you ever seen huge yellow cucumbers? Yeah. Me neither. These are "bush cucumbers" which are supposed to be small and green. OOOOPS!

When they get to this stage, you can still eat them, but the peel is tough and bitter and the seeds are inedible. The flesh is still delicious, though. So you can use them any way you would normally eat a cucumber, sliced raw, pickled, in a good Cucumber Dill Salad, or any other way.

There are too many of them for Don and me to eat quickly. We made some Grandma's No Cook Refrigerator Pickles, a batch of Refrigerator Dill Pickles, and a couple of salads.

Then I thought: "I bet we could cook them much like squash," and I looked for recipes by Julia Child (who else?)  in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her tip to marinate them in a vinegar brine was perfect. She used wine vinegar, and I tried it that way. It was good, but I thought it needed a little more pizzazz. So the next time I made them I used apple cider vinegar and it's super good.

The apple cider vinegar gives it a little sweetness in addition to the tang. Here's how to cook with cucumber. 

What You Need For Making Cooked Cucumbers

cooked cucumbers with parmesan cheese

You will need:

  • a vegetable peeler
  • knife
  • cutting board
  • wire whisk
  • large mixing bowl
  • measuring cups and spoons
  • sauté pan
  • baking dish

Ingredients:

  • your cucumbers
  • salt
  • sugar
  • butter or margarine
  • fresh basil
  • pepper 
  • Romano or parmesan cheese

Cooked Cucumber FAQ

Cooking with cucumbers is easy once you learn how. Here are some common questions that people ask. 

Are cooked cucumbers even good? 

As we have shown above in our recipe, yes, cucumbers can be cooked and they taste delicious!

Can cucumber go in the oven? 

Yes, you can bake cucumber in the oven, if you choose to. 

Do cucumbers lose nutrients when cooked?

All vegetables use some nutrients when cooked. Boiling cucumbers will cause them to lose the most nutrients but any water-based methods of cooking like boiling, steaming, and blanching can result in some nutrient loss. 

Can you steam cucumber? 

Yes, you can steam cucumber the same as you can any other vegetable. This is a good method of cooking to keep it crisper and retain more of the nutrients. 

More Cucumber Recipes

  • Cucumber and Onion Salad
  • Aunt Betty's Dill Cucumber Salad with Onion
  • Cucumber Salsa
  • Pea and Cucumber Salad
  • Watermelon And Cucumber Mint Salad
baked cucumbers

Cooked Cucumbers

Adriana
These baked cucumbers are tangy and sweet, herby and buttery. Yum!
No ratings yet
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 15 mins
Course Side Dish, Vegetables
Cuisine American, French, Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Servings 8
Calories 38 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • 4 large cucumbers or 2 super large. Ha.Ha.
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • ¼ cup diced onion
  • 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
  • ⅛ teaspoon pepper
  • ¼ cup shredded Pecorino Romano Cheese (or parmesan)

Instructions
 

  • Whisk the apple cider vinegar, salt, and sugar together until the sugar and salt have dissolved. (If you are using turbinado sugar, I suggest you heat this mixture for about 30 seconds to help the sugar dissolve.)
  • Peel the cucumbers and cut them lengthwise into strips. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds.
  • Place the cucumbers in the vinegar brine, give them a stir so they are well coated, and set this aside for about 30 minutes.
  • Heat the oven to 375F degrees.
  • In a small sauté pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions for a few minutes until they are transparent.
  • Add the chopped basil and pepper and stir to combine.
  • Pour the butter and onion mixture into a 7" x 9" casserole dish and use this mixture to coat the bottom and sides of the dish.
  • Drain the cucumbers and pat them dry with a paper or cloth towel.
  • Place the cucumbers in the butter mixture and stir to coat the cucumbers with the butter.
  • Bake the cucumbers in a 375F degree oven for about one hour, stirring them once or twice during that time.
  • About 5-10 minutes before the cucumbers are ready to remove from the oven, sprinkle the top with the Pecorino Romano cheese.
  • The cucumbers will still be a little crisp and only a tiny bit browned when they are done.
  • Serve hot.

Notes

Note: Marinating the cucumbers in a vinegar/salt brine helps to remove some of the moisture from the cucumbers. It also removes any bitterness that may occur if your cucumbers are over ripe as mine were.

Nutrition

Calories: 38kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 2gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.04gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 485mgPotassium: 228mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 147IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 65mgIron: 0.4mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Recipe Nutrition Information

This recipe is GF, NF, SF, EF, CF (use sea salt), V*

allergen key

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.

Rate, Pin & Share!

Please Rate our recipes and posts, and Pin and Share them on social media. Comments are welcome, too!

delicious cooked cucumber with butter and herbs

« Black Beans Tortilla Casserole
Elegant Coddled Eggs »

Pin To Save For Later

253 shares
  • Facebook228
  • Yummly

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

I'm Adriana and I LOVE cooking. I especially enjoy sharing my food with family and friends and seeing the delight in their eyes as they eat food they didn’t think they’d like.
 
More about me

Valentine's Day Recipes

  • My Favorite Chocolate Cake
  • Easy Gluten Free Chocolate Toffee Candy

Popular Recipes

  • Grandma's No Cook Refrigerator Pickles
  • Pickle Wraps - A Yummy Midwestern Snack
  • Cinnamon Sugar Rice
  • How to Make Roasted Sweet Dumpling Squash

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Contact

  • Contact

All content and graphics ©2010 - 2022 Recipe Idea Shop

Copyright © 2023

  • 228Facebook
  • Pinterest