5 SURPISING Cucumber Dishes From Around the World 

Thank you for having me in the video and allowing me to share my grandmas recipe! :)

as a polish person i also wanted to throw in Ogórkowa zupa. a hot polish pickle soup which is also pretty good.

The young man from India spoke with such love of the cucumber pancake dish and the fond memories he had of his grandmother that it moved me so much. That alone makes me want to eat it!😊

It's amazing how similar the Indonesian cucumber drink is to Mexican agua fresca de pepino y limón. Some people even like it with chia seeds that get jelly-like. It's almost the exact same drink. I'm sure I'll like the Indonesian cucumber drink. Yum

Now I want an episode focused on radish. I love them raw, could eat them by the bucketful, but recently I tried a recipe that cooked them and was blown away

I love cucumber salad with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and sesame seeds. Great with Kimchi!

For the german dish we use „Schmorgurken“, a special kind of cucumber that you don‘t eat raw. It is different to the cucumber that you can eat whole and also has a stronger taste. You have to peel it, remove the seeds and cut off the ends till you taste no bitterness in the cut off pieces. I didn‘t know it the first time I cooked the dish and some bitter pieces landed in my pot. The whole dish was ruined, it was bitter as bile 😵‍💫😂

I’m Canadian and my grandmas side of the family is from the Ukraine and I grew up with a version of Mizeria (we just called it cucumber salad though) where it was thinly cut cucumbers, lemon juice, dill, salt & pepper and sour cream. So good, we still make it to this day in the summer with grilled meat and vegetables!

I am so glad to see Kakdiche Dhirde here! Brought me back some good memories, and now I feel like I need to make one. I grew up in Maharashtra, where my mom used to make this often, but now I live in the UK (and am an adult, so need to take the responsibility of feeding myself, hah), and I didn't know that I missed this dish so much until now! It is one of those regular household dishes that you wouldn't even find in restaurants in India (leave alone elsewhere). Brb while I get myself an arm workout of grating cucumbers or kakdi (:

The es timun serut is deffo one of my favorite dessert-beverages of all time! Super fresh, super thirst-quenching 🍾🍾 also, adding gin is a smart lil' twist! 😂

One of my favourite cucumber salads - smashed up pieces of cucumber, tossed in rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and fresh chilli topped with crushed peanuts and coriander

I'm from Sweden, and that German cucumber potato dish with mustard made complete sense to me! 😂

Hey Beryl! I love cucumber and have my own cold cucumber soup I wanted to share. I could live on it I think, it's so refreshing & yummy. So easy. All you need to do is blend until smooth 1 peeled cucumber, 3 scallions, a large dollop of sour cream (you could do yogurt or kefir), salt, tabasco, lemon juice, a can of cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery also works), can of cold water. Chill for a bit, then enjoy. I will sometimes garnish with a little ume shiso flakes (Yukari) or sumac which both add a lemony kind of tang before serving.

Can we have a part 2 of this episode please? Honestly, I would have never even thought anything remotely like the recipes on thsi episode except for a salad which a cucumber is usually associated with

This is one of my fav episodes, I wasn't expecting all these ways of eating cucumber

That last one is so ubiquitous in my husband’s (Norwegian) family that they don’t use a specific name for the dish. If my mother-in-law says “I made cucumbers,” this is what she means. 😊

We make tarator in Albania, too! Definitely a summer dish. You can even shred the cucumber by making cross cuts at the end of the cucumber and then horizontally cutting the shredded end into the yogurt. Happy to share the technique if you want! The only difference for our family is we do not use dill. Also, serving it with cornbread or white rice is something we usually do, too.

My sister and I make "acki salad" named after the lady who tought us to make it. Its thinly sliced English cucumbers and carrots salted and then wrung out with cooked cubed potatoes in a mayo dressing. Super light and refreshing!

Hi Beryl. I’m from India. We make cucumber khichdi( Daal and rice together) Just 5 min before the khichdi is cooked fully. We add in the grated cucumber. The fresh scent of the cucumber takes the khichdi to another level.

We will always support this channel. You're the best at creating content.

Beryl, you HAVE TO try Polish cucumber soup (I am actually surprised it didn't appear here 😂), I think you might love it, especially that it's made from pickled sour cucumbers, not from the fresh ones. The recipe uses broth made of pork shoulder or pork ribs, the bones give off that rich flavour that you cannot mistake or replace with anything else. It's rather a hearty dish (often eaten with slices of sourdough bread with butter), the soup itself isn't "clear" broth, but it's absolutely delicious and a wonderful meal to have when it gets a little bit cold.

I grow a cucumber variety called Poona Kheera from Poona, India. It's a yellow-skinned variety that matures to a crackled brown skin with bright white flesh (it's absolutely gorgeous imo). The skin is tougher than many cucumbers, but the flesh is so sweet and never gets a hint of bitterness, even if I miss one and it gets kind of big. I think it would be really great in some of these recipes.

I love that you’re adding gin to es timun serut! 😂 It’s extra special because the drink is synonymous with Aceh, the only province with sharia law in Indonesia that bans the consumption and selling of alcoholic drinks. Cucumber definitely works with cocktails, cucumber vodka is a thing!

A friend of mine is Russian and she made okroshka for me once wich is also a cold summer soup made with kefir. It has various cubed ingredients in it. Really recommended!

I'm astonished to learn that cucumbers can be cooked in different ways. I thought cucumbers were not supposed to be cooked, but I was wrong, and I realized that a fruit or vegetable can be a fun experiment to cook if it turns out well. I'm going to try out five cucumber dishes for sure! They are very easy to cook! I'm so excited to cook them!

Here in morocco, we have cucumbers as a dessert ! Grated cucumbers with orange juice with some sugar and cinammon or you can replace the cucumbers with carrots ! it's kinda one of the desserts i grew up eating and it's so fricking good

Not a dish, but agua fresca, my aunt and my mom are used to make a lot of aguas frescas, cucumber with mint, lemon, kiwi, strawberry, chia, pinaple, as long as is refreshing we can mix it with everything.

In my part of Poland (South) we always eat Mizeria with sour cream and very small diced onion (the mixture seasoned with salt and black pepper) and I would agree it's many people's favourite side dish in the summer:)

Persian version of the cucumber yogurt soup is called "Ab Dough Khiar". The biggest differences are that we also add mint, basil, an herb called Tareh which is similar to chives, raisins, walnuts, rose petals and other additions depending on personal preference. We actually don't put in dill most of the time. I think the combo of mint, Persian basil, "chives" and garlic is a thing on its own. And dill and cucumber together is another beast. And we eat it with croutons or dried flat bread. Highly recommend.

Another great cucumber recipe is Chinese Smashed Garlic Cucumber Salad. so easy too.

I love the new addition to the videos where Beryl shows us her favourite version of an ingredient! I've been curious for so long what her go-tos and favourites are!

We have a dish called tarator here in Turkey too, but it is mostly made with carrots and is thicker in consistency. Bulgarian tarator seems just like our ''cacık'' (very common side dish here)

I was a home support worker for most of my working life, and I still enjoy two of the dishes that my favourite client had me prepare for her. One was steaming celery until it was tender crisp, and then buttering and adding salt and pepper. Simple and delicious! The second one involved radishes, cut through the middle from stem to root, then adding them cut side down to a pan on medium heat, that you've already melted butter in. Cook them until they have started to get brown on the bottom, then add a quarter up to a half a cup of water, put the lid on the pan, and turn the heat to where your element will simmer. Check them at about 2 minutes, cooking time will depend upon the size of the radishes used, and they are done when they are completely tender, with no crisp. This totally changes the flavour profile of the radishes, making them mild and slightly sweet. It's nice to have different ways to approach vegetables that we may only have had prepared in one or two different ways before. ✌️ from 🔥🇨🇦🔥

That Sandra Lee comment made me giggle so hard. I really like this video. I'm a sucker for cold soups, basil seed drinks, and using ingredients in ways I never thought of (cooked cucumber!). Im going to make all of these. Thank you and everyone who submitted their recipes. This was a great video!

Fun fact about the es timun serut (edited: minus the alcohol of course 😂😂) usually serves on Padang / Aceh restaurants because there's a belief that this drink can lower cholesterol levels and helps to "cool down" the stomach after eating Padang or Aceh food which tends to be spicy, heavy on fat from coconut milk and meat.

In fact, es timun serut is known as es kuwut in Bali. Another fact, sometimes we use melon instead of cucumber and also, we add melon syrup. But the cucumber version is lighter and refreshing.

Another cucumber recipe from India, from the southern part (Kerala) is Cucumber Pachadi. Cucumber is diced finely. Approximately 1/2 to 1 cup grated fresh coconut is ground with a couple green chilies, a cup of yogurt, and tablespoon of mustard seeds. The coarsely ground mixture is combined with cucumber and seasoned with salt. If you want, you may add to this a tempering of mustard seeds in oil with curry leaves.It’s a yummy accompaniment with rice and dal.

Im from India and have lived in Pune and haven't even heard of cucumber pancakes! Thank you so much beryl for including this recipe!

You just casually adding gin in that drink made my day LOL also man I wish I had seen the call out for this episode! One of my FAVOURITE soups of all time is a warm cucumber soup and it’s soooo good!! Hope you make another cuc episode so I can send it in 🥰

Years ago I hosted my brother and sis in law to a medieval banquet after they took me to my first RennFaire on Long Island. I have a medieval cookbook and the soup for the meal was called gourds in pottage, a warm cucumber soup with sautéed onions, cucumbers, garlic and chicken stock. At first I thought cooking cucumbers like this would be so weird but you guessed it, they reminded us all of zucchini.

Hi I’m from Indonesia. For that cucumber drink you must try eat with spoon. It will be more delicious because you got more chruncies. You also can use sprite, coconut water, or fruit syrup

I'm so sad I missed the call for recipes for this episode! My favorite cucumber dish, and my all time favorite hot summer lunch, is the cold Korean soup oi-naengguk. It's really simple to make - just matchstick cucumbers, tomatoes, chili peppers, spring onion, garlic, soy, sesame seeds, vinegar and ice. It's so refreshing and I make it all the time even though I don't live in Korea anymore.

Thank you so much, Aary and Beryl! I am so making those pancakes!!!

my daughter and I love to watch your videos together. She is now 4 and your videos have had her request that we try new recipes! She does always comment lately “she never talked about the picture!!”. She loves when you feature an artist!

I'm bangali I put cucumber in fish curry. I try to put veg in all my currys. And always make the most of what I can find🤷‍♀️

I lovethe polish cucumber salad over mashed potatos its soo good. I grew up with it as well and my son loves it too. Kids love this salad 😊

I had lemonade with cucumber juice served to me by a woman who had escaped from Iran after Khomeini came to power. I think of her every summer because it is now my favorite way to have lemonade. It is so refreshing.

I never would have even considered cooking cucumbers before I lived in Thailand- they were super plentiful and cheap at the local markets and making a cucumber stirfry (maybe with some omelette or Tofu) was such an easy weeknight meal.

You just made my day with this video, Beryl! And those earrings are absolutely fantastic. ❤

we have tarator in turkey too! its called "cacık" and it can be watery or not watery up to your preference. we usually eat it with a main dish to refreshen a bit.

If you like dill, have you tried hungarian sweet dill cheese desserts? Apparently there are even dilled cheese tarts, but the type I got to try when I was young was homemade baked and enclosed pastries with sweet lemony dill quark, made by an actual hungarian lady. It made me completely re-evaluate how you could use herbs, because until that point I was used to them only being used in savory dishes.

Hey Beryl 👋🏼 Here’s an interesting segue & concept for you.. Why not have a yoghurt series? I bet a lot of cultures would have plenty of their amazing dishes for everyone to explore, I know us Assyrians do!!! (We have a delicious, lamb barley and yoghurt soup that is fabulous for those cold seasons!) Just a thought ❤ Love your work. You’re amazing! 👏🏼

My favorite way to eat cucumbers is with lemon and Tajin. Simple and yummy.

I love your enthusiasm and excitement about the dishes, definitely makes me want to try them.

My favourite cucumber dish is one that my dad makes- it's a northern thai stir fry with cucumbers and tomatoes!

A little tips on the es timun serut, peel the cucumber skin first then use a smaller grater, the one that will cut it long and thin. So that it'll be easier to drink with straw

a few years ago, I read that cucumbers were the food people crave THE LEAST! I don't know what their test subjects were thinking because I often crave em! especially in the summer. Lastly, a dill hack is to use scissors to chop it. It makes way less of a mess.

One of my favourite things to use cucumber for is a pickle of cucumber and onions. You have to use malt vinegar for it, nothing else will do. Slice the cumber and onion thinly, cover with vinegar and a little sugar. Cover and leave overnight. We always had this with a local, Nottingham, sour cream cheese called Colwick cheese (pronounced kolik) on bread. I loved nipping a taste of the vinegar too as it gets all oniony. Happy days ❤

I am not a fan of cucumbers, to me it's the smell, but I am curious enough to try them in a pancake for sure. They sound delicious. Really interesting takes on my least favorite vegetable. Thanks everybody for sharing.

I’m trying the braised cucumbers and potatoes right now. You were spot-on with describing the cucumbers as turning into zucchini. Some bites are more crisp with a more cucumber flavor, while some are mostly indistinguishable from zucchini. I think the cucumbers impart a lemon flavor to the dish. The potatoes are great in the sauce and are more enjoyable than the cukes.

In the kumaon region of uttarakhand, a northern indian state, a we make a raita with slightly sour dahi, grated cucumber seasoned with salt, little bit of red chilli powder and lots of mustard seed powder. You need to let it rest for at least one hour after adding the mustard seed powder. It gives it a PUNCH. Add some cilantro before serving. We pair it with jeera aloo (with some added pahadi spices), its the best!

i am so glad tarator is on here! its the first thing that popped into my mind and one of my absolute favorite summer dishes!

Oh. My. Goodness. I'm making that cucumber-lime drink this week! Then the pancakes, then the cucumber salad ... WOW

In Lebanon we call the cucumber/yogurt soup cucumber/yogurt salad. The only difference is we add fresh or dried mint, depending on the time of season.

My mom was searching for a way to use all of the cucumbers from our garden and since then we make a summer pasta with cucumber sauce! It's basically choped up cucumber, onion, with some milk and veg broth to make the base of the sauce and then we add a lot of freshly chopped mint and some crumpled feta cheese! Make sure to cook the cucumbers very shortly so they don't get too mushy and still have a cucumber taste. Serve it on pasta i tell you It's delicious and makes for a really refreshing pasta dish! ❤ greetings from germany and credits to my mums cooking always 🥰 Now that the cucmbers in the garden are ready i will have to try the cucumber pancakes also!

A Midwestern recipe i learned from farmers is a salad with diced cukes, tomato and onion as the basr ingredients, and add any other veggie you would like (highly recommend beets to make it pink). Throw a lot of vinegar overtop amd let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour.

Hi Beryl! I'm Armenian, grew up in Belgium and now living in New York. In Armenia, a very popular yogurt soup is madzounov kefte soup - which means kefte soup with yogurt. It is a delicious warm winter dish that takes a long time to make due to the kefte meat balls being stuffed with more meat filling and pine nuts. At home we also add bone marrow and shanks to the soup to make it extra flavourful. The soup also get lots of flavours from the dried mint which i love so much. You should try making it one day!

It's amazing that 3 of 5 were cucumbers with dill. Match made in heaven.

My family from Mexico always made cucumber water. Blend a cucumber with water and sugar. Some prefer it peeled first, others not. It does add a hint of bitterness. We sometimes also add lime. It is refreshing.

I would love to see you make more Norwegian foods! We have so much to offer! Kjøttkaker, komle, lapskaus, smalahåve, fårikål, fiskeboller, rømmegrøt, pinnekjøtt, lutefisk and for dessert you can make tilslørte bondepiker, trollkrem, multekrem, suksessterte, kvæfjordkake, sveler, dronning maud-fromasj or riskrem. Theres so much to try 🙌🍴

We make tartor in Iran too and we call it mast-o-khiar which literally translates to yogurt and cucambers. Instead of dill however, we add mint. Chopped walnuts, raisins and chopped radieshes are also poplular choices added to the recipe :-)

Hi Beryl from Bulgaria! I just made myself some tarator and played the video to see what else I could do with cucumber and I was very happy and excited to see one of my favourite summer recipes! I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope everyone who decides to try it out will like it❤

Thanks! Right on time for cucumber season ❤

We make potato and cucumber achar in Nepal with grinded toasted sesame seed and tempered mustard, turmeric and chilli, finished off with lemon. My mum loved adding soaked dried peas cuz they were my favourites and sometimes to be healthy, carrots and onions and white cabbage. It was the staple in our household and we always knew if my mum was making it that we would be having a feast today. It also didn’t help that half of it would be just gone when we would be taste testing the salt, lemon and chilli. The best part would be licking the bowl cuz it would have the leftover sauce that was made from the potato and the spices.

Hey Beryl, I love all your content, especially the ones about recipes from different countries. But what today happens I would have never imagined. I started watching this video and instantly thought I know Antonia. I think we were in the same class in Weimar, but we lost contact after graduating.

Loving the website and the ease of getting the recipes! I'm making that Tarator tomorrow! Similar to a recipe my grandma used to make but I never had the opportunity to get it from her. Thank you so much for sharing it!

Cucumber and dill are a universal combo across many cultures!

My first encounter with the concept of cooked cucumber was a recipe card for asian style sauteed beef and cucumber. I think it’s a vietnamese dish ? Never tried it though. Creamy cucumber salad is very popular in France too :)

My Chippewa Mom made cooked mustard pickles my whole life and I love them. They remind me of her. She had lived in Germany for a couple of years, while my Dad was stationed there. Now I know where it came from! They remind me of my Mom! I just lost her, so this was amazing.

YOU are a "Fun Drink" Beryl!! Thank You for your videos! 🙂 I Always look forward to seeing your adventures in eating!

You know in my place we add green melon syrup to the water of es timun serut and put it in refrigerator and we call it air selasih ( we call basil seed as biji selasih in my place)

Would definitely love to try Es Timun Sirut soon but would put honey instead and turn it into a slush. I wonder how that'll taste like. 😁💕

It may seem boring, but I love a good classic cucumber sandwich for tea! Even when sliced super thin, there's still a satisfying crunch to the cucumber.

Oh man you took me back! I so miss our cool old drunk auntie Sandra Lee! Her show was fun!💗💗💗

Beryl im sure you Will love polish „chłodnik litewski” yogurt or buttermilk cold soup with a lot of baby beetroot cucumber radish and dill! You can serve it with egg so everything what you love. Lot of kisses I love your content sooo much❤

Okay, so three things: 1. My favorite veg to stuff for dolma is cucumber. Weird but awesome. 2. Bulgarian tarator is the next door neighbor of Greek tzatziki, Turkish cacik, Armenian jajukh, Indian raita, and I’m guessing several other dishes in West and Central Asia. In Turkey, tarator is more of a method Han a dish… earlier this week, I ordered a carrot tarator from a Turkish restaurant, and it was basically cacik with cooked carrot and walnut replacing the cucumber. Totally fab. 3. There are a number of Armenian yogurt soups, with a grain (whole wheat or barley in my fam), or spinach, or tiny meatballs. Often topped with fried onions and perhaps melted butter, too. Oh, and great idea, great ep!

Ok so. I had never had a cucumber in my life. I've tried pickles but didn't like them, I am a notoriously picky eater BUT the Mizeria salad called to me. Went to Fresh Market and got the ingredients. Made it and I LOVE IT!

That was VERY interesting - the best part - people from around the world provided you with the recipes. Well done.

Beryl, have you had a good half sour pickle? I think you’d love them! It’s a cucumber on its way to becoming a pickle…and has yummy elements of both…fresh and tart. Oooooh, I miss getting them on the lower east side in NY so much! 🥒

TARATOOOR 🎉❤ I'm a Bulgarian living abroad since I was a kid, but it always reminds me the summers there! We would have it all the time with an extra pinch of garlic (also the grated cucumbers with their juice give extra flavour)!! Now I have a son, and it's a refreshing starter or "snack" we have most of the summer evenings!! Tip: it's always better tasting the next day 😊

In Finland cucumber is mostly used raw in salads, or sliced over sandwich. But having eaten in some Chinese etc eastern restaurants here, they use local cucumber in their food. Have eaten it and it is good.

No stuffed cucumbers? Cucumber boats make a great way to eat chicken/shrimp/fish/etc salads. Especially if you put cucumber in the salad too. Or make a cucumber salad.. I think the cucumber soup would work too, but have not tried it (yet). Also, mix cucumbers into cream cheese for a light and fresh begal topping or a sandwich spread. Really nice if you want a more savory but not heavy. I like to add dill and capers an some lemon zest or juice, then mix it with some nice lox or other smoked meat for a spread that is ready to go. Cucumbers and cream cheese is also a great dip if you thin it a bit with cream, or a base for a cold veggie soup. I have also dropped it into hot beet soup for a really lovely spin. Cucumbers and rye are a great combination if you want a totally different take on panzenella, too. Caraway seeds are another good paring if you can't get good fresh dill.

I grew up on zucchini pancakes much like these cucumber pancakes! It was always an abundance of zucchini during summer time, bc everyone grows them here, so my family would always make everything with zucchini, including pancakes They are delicious and tender, so maybe you could try to make them too❤

I have never been a big cucumber fan but you really have me thinking. I will be sure to try a few of those recipes! 🥰

i'm so glad you chose the Schmorgurken, I also suggested it and like I mentioned in the mail, it's one of my favourite traditional meals. I got a big family (like 40+ people just on my German side) yet I'm the only one of us who likes it 😅 There's already not that many people who seem to know or like it and it's getting less and less, so I'm glad you're exposing more people to it who hopefully will try it and keep the tradition alive for a little longer I'm gonna have to try all the dishes, starting with the Es Timun Serut because I need something to counter all the iced coffee I've been drinking this month 😂

I think when it comes to Polish cucumber dish, "zupa ogórkowa" - cucumber soup is more surprising. It's a soup made with grated pickles so it's super sour but still comforting

i can't recall if you've explored indigenous foods in different regions, or all of one region, but it would be so cool to see! there is a big movement in the US right now, including using OG ingredients and keeping it as close as possible to the recipes - i wonder if any other countries are also seeing this as well

cucumbers are one of my most favorite summer vegetables. I eat them everyday when they are in season.

Probably the most exotic cucumber food I have ever had is a lacto fermented cucumber soup from Poland called ogórkowa. It's mom's favorite food and I agree that it is surprisingly good.

I love cooked cucumber in pasta. And yes! It's so much like zucchini