Sassy Radish Cucumber Salad
When I was quite young, I was never quite interested in eating. I liked to help out in the kitchen, but when the time came to sit down and eat, I was never hungry. Eating, for the most part, was a chore.
What I always liked to eat, however, were salads. Salads with tons of fresh vegetables – the more, the merrier – and herbs lightly salted and dressed with a bit of sour cream.
Sour cream, you say? Who on earth would do such a thing?
Well, growing up in Russia, we didn’t have salad dressing and used either sour cream or sunflower oil for that purpose. The sour cream made the salad delicate and refreshing, particularly in the summer months when it was hot. (Yes, it gets hot in Russia.)
My favorite salad consisted of cucumbers, dill, scallions, and radishes. It was the radishes that made it so irresistible, so crispy, so delicious. The bite in the radish, not too bitter, not too spicy, made the salad come alive. I was acutely aware of the taste even as a child and crave the flavor combination to this day.
Incidentally, the flavors remind my Indian friends of raita, where the dressing is plain yogurt, not sour cream, but the general result is quite similar.
And so, without further ado, the salad that brings me back to my childhood, summer months, scraped knees, my grandmother’s cooking and all:
The Sassy Radish Cucumber Salad
Dice the cucumbers and slice the radishes. Place them into a bowl. Chop the scallions and dill. Place in bowl as well. Add sour cream and salt. Mix well.
Serves 4 people as a light side dish, or one hungry Radish ;)
Sorry, no photos yet. I will get into a groove when I’m better prepared for posting in advance. Plus, I’m posting from work!
When i first tried riata, i imediately thought of the radish salad. Yum, brings back good memories.
P.S. Beautiful set up you have here.
This was my favorite salad growing up too. My grandmother would pick all of the ingredients out of our garden on the dacha and she would make it for me. I devoured it every time, and I like you was always forced to clean off my plate, so growing up eating was hard. But not this salad :) Another favorite childhood salad of mine consists of tomatoes with or without cucumbers sliced up with a little onion, tossed with sunflower oil salt and pepper and a little vinegar. I would dip my bread and soak up all the delicious juices on the bottom of the bowl. Those were the good times :)
PS. I love your blog, although I discovered it just recently, I have read almost every page. It makes me very nostalgic when you write about your Russian upbringing. And the pictures you take are gorgeous as well.