Spicy Frozen Cucumbers

How to enjoy an abundant harvest of cucumbers if you don't want pickles

I cannot believe that I didn't blog about spicy frozen cucumbers last fall! Maybe we'd finished putting them up before I started talking to myself.

Spicy frozen cucumbers are an excellent fresh salad substitute, especially this time of year. Believe it or not, they stay remarkably crunchy. I was going to say "crispy" and then I remembered that "crispy" was code for "fattening." And they are not fattening.

As displayed at nutrientfacts.com

They may be a little salty-- which I love-- but they are not fattening!

Recipe & a tip or two below.

 

SPICY FROZEN CUCUMBERS

4 C sliced pickling cucumbers, 3-4 inches long (about 12-14 cukes), washed and sliced thin unpeeled

2 large onions, sliced thin

1 Tbsp salt

1 C sugar

½ C cider vinegar

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 Tbsp whole mustard seeds (preferably white)

Combine cucumbers, onions, and salt in a glass or ceramic bowl, and let stand 2 to 4 hours to extract moisture. Rinse and drain vegetables well, blotting with paper towels to absorb all moisture. Combine sugar, vinegar, turmeric, and mustard seeds, and mix well until the sugar dissolves completely, about 10 minutes. Stir in vegetables carefully. Pour cucumber mixture into clean freezer containers, leaving 1 inch headspace for expansion. Cap, seal, and freeze. “These will keep up to 1 year in freezer.” To use, thaw about 4 hours in the refrigerator. Serve chilled. 

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Any cucumber will work just fine. I love including Russian white cucumbers.

We freeze these in 2 cup batches. We first put 2 cups in plastic lunch containers, close and put in the deep freezer over night. Next morning, we transfer the frozen blocks to quart sized freezer bags and stick them in a regular freezer. I've also stored them in those food saver system bags and that works well but you have to move quickly to get the bags sealed before the cucumbers begin to thaw.