Guest Post: Cucumbers and how to avoid diabetes

Today we have another guest poster, Suzanne Ault:

Will you be cool as a cucumber? Not only is the cucumber known for it’s capability to cool-down our bodies, it has also been seen to assist with jaundice, diarrhea, epilepsy, sore throat, conjunctivitis (redness of the eye) and swelling of extremities.

You should try deseeding the cucumber as the body can have trouble digesting the seeds. You can do this easily by cutting them in half and using a spoon to eliminate the seeds. You can also buy cucumbers that are already deseeded.

Fresh cucumbers are simple to add to salads. For an easy salad, just toss diced cucumbers with sliced red onions, red tomatoes and your favorite all-natural, low-fat balsamic vinaigrette. This can be a fast way to make a refreshing salad that reaps the benefits of cucumber.

A few tips and tricks for cucumbers:
- Unwaxed cucumbers do not need to be peeled but should be washed before cutting.
- Use half-inch thick cucumber slices as petite serving "dishes" for chopped vegetable salads.
- Mix diced cucumbers with sugar snap peas and mint leaves and toss with rice wine vinaigrette.
- For a refreshing cold gazpacho soup that takes five minutes or less to make, simply purée cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and onions and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add diced cucumber to tuna fish or chicken salad recipes.

Cool Cucumber Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:
- 3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1 carrot, peeled and shredded
- 1/2 red onion, sliced paper-thin
- 1/3 cup minced cilantro

Dressing:
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tsp. honey
- 2 tsp. Reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
- Pinch dried red pepper flakes

Combine the cucumbers, carrots, red onion, and cilantro in a large bowl.

Combine the dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over cucumbers, cover, and refrigerate for an hour. Salad may be eaten with a fork. Serves 8.

Nutritional Values per Meal: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 25
- Calories From Fat: 10
- Total Fat: 1 gram
- Saturated Fat: .1 grams
- Cholesterol: milligrams
- Sodium: 50 milligrams (without added salt)
- Total Carbohydrate: 5 grams
- Soluble fiber: 1 gram
- Sugars: 3 grams
- Protein: 1 grams

About The Author:
Suzanne Ault writes for the diabetes recipes blog, her personal website on cooking suggestions to stop diabetes.

Sobering Up

Many choose not to have alcohol in their diet for health or religious reasons. So what can one do when they come across it in various sauces, desserts and even entrees?

Here's a little something I discovered in my quest to find decent substitutes for wine: Red grape juice is just as good as red wine.

The trick is to find a good, unsweetened variety when making sauces for savory dishes. I suppose you can also do the same with white wine. For the UAE, I found that Al Rawabi is quite good for an all-purpose 'wine', even though it has been sweetened.

Recipes to follow...

Guest Post: Sausage Karhai

We have yet another yummy recipe from a regular contributor in Karachi, Rabeea - and thistime it's a spicy dish that works great as a midnight snack, or even as quick dish for dinner/lunch:

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of chicken sausages (cut into slices)
• 250 gms tomatoes (chopped)
• 4-5 green chilis (chopped)
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 tbsp cooking oil

Heat the oil in a wok and add all the ingredients apart from the cheese. Cook uncovered on a medium flame until the tomatoes form a paste. Now add the cheese and cook for another 2-3 mins or until the oil rises to the top. If the sause is too sticky, adding a bit of milk helps.

For garnish, sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and ground garam masala and serve.

She writes: "I was browsing through your recipes and just remembered the existence of sausages! Here's something Dad and I used to make back when we were in Dubai. I haven't made this in about 7-8 years as sausages aren't easily available out here. And even if I did get them to my place no one would know what they are! I only WISH i could have a bite of this yummy dish again."

Guest Post: Cold Cake

Here's to not only our first guest post, but also our first dessert post, by Rabeea in Karachi, Pakistan:

Cold Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of Marie Biscuits- crushed but not ground
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped almonds and hazelnuts
• 1 tin of condensed milk (approx. 400g)
• 2 tbs of fresh cream- whipped
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder

This is easy and very yummy. Mix together the condensed milk and the cream in a bowl, using a wooden spoon. Slowly add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Now add in the crushed biscuits and the chopped nuts and mix well - once the mixture is ready, you'll see more biscuit than chocolate. Roll this mixture up in aluminum foil and freeze. Once it's frozen, remove the foil, slice and serve. Enjoy!


If you enjoyed making it, or interested to know more, or hate/love it, do leave your feedback in the comments section.

Open call for guest posts...

The Substitute Cook© is inviting those interested to contribute recipes, or even good food experiments. As it is a niche food blog, the recipes should be at least one of the following, or a combination of:

1)Traditional vs Modern: These are basically shortcuts for recipes that are normally time and labour-intensive. The original recipe should be posted, along with the shortcuts.

2)Meat vs Veggies: These are recipes that can be adapted successfully from carnivorous to herbivores – in other words, meat to veggies and vice-versa.

3)Leftovers Hash: These are recipes that either make use of leftovers, or can later be made into another dish requiring leftovers.

4)Experiments: These are recipes that are edgy, and well, unusual. And most times, the result of miscalculation.

I want to up the stakes a little. I will run a competition to get you guys motivated throughout the whole month of April. While contributions are welcome throughout the year, those for the competition are eligible if submitted before April 25th. I will then run a poll on the best three or five (depending on entries), where the most commented or most voted will win a rather nice prize, decided between me and the winner and will be announced on April 29th. Bonus points if you can guess why that date *wink*

So what are you waiting for? Get cooking and send your lovely stuff in! You can either show your interest by commenting below, finding me on Twitter or shooting me an email and we'll take it from there.