C is for Cucumber

Well, we tried three very different celery recipes so it was time to move on to cucumber. I know this is another vegetable that Freddie has always loathed (one of many). So I am prepared to be adventurous and try out any ideas you have. But please don't suggest cutting them into batons and serving them with a tasty dip because that won't work. Serving vegetable sticks with taramasalata or hummous is not a winning approach. He'll eat the dip but not the vegetable.

I walked through Leather Lane Market in Holborn past a juice stall, where they will create whatever combination of fruit and vegetable concoction you like. Apple, cucumber and orange was on their menu. So I bought some and carried it home on the underground taking care not to slosh my fellow travellers. Looking at the colour in the photograph above I suppose it does have a touch of the Kryptonite about it. If someone had told me that it was radioactive I might have believed them. But despite its toxic overtones, I really wasn't expecting such a violent response from my son. "Are you trying to torture me?" he cried. " I thought the Great Big Veg Challenge was all about nice recipes that made vegetables taste different - this is just cucumber juice!" To be honest, it was more apple and orange juice with a mere dash of toxic cucumber. It tasted of apple juice. Anyhow, as a gentle introduction to cucumber it backfired. So juicing clearly isn't the way ahead. I wish I had spilt it in the Tube afterall - it would probably have sparked off a major incident response.