Quick And No-Cook – eNTeNG’s Cucumber Tomato Onion Salad

eNTeNG’s Cucumber Tomato Onion Salad. Perfect with fish!

 

[Written on the 14^th of December 2008, 1:51:00 P.M..]

 

I  PRIDE myself on being handy in the kitchen.  I’ve never realized how much it could tide me over than when I started to go on a low-carb diet in August this year.  I can’t afford ‘The Sexy Kitchen’ (oh well, not just yet), so I really have to rely on myself to whip up dishes that would be good for my body, but won’t make me feel like I’m really on a diet.

 

Beyond the diet thing, being handy in the kitchen has allowed me to be able to fend for myself, like when I am left home alone like today.

 

So after checking on my e-Mail and whatnot, I went to check what I could put together for my lunch.  There were a lot of leftover fried tilapia fish from last night.  I don’t mind having the same food over again but I didn’t have any of the tilapia for last night’s dinner so I thought they’d make a good lunch today.  And since I’ve stopped having rice regularly (just two to three times a week, tops) and absolutely none on the weekends, I thought a fresh salad would go well with the fish.

From right out of the kitchen shelf… fresh vegetables in a row!

 

I checked the kitchen shelf (our humble ‘pantry’) and found fresh cucumbers, fresh radishes, white onions, shallots, calamansi (Philippine lemons) and tomatoes.  Piled in an unceremonious manner, the fresh vegetables lured me temptingly to put them together into the perfect accompaniment to my fried fish.  It was just a choice between the cucumber and the radish.  I opted for the former.  As nothing would need to be cooked (unlike when I would’ve thought about a beluga lentil and feta salad), I was all the more convinced that all these vegetables lying around were to give me the quickest last minute salad capability.

All cut up and dressed! I could feel the freshness and the juiciness of the vegetables!

 

I threw them all in one of our large rectangular plates and washed them well under running water.  If there was anything I would admit to being obsessive-compulsive about, it would be in cleaning fresh produce thoroughly and in cutting them in the right size, shape and thickness.  So with (probably) our oldest but most trusty knife, I cut the vegetables to my desire.  The cucumber needs special mention because I always make sure it is seeded.  I can’t fully enjoy a cucumber slice that still has the seeds on it.

Tilapia and salad... the perfect Sunday lunch! I skipped the rice altogether!

Once everything was cut up, I dumped them – one by one – in to one of our ‘Frosty-The-Snowman’ stoneware bowls (how apropos!).  First were the cucumber slices.  Then, I drizzled them well with calamansi and a sprinkling of iodized salt.  As is always with my fresh salads, I added a tablespoon of white vinegar (no oil on this one).  Then, I added the onions and tomatoes.  I finished everything with another round of drizzling with calamansi and a little more sprinkling of salt, plus a very light dusting of freshly cracked black pepper.  After mixing the salad well, I spooned some on the side of my fried tilapia.  Carrying my lunch on my Corelle ‘Blue Provincial’ dinner plate, I cozied up on the couch, turned the TV on, and popped on a recording of Chuck season 1 episodes.

 

 

 

With the salad literally bursting with freshness and sweetness, creating a party in my mouth, it was definitely lunch that felt better than in any restaurant out there.