Katie
I had some friends over for dinner and to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics last week. I knew that I wanted to have a theme to the entire meal…I just wasn’t sure what. First, I considered some British food (since the Olympics are in London), but there isn’t much that appeals to me from that cuisine. After some careful contemplation, I figured out the *perfect* theme: Greek food (since the Olympics originated in Greece)! I’ll get to the dinner in the next few posts. I’m starting with the appetizer: Greek Cucumber Cups!
Originally, I planned on making a Greek bruschetta. But, since it’s summer and bathing suit season, I wanted to cut out the unnecessary carbs. Luckily, I remembered seeing a cucumber cup recipe on Pinterest. I decided that would be the perfect vehicle for the bruschetta. I decided to go with this recipe. I think next time I will cut the cucumbers a little thinner. It would be better if this was an appetizer you could pop right in your mouth. (Once you took a bite of the cucumber, it got a little messy. Still delicious though!)
I made the filling a few hours before I assembled the cucumber cups. Make sure you dice everything up very finely…
- Start by finely dicing 1/2 a red onion.
- Finely chop a red pepper.
- Chop up some kalamata olives.
- Dice up some grape tomatoes. (I used almost a whole pint.)
- Chop up a handful of fresh parsley.
- To review:
- Place all veggies into a large bowl.
- Add some feta cheese.
- Add the zest from a lemon.
- Squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
- Add 1 tablespoon of EVOO.
- Season with pepper. (Between the kalamata olives and the feta, I don’t think you need any salt.)
- Stir to combine everything.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
About 20 minutes before you want to serve, make and fill the cucumber cups…
- Cut 3 cucumbers into 1 inch pieces. (Once more, I will go smaller next time.)
- Scoop out the seeds using a spoon or a melon baller. (Be sure not to scoop everything out…you need some cucumber on the bottom so you can fill the cups!)
- Fill each cup with about a tablespoon or so of the filling.
My math really worked out well. I had just enough filling to fill every cup. (In all, I made 29 cups.) They were a hit too. And, they looked great on my American flag platter…perfect for the Olympics! GO USA!
Enjoy!
