Hanan Ghadban shares how her love for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean recipes full of fresh veggies comes from her upbringing with two great cooks as parents. Now with three kids of her own, Hanan is teaching her kids to cook her favorite recipes like this fresh Cucumber Feta Salad.
When I think back to being a teenager, I remember life being slower and more relaxed. It’s quite possible this wasn’t the case and was just due to my lack of responsibility and sense of time! One of the things I do know for sure though is that, growing up, we were always surrounded by delicious Middle Eastern & Mediterranean flavours. That meant our fridge and pantry were always stocked with the best fresh veggies!
This is probably one of the things I remember most about my childhood.
Both of my parents cooked. My father was a chef along with my uncle at our family restaurant. My mother was taught by my grandmother at a very young age. It’s safe to say that I had great teachers!
Learning from both of my parents made cooking and creating my own fresh recipes a fun experience. It’s one of the things that I’ll always carry with me and one of the things I’m excited to be teaching my own children. They really do enjoy learning and being in the kitchen, and the fact that I can teach them my mother’s recipes makes it even better.
With life getting so busy, it can be challenging to find the time to cook fresh recipes at home. Between soccer, piano and tutoring, I’m always looking for ways to make sure my kids have healthy snacks on hand that I know they will eat and enjoy.
That’s why I love Pure Flavor’s® delicious Mini Cucumbers. They’re perfectly crunchy and light – not to mention great for hydration! You know that you’ve found a winner when your kids ask for them every time you’re at the grocery store! These cucumbers are most definitely an essential snack for after soccer.
One thing I appreciate and love the most about them is that they’re grown in a greenhouse. Why does it matter where or how cucumbers are grown? It means that these delicious Mini Cucumbers are always fresh and available all year with the same quality my kids love.
Where I live, we only get a few hot summer months before the weather cools down again, so having fresh produce available in an instant is convenient and super important to me.
As delicious as they are on their own, I do like to combine them with other great flavors every now and then. My family especially loves when I make them fresh Cucumber Feta Salad.
Remember those Mediterranean flavours I mentioned earlier? They’re going to play a huge role here.
One of my favourite ways to enhance the natural flavors of Mini Cucumbers is to dice them up and marinate them along with Juno® Bites Grape Tomatoes. I mix these fresh ingredients with olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice and oregano.
This super bright salad is then used as a delicious topping for creamy feta cheese. The saltiness and the creaminess of the feta blended with cream cheese and a little olive oil compliments the crisp, refreshing cukes so perfectly!
The beauty of this dish is that the whole dish is ready in no time – hooray for extra time to spend relaxing with your family!
Seeing as it’s BBQ season, what better way to enjoy a fresh Cucumber Feta Salad than with grilled Greek pita bread brushed with olive oil? All you need to do is spread a little feta on to the warm pita and then just start piling on the marinated cucumbers and tomatoes.
Once that’s done, all you need to do is kick back, relax & enjoy!
Check out the full recipe to make this fresh Cucumber Feta Salad for Labor Day this weekend.
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