017 / 75 · Small bites, big entrance
Cranberry Bean Cucumber Towers
12 cucumber cups, each with about 14–15 g bean salad · Active 25 min · Cook 0 min · Total 55 min
Print recipe · PDFA short cucumber cylinder holds a surprisingly small amount of filling. White beans, cranberries and walnuts give that small spoonful contrast without turning each cup into an overflowing salad bowl.
Leave a real bottom
Use a small spoon to scoop out only the upper part of each cylinder. Stop at least 8 mm above the base. If a piece is accidentally hollowed through, save it for another salad and cut a replacement rather than balancing filling over a hole.
Chop to fit the cup
The beans are lightly crushed and the dried fruit finely chopped. Large whole walnuts would occupy too much space and fall out. A measured modest filling makes the cups easier to carry than a dramatic mound twice their size.
Ingredients
- 2 large cucumbers, about 650–750 g/1½ lb total; cut 12 straight 4 cm/1½ in cylinders, about 600 g before hollowing; reserve ends and scooped centers separately
- 120 g/4¼ oz drained ready-to-eat canned white beans, rinsed
- 20 g dried cranberries (about 2 tablespoons), finely chopped
- 15 g walnuts (about 2 tablespoons), finely chopped
- 10 ml lemon juice (2 teaspoons)
- 5 ml olive oil (1 teaspoon)
- 3 g washed fresh dill, finely chopped
- 0.5 g fine salt (a small pinch)
Set out
Knife and board, Small melon baller or teaspoon, Bowl and fork, Scale, Rigid shallow 12 piece tray and cover, Refrigerator and iced cooler
Allergens
Walnut. Check labels and substitutions.
Make it
- Wash cucumbers and cut 12 straight 4 cm cylinders, discarding no edible food unnecessarily: reserve the uneven ends separately. Scoop a shallow central hollow in each, leaving an 8 mm/⅓ in bottom. Blot the interiors with clean disposable paper.
- Crush the beans lightly with the fork. Mix in all the cranberries, walnuts, lemon juice, oil, dill and salt. The complete filling is roughly 174 g.
- Divide the whole filling among 12 cups, about 14–15 g each. Keep the filling in a rounded spoonful rather than packing the cup to its rim and adding more on top.
- Set the cups close together in the rigid tray so they cannot tip. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes before serving. Keep cold; the cucumber is not a shelf-stable serving container.
Bring it
Carry the covered tray level inside an iced cooler at 40°F/4°C or below. Do not leave it in a cold-looking car without checking temperature. Count unchilled assembly, travel and display together within 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F/32°C.
Finish at the gathering
They are fully ready cold. Ask for refrigerator or ice-tray space and put out 6 at a time; no host oven, knife or blender is needed.
Make it yours
The cranberry and walnut filling suits a winter table, but keep the cups away from unlabeled mixed platters so the nut content stays clear. Tall cucumber pieces are easier to eat with small forks.
Ingredient labels
Walnuts are tree nuts. Check dried fruit and canned beans for additional ingredients. A seed substitution still needs label and cross-contact checks.
A useful detail
The 55-minute total includes 25 minutes cutting and filling plus 30 minutes chilling. Scooped cucumber and unused ends are reserved outside the 12 cup yield; do not hide them in the measured filling.
Another way
- Use 15 g finely chopped pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts, checking their label and cross-contact information.
- Use 20 g finely chopped dried sour cherries instead of cranberries.
Keep it well
Keep at 40°F/4°C or below and use within 24 hours for good texture, or an earlier original bean deadline. Do not freeze. Discard filled cups that exceed the Bring it handling window rather than draining and rechilling them.