Throwing Sugar On Cucumbers Is An Effective Way To Keep Them Crunchy

Are you looking to add more veggies to your diet? Including more vegetables in your diet offers some great benefits. Of course, this can seem easier said than done, especially if you are not used to adding a salad to your lunch or dinner. Meal prepping helps, especially if you are too busy on weekdays to chop tomatoes or prep veggie-based soups. Discovering clever ways to eat veggies helps too, as not everything related to clean eating needs to be dull and boring.  

As you dive into healthy eating, you'll discover that proper washing and storing are necessary when preparing vegetables. One mistake and you could end up finding overripe produce in your fridge. Take cucumbers for example. There's a high chance you are storing cucumbers wrong, which is why sometimes they can be a bit soggy, mushy, or wet when you try to throw them into a salad. Here's an important tip: Although experts recommend salting cucumbers while prepping, another ingredient can help keep cucumbers crunchy. 

Recipe developer Tiffany Chen told Food and Wine that seasoning cucumbers with a mix of sugar and salt keeps them crunchy. Andrew Zimmern also swears by prepping cucumbers with salt, then letting them rest in a colander before preparing a salad so they reach a satisfying texture. Cucumbers alone can be soggy or even dull. Using both sugar and salt can ensure the perfect crispiness so a salad can be more enjoyable — however, you can skip the sugar if you're trying to keep a sugar-free diet.

Even if you're trying to limit sugar, consider this: Adding sugar to cucumbers and other vegetables hides bitterness and doesn't necessarily make them sweet, as research suggests (via Today). Adding sugar can be an excellent way to help kids eat more veggies. By disguising the bitterness, cucumbers can also become more palatable for people who are not used to — or just don't like — a strong cucumber flavor. Use this tip for next week's meal prep and enjoy crunchy, tasty cucumbers without much additional fuss.