Summer Fest: Cucumbers Stuffed With Crab-Mango Salad

Make an easy, no-cook summer appetizer for your next picnic: cucumbers stuffed with crab-mango salad, inspired by a recipe from chef Daisy Martinez.

By: Michelle Buffardi

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Week three of our season-long garden party Summer Fest 2011 welcomes food and garden bloggers to feature garden-to-table recipes and tips. We'll help you to enjoy all that this season has to offer. So far, we've delved into eggplant and peaches. This week we're getting creative with cucumbers.

Summer appetizers should be fresh, light and they should take advantage of the bounty of the season. Ideally, they'd be great-tasting, and wouldn't take a lot of time to make (you'll need that time to waste by the pool or in a hammock somewhere) and summer apps should not heat up the kitchen. This is not the time for spinach-artichoke dip, folks.

It is time for bite-sized chunks of cool cucumber, stuffed with mango and jalapeno-studded crab salad. It tastes like the crab walked out of the sea and into your garden.

I was inspired by Daisy Martinez's Avocado Stuffed With Crab-Mango Salad, but since it's not avocado week of Summer Fest, I wanted to use cucumbers instead. Plus, cucumbers are lighter, so you can pop a couple of these in your mouth without needing a nap afterward. The end result is a no-cook snack or appetizer that looks pretty fancy but is done in a half-hour, and you won't have to heat up the kitchen at all.

Cucumbers Stuffed With Crab-Mango Salad

( adapted from Daisy Martinez's recipe)

1 lime, zest finely grated

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves

1/2 mango, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 1 cup)

1/3 cup diced (1/4-inch) red bell peppers

1/3 cup diced (1/4-inch) red onion

1/2 jalapeno, stemmed and cut into small dice (about 2 tablespoons)

1/2 pound jumbo lump crabmeat

2 English cucumbers

cilantro, for garnishing

Squeeze the juice from the lime into a bowl. Add the olive oil and cilantro and whisk well. Add the mango, red pepper, onion, jalapeno, and lime zest and toss to coat. Gently stir in the crabmeat to keep it from breaking up. Set aside while preparing the cucumbers.

Wash the cucumbers and peel evenly-spaced strips around the cucumber. Cut the cucumbers into 1-inch-thick rounds, discarding the ends. Using a small spoon, scoop the seeds and some of the flesh out of each round to form a small cup. (Don't scoop all the way through the cucumber round.)

Fill the cucumber cups with crab salad and garnish with a sprig of cilantro. Serve right away.

More Cucumbers from Family and Friends:

Pinch My Salt: Chilled Cucumber, Kefir and Avocado Soup

What’s Gaby Cooking: Cucumber-Basil Gimlet

In Jennie’s Kitchen: Radish-Cucumber Crostini

Big Girl Small Kitchen: Spicy Cucumber Salad with Shallot, Ginger and Mint

Grecian Kitchen: Summer Cucumber Salad

And Love It Too: Cucumber, Mint and Watermelon Salad

Napa Farmhouse 1885: Cucumbers Coolers with Agave Simple Syrup

Cooking With My Kid: Cucumber Limeade

FN Dish: Summer Fest: Cucumber Recipes

CIA Dropout: Relishing Cucumbers