Looking for a new recipe? Try ingredients straight from the garden

With heavy rain, high temperatures, long days, and bright sunshine, cucumbers are sprouting wild in the garden as if overnight. Not only are cucumbers growing by the bucketload, but I have more fresh basil than I know what to do with. The abundance of both has made my head spin.

While Sheridan’s Test Kitchen isn’t very scientific and doesn’t produce very standardized recipes (shh, don’t tell the LLCC culinary students who invariably get tired of my standard recipe classes!), I do end up coming up with creative takes on old favorites. I like to develop new ways to use ingredients without doing the same thing. I often use tried-and-true recipes that need a facelift every now and then.

Here’s my wild curiosity: Could I substitute zucchini for cucumber in my favorite quick bread recipe and change the flavor profile to have two flavors of bread that have the same moist, dense crumb texture but are very different in taste? I did some experimenting! The result was fun and certainly appealed to my adventurous eating side while helping me tame my wild garden.

While you can take this recipe and use it as is, I challenge you to experiment with your own flavor combinations. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Cucumbers have a slightly higher water content than zucchini, so I omitted the extra water in the recipe.

2. If you’re not sure what creative flavors go together, use the Baker’s Almanac to guide your flavor pairing at thebakersalmanac.com.

3. Sugar promotes browning and flavor in foods, but it also absorbs water. If you reduce the sugar content, reduce the water level as well.

4. Finally, I use gluten-free cup flour, which does not lend itself to gluten development. This clearly means that it is possible to reduce the sugar and water without totally changing the texture.

I might even enjoy a basil lime margarita while picking produce from my garden, just to get my creative juices flowing. Happy experimenting!

Quick Cucumber, Lime and Basil Bread

• 3 cups grated cucumbers

• 4 beaten eggs

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 2 cups sugar

• 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 3 1/4 cups gluten-free flour cup for cup

• Juice and zest of 1 lime

• 1 cup chopped or slivered almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice.

4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, add the nuts and incorporate.

5. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans sprayed with nonstick cooking spray for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Alternatively, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes. Makes 2 loaves.

Sheridan Lane is the director of culinary programs and operations at Lincoln Land Community College.

Lincoln Land Community College offers credit programs in culinary arts, hospitality management, baking/pastry and value-added local foods, as well as non-credit cooking and food courses through LLCC Community Education.

Questions about cooking or food? Email epicuriosity101@llcc.edu.

This article was originally published on Rockford Register Star: Try this cucumber, lime and basil quick bread with fresh ingredients