Whenever I hear potluck dinner, I immediately start thinking about what to make. I always make a hot dish or appetizer for our belly dance Holiday Hafla; this time, I needed to make a cold dish because there wasn’t any way to reheat or keep a dish hot.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am 90% of the time a hot food person. If given a choice, I will always pick a hot dish: a sandwich, entree, appetizer, soup, or chowder.
I am also a savory person. I will choose potato chips or french fries over cookies or ice cream any day. This doesn’t mean I won’t eat a cold sandwich or salad. Before bed, I like to have something sweet, but I wouldn’t consider myself a sweets lover.
We usually do a potluck sign-up sheet, but we didn’t this time since there were only seven of us. This could be a total crapshoot because sometimes there are too many desserts or all hummus and chips.
We all like to cook and eat, so I knew there would be different choices. I wanted to make something with flavor and easy to eat in its own edible cup. I decided to make Mediterranean Cucumber Cups, something I’ve never made or had before, but they sounded right for a hafla.
I picked up a couple of European cucumbers at Trader Joes the other day, along with some kalamata olives, grape tomatoes, a red onion, a couple of lemons, an orange bell pepper, and feta cheese. The only other ingredients I needed were kosher salt, pepper, and dried oregano in my pantry.
I peeled stripes in the cucumbers and cut them into one-inch pieces. I used a melon-baller to scoop out the insides of the cucumber, leaving enough on the edges to form a cup. I cut up the olives, tomatoes, red onion, and pepper. I zested a lemon and squeezed out the juice.
Next, I put all the cut-up veggies into a bowl and added the lemon juice and zest. I added kosher salt, pepper, and dried oregano to taste. I popped it into the fridge until later; I didn’t add the feta cheese yet until I was ready to fill the cups. The feta cheese would get cloudy and runny if I filled the cups too soon.
Later on, I added the feta cheese to the veggie mixture and filled the cups. They came out super cute, and I was happy with how festive and tasty they were.
At the hafla, we had different cheeses, cut-up fruit, sticky mango rice, fresh bread with honey butter, peppermint candies, and gluten-free brownies. The cucumber cups complimented everything on the table; everyone liked them. Everything I tasted was delicious; the sticky rice was my favorite. It wasn’t too sweet; it was perfect. I appreciated the gluten-free brownies as well.
I would have rather made something warm like spanakopita or a hot spinach & artichoke dip, but it wasn’t about the food I brought; it was about the dancing. I like hot food at the end of the day, but that’s just me.