What are lemon cucumbers and Lemon Cucumber, Pesto Recipe
Looking for a new cucumber to grow or devour? Try lemon cucumbers! They’re adorable and refreshing little yellow orbs for Summer.
What is a lemon cucumber?
Lemon cucumbers are a fun and refreshing addition to your garden and Summer kitchen recipes.
Like little balls of sunshine, these round, striped vegetables are, oddly enough, cucumbers. Thinking that these are un-edible gourds is more believable than being told that they’re actually edible! They look like lemon colored gourds with cucumber features in the center. These round cucumbers are too unique and interesting to pass up.
What do Lemon Cucumbers Taste Like?
Though they have no lemon flavor, the overall size and color is what gives these lemon cucumbers their recognizable name. They have the same distinctive cucumber flavor and texture that we’re familiar with. Only exception is that the skin is slightly thicker. Also, the center is more seedy as the fruit stays on the vine longer. Eat them when they’re more younger with a lighter yellow color so that’ they’re more crisp and tender.
Watch Video Cucumber with Pesto Recipe:
We had never seen them at the markets before when we were first researching them in 2008. We were fascinated and since seeing is believing, we decided to grow these for ourselves. After a visit to the nursery and two lemon cucumber plants later in our whiskey barrels, their crazy, twining, serpent vines were stretching beyond the barrels and tangling on to anything that crossed it’s path! If you are growing them here’s a warning: Lemon cucumbers vines grow and crawl like serpents! Start with just one plant and give it plenty of room!
Pesto with Cucumbers
With some good draining soil, frequent watering and a good stretch of warm weather, these vines are proliferating with yellow balls of beautiful round cucumbers! They are so easy to grow and before we knew it, we’ve got enough lemon cucumbers to last us the whole summer. All you cucumber loving gardeners will just love adding this to your vegetable patch. Lemon cucumbers are super crunchy and sweeter than their regular long green counterparts. Perfect for salads or just munching on, these cute little cukes are a great conversation piece too! They really do look like yellow gourds and round meyer lemons but when you bite past the yellow peel, you’ll see that they’re all cucumber on the inside: juicy, crisp and sweet.
We made a pesto from our garden basil to top off these refreshing basket of cucumbers, but didn’t have an more of the required pine nuts. Our pantry was empty on the nuts, something we need to re-stock on ASAP. Our simple garden pesto was made from basil leaves crushed in the mortar pestle, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, Parmesan and a little garlic. It was still a delicious topping to this Summery lemon cucumber pesto dish!
Check out more of our Summer heirloom tomato recipes.
This “What is a lemon cucumber” post and recipe was originally published in 2008 and updated in 2019 with new photos and recipe.
Lemon Cucumber & Pesto Recipe
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium (3-4 medium) lemon cucumbers
- 2 cups (72 g) fresh Italian basil leaves
- 1/2 - 1 cup (50-100 g) grated parmesan cheese (see head note)
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) toasted nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, peanuts)
- 1 tablespoon (10 ml) lemon juice , optional
- 2 cloves (2 cloves) garlic , or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) kosher salt or sea salt, to taste
- fresh ground black pepper , to taste
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil (approximately)
- pinch (pinch) red chili flakes (optional).
Instructions
- Slice or chop cucumbers. If the skin is too tough, peel the skin and if the seeds are too hard, remove the seeds.
- In food processor: combine basil leaves, parmesan, nuts, garlic, optional lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. While blending, gradually add the olive oil until the pesto reaches your desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning to personal preference and blend again if needed.
- If using traditional mortar and pestle: add basil leaves a few at a time with the garlic. Crush and grind the all the leaves and garlic until well combined. Add the nuts and cheese and continue combining into the basil mixture until a paste forms. Add the optional lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir and slightly grind until the everything is incorporated into the pesto.
- Taste the pesto and add additional salt/pepper to taste. If you want some spice, add a pinch of red chili flakes.
- Dress the pesto over cucumbers.
- Leftover pesto can be stored sealed and refrigerated overnight.
worc, i thank you for introducing me to these interesting little buggers! they sould like something i’d really enjoy growing and eating and bragging about to my friends!
Wow! I’ve never heard of lemon cucumbers before. Can you get the seeds through Fedco? I’m curious and now I have to check whether they’d do well in the not-so-temperate zone that is the Southern Tier of NY. Hmmmm… I’m off to check my Amish greenhouse up the road!
Thanks for the heads up on a fun new-to-me veg.
OK, I am starting to think there isn’t a single vegetable or fruit that you don’t grow.. Why you even bother going to farmers markets I don’t know 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous looking. I’m very jealous.
These are amazing looking and they sound quite tasty! I’m surprised I’ve never seen them anywhere, except for here! 🙂
Thanks for introducing me to a new veggie! Those are beautiful! And it’s certainly the time of year for pesto – I made vegan pesto this week with my basil that was getting unruly.
I’ve never seen a lemon cucumber before! How totally cool. I think I need to get googling now and see if I can get a plant for next years growing season!
Oh….must research potato dishes also!
oh this is the first time i’ve seen this beauties…wish i could find some in the market too 🙂 i would love to try that salad with pesto you made..looks gorgeous and healthy!!
My mom used to grow lemon cucumbers in our yard. I haven’t seen once since I was a kid! Thanks for updating this childhood favorite.
Hi hi i am going to post a simple dish, whick i make almost thrice a week, Mash potato 🙂
Great new find…what are the origins..Asian or an obscure European veggie?
I’ll be on the lookout…you guys are the “shit”, cutting-edge veggies! lol
Those lemon cukes are adorable! I’d love to try growing them myself. I wonder if I can grow them on my balcony in the UK?
I remember the first time I tasted a lemon cucumber — it was a revelation! A friend had them from her garden, and I kept asking her, shamelessly, if I could have more. I would make a dressing with the lemon thyme from my garden, to heighten that citrus flavor, and the dish instantly became one of my favorite summer salads.
Wow, these are crazy! Would try growing them myself but suspect it’d be too cold here. Perhaps sometime when I get a greenhouse. Till then I’ll keep my eye out for them in the shops. 🙂
Thanks for the heads up guys! I hope I can manage to make something! 🙂 (I keep forgetting that it’s not strictly a stir-fry blog event… D’oh!!)
When I saw the title, I thought it was cucumbers sauteed in citrus… Imagine my surprise when I learned that was the name of the vegetable (er, fruit) itself! I even thought the first picture was of a few peeled lemons! Nice, refreshing recipe, looks great 🙂
Ooooh! Yes! I’m posting homemade potato chips tomorrow.
I’ve grown lemon cukes before and enjoyed them, but they’re tricky to peel. Being round and all. I’ll try this with regular ones, if they ever decide to grow. (Most of what I planted three weeks ago is still just thinking about it.)