Have you heard of cucumber blindness? As gardeners, I’m sure we’ve all suffered from it at one time or another. One day, you look at your cucumber plants and see nothing but tiny cukes, and the next day, you find yourself with one or more giant ones that have grown past their ideal size.
Now what? If you wonder what to do with overgrown cucumbers, I’m here to help. Personally, I think it’s a good problem to have. Unless your cucumbers turned yellow, there’s still hope and plenty of ways to take advantage of them. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can use overgrown cukes.
What To Do With Overgrown Cucumbers
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If you find yourself with a bunch of overgrown cucumbers, the first thing you should do is assess whether they are still edible. If your cucumber turned yellow, there isn’t much to do, other than save them for seed, give them to your chickens, or throw them in the compost pile.
If your cucumber is just large but not yellow, wash, peel, and deseed your fruit to get it ready for use.
Too many cucumbers in general? Here are 11 ways to use cucumbers.
1. Make Cucumber Juice
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One of the easiest ways to use your large cukes is to juice them. It takes only a couple of minutes with a vegetable juicer. This juice is best when you drink it immediately, but it will last in the fridge for about a day.
For variations, you can add a few mint leaves, a couple of carrots, or add spinach for a green juice. But it’s very refreshing just alone, as is. You can also hide it in a sweeter juice with apples, beets, or even oranges as well.
2. Make Cucumber Salad
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There are many ways to make cucumber salad, and here are just a few examples:
- Tomato, onion, and cucumber salad, with a splash of your favorite oil and a sprinkle of salt
- Dill cucumber salad
- Make a sweet and savory salad with a mix of watermelon and cucumber
- A traditional greek salad is great with large chunks of green pepper, cucumber, and red onion (all from your garden if you have them!). Now add olives, fresh olive oil, and feta cheese to make it a meal!
- 9 delicious cucumber salads for cucumber lovers
3. Make Cucumber Salsa
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Thankfully, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers all grow in the garden at the same time, and large cucumbers are perfect for salsa. This cucumber salsa calls for only 5 ingredients and less than 10 minutes to make.
Eat it with chips, or on top of a rice and beans meal: YUM!
4. Make Cucumber-infused Water
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Stay hydrated through the hot summer days by drinking plenty of water. Plain water is good for you, but cucumber water is even better, as it’s going to give you some extra vitamins and electrolytes.
To make cucumber-infused water, slice the cukes thinly and then add whichever of these you have in your fridge or garden:
- A few sprigs of mint. No mint? Basil is great too.
- A couple of thin slices of lemon or lime
- A small piece of ginger
Plain water is all you need, but you can take your infused water to the next level by replacing it with sparkling water.
5. Add Them to a Smoothie
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Enjoy an afternoon pick-me-up by making a quick banana cucumber smoothie. You can also add your cucumber to any smoothie. Here are some ideas:
- Blueberry cucumber smoothie
- Cucumber carrot smoothie
- Watermelon cucumber smoothie (hello hydration!)
- Cucumber ginger smoothie
- Spinach cucumber smoothie
- Apple cucumber smoothie
6. Make a Cucumber Relish
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Save some of the flavors of the summer in a cucumber relish you can use later on potatoes, hot dogs, and burgers.
Here’s a relish recipe to try.
7. Make Cucumber Soup
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Cucumber soup can be made cold or cooked.
For a cold soup, you can blend together cucumbers, dill, onion, garlic, and Greek yogurt. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, some black pepper, salt, and oil, and you’re ready for lunch.
You can also make a cooling cucumber gazpacho: this one looks delicious!
Of course, if you want a creamy, warm cucumber soup, you might like this one.
8. Pickle Them!
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Who says you can only pickle small cucumbers? Not me. Slice them into thin chips or into spears and pickle away. I love the refrigerator pickles best because they are so easy to make and don’t involve the stove in the crazy heart of summer. Here are 2 different kinds of icebox pickles to try:
9. Bake Them!
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That’s right! You can bake (or grill) cucumbers. They taste similar to zucchini. All you need to do is cube your cucumber, salt it, and bake it. Feel free to add some of your favorite herbs and a handful of Parmesan cheese.
Here’s a recipe you can use for cooked cucumber with butter and herbs.
10. Make Stuffed Cucumber Boats
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You can use large cucumbers to make stuffed veggie boats (like people do with zucchini). Make it quickly without cooking, by adding some cream cheese and chopped scallions or chives, or you can bake them with your favorite stuffing and serve them for dinner.
11. Freeze Them for Later
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Of course, if you’re short on time, just put the cucumbers into a freezer bag after cleaning and deseeding, and use them later for many of the ideas above (juice and smoothies will be best, they’ll likely be too mushy for the others). You can freeze them sliced or pureed, and frozen into your ice cube tray: this way, you can add frozen cucumber cubes to your drinks.
12. Give Them to Your Chickens
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If you have backyard chickens, they’ll love your overgrown cucumbers: slice them first, so it’s easy for them to get to the juicy parts, and they’ll take care of the rest.
13. Add Them to the Compost Pile
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If you have too many overgrown cucumbers (or these recipes just don’t sound appetizing), and not enough time to deal with them, there’s always the compost pile. You might even end up with a few volunteer cucumber plants later in the season, or next year.
14. Save the Seeds for Next ear
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If the cucumbers are not only large but also turning yellow, it means that those seeds are ready to save for next year. Save enough for you and give some away.
15. Use Them to Pamper Yourself
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Cucumbers are refreshing and hydrating. Use some cucumber slices at the end of the day to treat your face to a mini spa session. What a soothing treat for your skin!
Large Cucumbers FAQs
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What can I do with cucumbers that are too big?
All of the things I shared above: soups, smoothies, relishes, infused water, salads, and more. If you’d rather not eat them, you can give them to your farm animals, add them to the compost pile, or use them in your beauty routine.
Are overripe cucumbers edible?
Not really: the skin will be tough, the seeds too big, and the taste will be off. But you can certainly decide for yourself with a taste test. Use them for next year’s seeds, or on the compost heap.
Can I use large cucumbers for pickles?
Yes, large cucumbers are perfect for sliced pickles and cucumber relish.
Can you freeze cucumbers for later use?
Absolutely! Frozen cucumbers are great for making cucumber-infused water and for smoothies.
How big should I let my cucumbers get?
It depends on the type of cucumber you’re growing. Remember to pick cucumbers daily so you don’t end up with too many big, seedy cukes. Smaller ones are crunchier and tastier.
Diane
Friday 29th of September 2023
Haven't tried this recipe yet but it seems like a good one to use up some large cucumbers from my garden.
Faye
Friday 11th of August 2023
This is so helpful, thank you!