Cucumber Water Benefits and Recipes

The first time we had cucumber water, we were checking into a hotel in Oregon after a flight from North Carolina. There at the front desk was a lovely large urn with cucumber and lemon floating in it. We were tired and thirsty after a long trip from east coast to west coast and the cucumber water was welcome and refreshing.

• Cucumber Botanical Name: Cucumis sativus
• Cucumber in Spanish: Pepino

Now whenever the garden is flourishing in cucumber, we make cucumber water at home. We don’t make it off season because organic cucumbers are too expensive. But when we have an abundant harvest, it’s a delightfully refreshing health tonic to sip on throughout the day.

Cucumber water is a wonderful guilt-free summer treat that’s a toast to abundant gardens!
~GardensAll.com

First… Is Cucumber a Vegetable?

This is not a simple answer. If you’re studying for a test on horticulture you’ll need to deep dive into how a cucumber has been classified as both, a fruit and a vegetable. ^[1]https://www.sproutabl.com/gardening/vegetables/cucumbers/cucumber-fruit-vegetable/ ^[2]https://www.tommies.nl/en/cucumber-fruit-or-vegetable/

We found the most concise summation of this answer on Wikipedia, as summed up here:^[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber

Cucumber: Fruit or Vegetable? Cucumber is a creeping vine that bears fruits typically used as vegetables.
~GardensAll.com

Benefits of Cucumber Water

First there’s no way you can get all of the nutritional benefits in cucumber water that you would get by just eating the cucumber. So when your cucumber harvests are abundant, we definitely recommend both.

Beyond actual nutritional intake we all know there are a multitude of benefits from drinking water and staying hydrated. Now if you’ve been out working in the garden on a hot day, chances are, the first thing you’ll head for is a glass of water.

But most of us don’t drink enough water each day. So that combined with the slow infusion of cucumber essence in water, is definitely beneficial and healthful. Keeping an urn of cucumber water chilled on the counter (or easily accessible in the fridge) will encourage you and anyone else in your household to drink more water.

While you’re slicing up the cucumber for making the flavored water, be sure to enjoy a few slices of cucumber too.

There are just 8 calories in 1/2 cup of sliced cucumber.
~GardensAll.com

Benefits of Cucumber Water

• Hydration
• Weight Loss (replaces unhealthy drinks)
• Antioxidant
• Lowers blood pressure
• Skin health
• Bone health

Cucumbers are Beneficial for Weight Loss

Cucumber Calories – 16 calories per cup

Cucumber is beneficial for weight loss, not only because of the high water and fiber content, but also because one full cup of cucumber is only 16 calories! That’s about 32 calories for one medium to large cucumber.

If you have a cucumber—or two—at least once each day for snack or before each meal, it will significantly reduce your hunger while filling you up on low cal, high nutrient food.

Cucumber Carbs – 3.8 grams per cup

Another weight loss benefit of cucumbers: low in carbs, low in calories and high in nutrients.

1 Cup Cucumber = just 16 calories, 3.8 grams carbs and zero fat.
Low in calories and low in carbs, cucumbers are filling,
refreshing, healthy and guilt-free!

Cucumber Nutrition including the Peel

1 cup of cucumber with peel % of Daily Value (DV):

• 19% vitamin K
• 12% molybdenum
• 5% pantothenic acid
• 4% potassium
• 4% phosphorus
• 4% copper
• 4% manganese
• 4% vitamin C
• 3% vitamin B1
• 3% biotin
• 3% magnesium

Detox Water – the Healthy Vitamin Water

For cleansing and detoxing the body, nothing is better than fresh filtered water infused with fresh foods and herbs that are nutritional and medicinal.

Instead of spending a lot of money on questionable bottled drinks, slice up some of your favorite flavored water ingredients and make your own. You can get your own infuser bottles as well for sipping at home, work or on the go.

Cucumber Water Recipes

Here are some of our favorites. We don’t measure for this. We just chop and pile in the ingredients and add water. If the water starts to diminish before it’s time to make a new batch, we just add more water to replenish.

For a family of four, we use a counter top dispensing urn. Having this out on the counter with ready access throughout the day guarantees that everyone drinks more of this uber healthy and refreshing water!

Cucumber Water with Lemon and Lemongrass

Quantities are approximate; personalize to your to taste and substitute with various other fruits, vegetables and herbs.

• 2 cucumbers, sliced (more or less, depending on size)
• 1 lemon, sliced (or 1/4 cup lemon juice)
• Lemongrass of lemon balm – (a couple blades or a handful of herbs chopped in large pieces or crushed)
• 1 gallon of water

Enjoy throughout the day. If using a countertop urn-like ours, be sure to keep the ice bowl filled to keep it fresh. We fill it twice during the day then again right before bedtime and like this, it can last 24-36 hours before making a new batch.

More Cucumber Water Recipes

Here are some of other delightful cucumber water combinations.

Add any of the following combinations to sliced cucumber

• Lemon Grass, Lemon Balm & Ginger
• Mint and Dandelion tea bags*
• Mint, Watermelon
• Lime, Pineapple, Mint
• Lemon & Orange (use orange wedges or a little bit of fresh-squeezed orange juice)
• Cranberry, Orange
• Lime, Stevia Leaves and Elderflower

*Dandelion root tea is known to be useful in detox teas and drinks.

When it comes to infused waters, as you can imagine, there’s no limit to what’s possible. This doesn’t even touch on some of our favorite herbal tea concoctions, such as hibiscus, blueberry and blackberry teas, with or without the fruits, so feel free to add some of those as well.

Cucumber in Spanish

Cucumber in Spanish is called Pepino, and our favorite way to eat cucumbers, besides in cucumber and lemon water is to eat them raw with lime and salt, Latin American style. Yum! A healthy snack that tastes great and is naturally low in calories. Go light on the salt though!

Healthy Snack: Cucumbers with lime juice and salt, Latin American style.
GardensAll.com

Frozen or Dried Cucumber?

We had beaucoup cucumbers this year, so we’ve been looking for all kinds of ways to use them. Most were great, but some were too bitter. If you’ve had issues with bitter cucumbers, this may help.

For other ways to use up cucumber, some folks recommend freezing them, others drying cucumbers into seasoned chips. We tried both of those which you can read about at those link. Another GardensAll community member recommended drying and powdering cucumber for adding to all kinds of foods for the extra nutrients.

Overall, we prefer cucumber in water, salads, gazpacho, sandwiches, green juice and raw with lime and salt, and pickled, of course!

Wishing you great gardens and happy harvests!