Blueberries and Cucumbers with Pistachios and Yogurt

Deep Run Roots

I didn't have high hopes for this one, since all the rest of my family has issues with different pieces of this recipe. They all hate pistachios (I love them), my husband doesn't really like cucumbers, my daughter doesn't like blueberries, and both the kids aren't fans of yogurt. And, yes, neither of the kids were fans. But my husband and I finished it all ourselves with no problem! The dressing is delicious and the herbs really make all of the ingredients work well together.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: today i'm going to be making a recipe
[00:09]: that i'm sure my family is
[00:11]: not going to love but we're going to
[00:14]: make it anyway because we had most of
[00:16]: the ingredients
[00:18]: and i wanted to try it so why not
[00:22]: um we're going to be making blueberries
[00:25]: and cucumbers with pistachios and yogurt
[00:30]: the deep run roots cookbook i have it
[00:32]: set up right here if you can't see it
[00:34]: um just for my reference because there's
[00:36]: a lot of ingredients that go into this
[00:38]: part and i wanted to make sure i got
[00:40]: them all right
[00:41]: um so uh
[00:45]: the first thing we do here is to make
[00:47]: the
[00:48]: yogurt dressing for this salad
[00:52]: it's kind of a salad um it's got a lot
[00:54]: of herbs in it it's one of the one
[00:56]: things we had to buy for this um
[00:59]: but so we make the dressing and then
[01:01]: we're gonna put together the cucumbers
[01:03]: and the blueberries and all the other
[01:04]: stuff and then it'll be pretty much done
[01:06]: there's no actual cooking
[01:08]: in this recipe and like i said my family
[01:13]: most well my husband doesn't like
[01:15]: cucumbers
[01:16]: my daughter doesn't like blueberries and
[01:19]: most of them besides me don't like
[01:21]: pistachios
[01:22]: so we're gonna see how this goes over
[01:27]: so this is the yogurt dressing and i've
[01:29]: got
[01:31]: so it calls for greek plain greek yogurt
[01:35]: which i put on my grocery list and my
[01:38]: husband saw that i was like
[01:39]: why does she want a small thing of plain
[01:41]: greek yogurt this is what she always
[01:43]: buys and bought me
[01:44]: the um ziggy's icelandic
[01:48]: yogurt plain like i usually buy myself
[01:52]: to have because i like it
[01:53]: better than greek yogurt so
[01:56]: this is a little bit thicker in general
[01:59]: oh that reminds me i forgot one of my
[02:01]: ingredients i'll go get that in a minute
[02:02]: but icelandic yogurt is a little bit
[02:05]: thicker than greek yogurt in my
[02:08]: experience
[02:08]: and not as tart but i love it
[02:12]: so and that's what we have so that's
[02:14]: what we're using today
[02:16]: um let me go get that other ingredient
[02:18]: because that's next
[02:20]: so the other ingredient um that goes in
[02:23]: next is
[02:24]: buttermilk uh i'm very annoyed that you
[02:27]: can't buy buttermilk
[02:29]: um in a smaller up that i can't
[02:31]: generally buy buttermilk in a smaller
[02:33]: container
[02:35]: than this and it also doesn't last very
[02:38]: long in the refrigerator in my
[02:40]: experience
[02:41]: um so it's really hard to use up all
[02:44]: this buttermilk and
[02:45]: generally at least half of it goes into
[02:48]: the
[02:49]: um sink
[02:52]: when i have made all the pancakes and
[02:54]: biscuits and whatever
[02:57]: so yeah so we're going to add some
[02:60]: buttermilk
[03:01]: and now if it turns out to be a little
[03:04]: too thick i will maybe add a little bit
[03:06]: more buttermilk to thin it out because
[03:08]: my yogurt is a little
[03:10]: thicker than greek yogurt so
[03:13]: um now we're gonna add the uh
[03:17]: this is this is lemon zest
[03:21]: and juice so we're just gonna add that
[03:23]: we put that all in together
[03:25]: because it was easier than dirtying
[03:27]: another
[03:29]: one of these containers we have some
[03:32]: fresh
[03:32]: orange juice that i squeezed
[03:38]: ugh um we need
[03:42]: uh some i thought i put it
[03:46]: another ingredient i forgot
[03:49]: i thought i put it over here didn't we
[03:51]: need a little bit of olive oil here
[03:54]: um this recipe has one of those
[03:59]: has two ingredients where it's this much
[04:01]: divided and then you have to
[04:03]: like figure out exactly how much in each
[04:06]: step
[04:06]: or in the second step usually it's like
[04:08]: the rest of and then you have to do the
[04:10]: math
[04:12]: this is the math is not hard on this one
[04:13]: though so it's fine so we have
[04:15]: um olive oil we need some salt
[04:20]: which i just spilled all over my
[04:23]: countertop oh well
[04:27]: we need okay we need honey
[04:31]: it really is a tablespoon
[04:34]: this time a scant tablespoon and so
[04:37]: hopefully i will not
[04:40]: get too much honey this time so
[04:45]: i need to buy some more honey this this
[04:47]: was uh
[04:48]: whipped honey and so it was creamy but
[04:50]: the top has
[04:52]: um separated out so that will be perfect
[04:59]: for this application there we go and i
[05:02]: didn't fill that all the way up to the
[05:04]: top because
[05:05]: it says scant so you don't want it
[05:07]: overflowing i guess you don't want it
[05:08]: too sweet and since my
[05:10]: um yogurt is not as
[05:15]: tart i guess i probably don't need as
[05:17]: much anyway
[05:18]: so here we go
[05:22]: honey salt oh
[05:25]: and hot sauce that is the last
[05:27]: ingredient here
[05:29]: i am still working on this huge
[05:31]: container of texas pete that we got
[05:33]: for our um whole hog barbecue but it
[05:37]: lasts
[05:37]: a really long time in the refrigerator
[05:39]: so normally i probably wouldn't even
[05:41]: measure this but i'm going to because
[05:44]: i'm
[05:44]: filming all right and then
[05:48]: we just stir
[05:51]: it or you whisk it together so
[05:54]: i'm trying not to get it all over my
[05:56]: counter myself
[05:58]: and my countertop and i've already been
[06:00]: a failure at that
[06:02]: but whisk this all together and then
[06:07]: yeah it's gonna be plenty thin enough i
[06:10]: think for
[06:11]: this it's not super thick i was a little
[06:13]: worried about that
[06:15]: but
[06:19]: all right
[06:23]: and that is it for the dressing she says
[06:27]: to store this in the refrigerator
[06:28]: until you're ready for it covered i'm
[06:30]: just going to stick it in the
[06:31]: refrigerator because we're going to
[06:33]: immediately make the rest of this dish
[06:36]: so i'm going to clean up and come back
[06:38]: with the rest
[06:40]: i've done everything i well not
[06:42]: everything but so i've
[06:44]: uh chopped up my herbs i've got some
[06:48]: minced
[06:49]: chives and some torn um
[06:52]: dill picked up just to pick the frontie
[06:55]: pieces off and then i've
[06:56]: torn up some mint leaves i have
[06:59]: um chopped up some pistachios those are
[07:02]: just used for garnish
[07:03]: we've washed and measured our
[07:06]: blueberries
[07:07]: there's actually a little bit more than
[07:08]: we need in there that's fine
[07:10]: now i need to take care of my cucumbers
[07:13]: which calls for two
[07:14]: medium cucumbers i have one medium one
[07:17]: that
[07:17]: has a little bit of a bad spot on it and
[07:19]: one really huge one so i figured
[07:22]: together that's probably about a medium
[07:24]: one
[07:24]: um so what we're gonna do here
[07:27]: is um first i'm going to
[07:32]: slice most
[07:36]: of the skin off you can take take it all
[07:38]: off if you want that doesn't matter
[07:40]: um but you probably don't want all of
[07:42]: the skin if you're using a
[07:45]: cucumber like this uh if you use
[07:49]: english cucumbers i think that's what
[07:50]: she calls them yeah english cucumbers
[07:52]: you can probably leave the skin
[07:57]: more of that on off um
[08:02]: this is a very southern thing to do i
[08:04]: think just uh leave a little bit of the
[08:06]: skin
[08:08]: i don't know anyway so now
[08:12]: i'm going to cut these in half
[08:15]: lengthwise and i'm going to use
[08:19]: a little spoon to scoop out the seeds
[08:26]: because those are just watery and not
[08:28]: very good and you don't want your
[08:29]: salad to be all watery
[08:36]: and if i think english cucumbers don't
[08:38]: have as many seeds but she says to do
[08:40]: this with both
[08:41]: types so i've got that i'm going to go
[08:44]: ahead
[08:45]: and um slice this one so i have more
[08:47]: room on my board
[08:48]: whatever and she says i think half inch
[08:55]: i am i need to have my daughter read the
[08:58]: really small print
[08:59]: years old now um one third
[09:02]: inch half moon so approximately
[09:06]: a third of an inch i'm just guessing
[09:09]: that and i'm just gonna put these
[09:12]: in this bowl here where we're going to
[09:17]: mix all this stuff up as instructed
[09:20]: these are so big i might should have
[09:23]: done
[09:24]: um
[09:27]: quarters instead of half moons but yeah
[09:30]: and in the picture they are not a third
[09:32]: of an inch thick i'm fairly certain
[09:35]: but that's okay sometimes the pictures
[09:38]: lie as we have
[09:42]: found out with previous recipes here
[09:47]: but they're always beautiful so
[09:52]: all right so i'm gonna keep doing that
[09:54]: with the rest of my
[09:56]: cucumbers i've gotten a lecture about my
[10:00]: cucumbers and that that one was a giant
[10:04]: cucumber
[10:05]: not a large certainly not medium and so
[10:08]: we're gonna use just the one i was also
[10:10]: instructed to go ahead and cut them in
[10:12]: quarters and that was already
[10:14]: after i had cut most of them and so that
[10:16]: is not happening
[10:17]: just not gonna happen um but so now
[10:20]: we're gonna add
[10:22]: the rest of the ingredients here since
[10:24]: i'm done with this i'll just do this
[10:26]: here i've got my cucumbers
[10:29]: i'm not gonna put quite all of these
[10:31]: blueberries in because
[10:33]: it's a little bit more than the recipe
[10:34]: calls for
[10:37]: but yeah that's that's about right
[10:42]: i've got blueberries and we're gonna add
[10:45]: um
[10:46]: our herbs in here just all of them
[10:50]: we're gonna add uh some rice
[10:54]: wine vinegar i have rice vinegar i'm
[10:57]: sure it's fine
[11:07]: and my olive oil disappeared because i
[11:09]: asked
[11:10]: my crew to clean up and they didn't
[11:11]: realize that i still needed it so i got
[11:13]: to get that again
[11:15]: so i need a little bit more olive oil in
[11:18]: this part
[11:26]: okay and then
[11:29]: salt and i'm pretty sure that that is
[11:32]: about
[11:32]: it for this and we don't have to let
[11:35]: this sit
[11:36]: um you're supposed to do this just
[11:38]: before you serve it
[11:41]: so um i'm just gonna toss this around
[11:47]: and we're gonna we'll be back
[11:50]: to plate this up prettily because that
[11:53]: is
[11:54]: how you serve this um so
[11:58]: we'll be right back so since this is a
[11:60]: very specific
[12:01]: way that she says to plate this i'm
[12:04]: gonna go ahead and do that on camera for
[12:06]: you guys and she says to basically
[12:09]: puddle half of the yogurt sauce on your
[12:14]: dish your serving dish
[12:19]: and then
[12:22]: mound your uh
[12:26]: cucumbers and blueberries on top of that
[12:32]: and let me just get some of the
[12:37]: my spoon i'm getting all the blueberries
[12:41]: so i'm just gonna
[12:44]: pour it out
[12:50]: so we get some of the blueberries on top
[12:52]: because that will be
[13:05]: prettier
[13:09]: [Music]
[13:16]: sound guy loves it when i do that
[13:18]: drizzle with the remaining sauce
[13:20]: i don't know if i'm going to use all of
[13:22]: it but i'm going to use some of it
[13:24]: it doesn't really stay on top which
[13:28]: explains why it doesn't look like it's
[13:30]: on top in the picture i guess
[13:37]: and i think that's going to be plenty
[13:40]: for me for right now
[13:42]: so i have a little extra and
[13:45]: finish with the chopped
[13:49]: toasted pistachios which i just
[13:53]: i had a little single serve bag that i
[13:59]: shelled and chopped and that was almost
[14:02]: exactly
[14:02]: the right amount and that's it
[14:05]: that's the dish we're going to try it
[14:07]: and let you know what we think
[14:17]: on this episode of cooking the books
[14:19]: with heather you watched me make
[14:20]: blueberries and cucumbers with
[14:22]: pistachios and
[14:23]: yogurt um if you
[14:26]: recall i was not sure any of my family
[14:28]: would eat this besides me
[14:30]: and my kids didn't love it like i said
[14:33]: my daughter doesn't like
[14:34]: blueberries at all they do generally
[14:37]: like cucumbers they tasted it
[14:39]: weren't big fans but my husband who
[14:41]: doesn't usually eat cucumbers but
[14:43]: does love blueberries and also doesn't
[14:45]: really love yogurt
[14:46]: really enjoyed it um really liked uh
[14:50]: the dressing and we finished it off
[14:53]: mostly by ourselves so
[14:56]: i think it was highly worth it was not
[14:59]: super hard
[15:01]: no special techniques or um
[15:06]: equipment that you need for this it's
[15:07]: all you know
[15:09]: standard things you like like i said i
[15:12]: used
[15:13]: icelandic yogurt you could instead of
[15:15]: the greek yogurt and that substitution
[15:17]: was fine i would not substitute anything
[15:20]: thinner than greek yogurt otherwise the
[15:22]: dressing would be very thin
[15:23]: because the icelandic yogurt was really
[15:25]: thick and it was still a little bit thin
[15:28]: um not super thin but like you know
[15:32]: not super thick ranch thick but you know
[15:36]: anyway we enjoyed it the herbs made a
[15:40]: huge
[15:40]: difference so definitely seek out the
[15:42]: fresh herbs
[15:43]: for this um a little bit of mint in
[15:47]: there
[15:47]: and the dill really made a big
[15:49]: difference in like if you got a bite
[15:51]: with that it was
[15:52]: perfect so if you enjoyed watching me
[15:56]: make this
[15:57]: please hit the thumbs up button
[15:60]: subscribe and come back and watch me
[16:02]: make something else next week
[16:10]: you