I’ve never really thought much about cucumbers. Don’t love them, don’t hate them. When you have kids, cucumbers are suddenly everywhere – baton-ed into sticks on toddlers’ plates at every party (or meal time at home too if it’s suddenly the only remotely green thing they’ll eat). The only time I can remember cucumbers coming up consistently in conversation is when my friend started talking about how cucumbers make you burp. Then everyone else where was like, “Oh yeah! Cucumber burps!” in that way you do when someone puts a name or a phrase to something you’ve experienced throughout your life and never really thought about. Further research has led me to understand that people now actually breed “burpless cucumbers” so… that’s a thing. There you have it – the sum total of my life in cucumbers. Until now.
Why am I sat here writing this craving, like really craving, a cucumber? Well, because you may not be aware of it yet, but 2024 is a Cucumber Summer. Forget Brat or being demure – this trend isn’t gender-based or involves you talking about yourself like you’re a celebrity, it’s just about eating a humble cucumber.
It’s all down to Logan Moffitt, his love of cooking, cucumbers and, of course, the incredibly smart TikTok algorithm which has seen something that only started a few weeks ago become a worldwide sensation. Oh and the fact that apparently no trend-train can pass through anymore without us all happily hopping on board, joining in and making every micro-trend an explosion.
@logagm AdvertisementLazy cucumber kimchi to go with cold noodles😶😶😶
♬ original sound – Logan
Moffitt has said in interviews – because, of course, he’s now been interviewed in recent days by The New York Times and People magazine – that he’s always loved cucumbers. His cooking videos often included cucumbers (inspired by his love of Korean food) so he started to get known a little as “the cucumber guy”. It spurred on his now viral utterance “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber” which you’ll also have seen popping up over recipes in your TikTok feeds (and as proof it’s really spread, in your Instagram now, too…)
Of course there’s been trends before for smacked cucumber salad and chopping them up in that way that makes them into concertinas, or even “boats”. But this is bigger. “Cucumber salad” and “Cucumber salad recipe” has been trending on google and TikTok in recent days thanks to Moffitt, who told People: “I used to buy three to six cucumbers at a time, but now I’ve upped the number. I posted a video the other day of a grocery haul where I bought 15 cucumbers.” The New York Times quotes a Belfast fan saying he had to go to three shops before he could find a cucumber the other day. I’ve yet to verify reports of shortages nationwide in the UK.
@logagm AdvertisementSometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber
♬ original sound – Logan
Moffitt slices his entire cucumbers over a plastic deli-style cup on a mandoline (searches for which are also up on google, for real), and then creates salady kind of meal crossovers, taking inspiration from other foods and making them… cucumbery. For instance he made an avocado salmon cream cheese bagel-themed cucumber salad, which had everything in it you’d expect, except the bagel. Then he stuffs the lid onto his cup, shakes it up (every time I think, “Too much, there’s no room to shake it” and there always is) and eats it with some chopsticks. It’s a very aesthetic recipe, done in a very specific way, which is, of course, now being copied across the internet.
There’s no doubt that Moffitt loves that cucumber salad when he tastes it, it’s written all over his face. He’s thrilled to be eating a whole cucumber. It’s made his day. He reminds me of when you move into your first home away from your parents and you realised you could just, like, have some crisps for dinner if you want.
@logagm AdvertisementThe iconic salmon cream cheese bagel cucumber salad hehe
♬ original sound – Logan
But as someone who’s lived through toxic 90s diet culture something about the sudden prevalence of cucumber salad everywhere being made in white, aesthetically-pleasing kitchens sometimes by quasi-nutritionist types with things like “healthy CAN BE delicious!!” in their bios, makes me twitch. The idea of making something that reminds you of the taste of a salmon bagel, but that replaces the bagel (the carb) with cucumber (famously very low calorie and even used apparently by celebrities as a diuretic before awards season… the fact that I remember that fact tells you what you need to know) is just giving me Slimming World “fakeaway” flashbacks. To be clear, Moffitt, he just looooves those cucumbers and happily stuffs half a tub of full-fat cream cheese in there. I’m just saying that, as with all trends that get carried away from their original source, my diet-industry-detector is up a bit.
On the whole though, some of the videos are just good fun, and it’s nice seeing people get creative with food. And if you were doubting that cucumber salad summer is here, just have a look at how it’s taken over the news agenda. Today, worldwide news sites are reporting the story of an Australian couple who, clickbait headlines say, were SENT TO HOSPITAL by cucumber salad. The fact is the guy cut the top of his finger off with the mandoline. Shudder. For his part, Moffitt has already responded to the incident, by filming himself using the mandoline with an audio crossover of the other biggest TikTok trend, saying “very demure, very mindful”.
It shows just how savvy Moffitt has been with his boom of cucumber-y fame, he’s made so many videos in recent days, I’m sure that you’d be able to find a recipe you’ll want to make this evening. Just, look, promise you won’t get carried away and remember no-one is filming you – if you have to just chop the cucumbers up with a knife and then stir it in a bowl instead of shaking it up in a specially-bought cup, it’ll taste just as good.
Rhiannon Evans is the interim content director at PS UK. Rhiannon has been a journalist for 17 years, starting at local newspapers before moving to work for Heat magazine and Grazia. As a senior editor at Grazia, she helped launch parenting brand The Juggle, worked across brand partnerships, and launched the “Grazia Life Advice” podcast. An NCE-qualified journalist (yes, with a 120-words-per-minute shorthand), she has written for The Guardian, Vice and Refinery29.
