Cucumber and Mint Verrines

This Cucumber and Mint Verrine is a lovely summer appetizer, it is cool and refreshing, and helps to cleanse one's palette before the main meal. One great thing about serving these verrines is that they are meant to be served cold, which means you can make them few hours in advance of your meal and put them away in the fridge.

Verrines are meant to be small-sized servings. You don't want to get bored of eating one, it is just a little refresher. If you are unsure on how many servings to make or what serving size to use, always make more, smaller servings. That way, nobody thinks its too much, and you have a few more servings if someone wants seconds!

For three to four servings, you will need:

1. One large cucumber
2. Three tablespoons of Philadelphia® Cream Cheese
3. One tablespoon of crème fraîche
4. A handfull of mint leaves
5. Two teaspoons of salt


First, we start by peeling the cucumber.

Next, cut it in half, and then slice it into quarters, like this:

With a small knife, now cut out the fleshy insides. While these taste good, they will make the verrine too watery and sloppy, which we don't want.

Finally, dice the cucumber up into small pieces.

We need to try and get as much water out as possible, so place your chopped cucumber in a strainer and toss them around with the salt. Then place the strainer in the fridge, with a plate underneath to catch the water, for about an hour.

After the cucumber has been sitting in the fridge for an hour, we can get back to preparing the verrines. Chop up a handfull of mint leaves and set them aside. Save a few full leaves for decoration.

To prepare the top layer of the verrine, whisk together the cream cheese and the crème fraîche until they form a creamy consistency.

And finally, it is time to arrange the verrines. You'll need a glass and all the ingredients you have prepared so far. You can use a martini glass, shot class, a cocktail glass, or a verrine glass. 

First Layer: Divide the cucumber pieces into the glasses. Try to level them as much as possible.

Next, divide and sprinkle the chopped mint on top of the cucumber.

Top Layer: Carefully spread the cream cheese and crème fraîche on the top. Use the back of a teaspoon to level out the top.

And finally, garnish with a mint leaf.

Now cover your verrine with film and store them in the fridge for a few hours ...

... and remove them just before serving. Enjoy!

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki