Who knew you could do so much with a cucumber?
TikTok is captivated by Logan Moffitt − a 23-year-old in Ottawa, Canada, who consistently goes viral for his many “cucumber salad” recipes. One video, in which he makes “jalapeño popper cucumber,” has more than 11 million views. Another, in which he makes “sushi cucumber,” has more than 19 million.
“It’s starting to scare me how cucumber literally goes with anything,” Moffitt tells his nearly 7 million TikTok followers in one video.
The internet clearly seems to agree, and now there’s a community of avid cucumber Stans. “Logan you have created a world wide cucumber shortage,” one commenter wrote. “Bro started a whole trend on TikTok,” wrote another.
Why is TikTok obsessed with ‘cucumber boy’?
The cucumber craze might seem bizarre to some, but, to Moffitt, it makes perfect sense. After all, the cucumber’s appeal is self-evident.
“Why cucumber? I’ve always loved cucumbers,” he says. “I think because they’re so versatile and refreshing, that they go with a lot of different things. So you can have them in the morning, you can have them at night, you can have them in the afternoon, and there’s never a bad time for them really.”
Moffitt didn’t set out to become the face of the cucumber community. He has been on TikTok for about four years and posted his first cucumber video around 2022 but only recently began posting his cucumber recipes consistently.
His videos follow more or less the same format, something Moffitt says he developed organically. He starts by slicing an entire cucumber into a jar using a mandoline slicer.
“First-time users should definitely be using the hand guard that mandolines come with,” Moffitt warns.
Then he adds various ingredients — sometimes salmon cream cheese, sometimes kimchi, sometimes soy sauce, almost always MSG — puts a lid on the jar and shakes the concoction together before eating it.
Moffitt’s dishes have included cucumber cereal and salt-and-vinegar chip cucumber. Finding ingredients that go surprisingly well with cucumbers is his specialty, and it’s something he says he spends plenty of time brainstorming. In comments, people marvel at the variety of Moffitt’s recipes and the endless culinary possibilities of cucumbers.
The videos have also earned Moffitt a reputation as TikTok’s “cucumber boy,” something he says fans have even called him while out and about in the real world. He doesn’t mind the moniker.
“I think it’s hilarious,” he says. “If you’re going to be called anything, ‘cucumber boy’ is up there with one of the best names you could choose.”
Is there such a thing as too much cucumber?
People also gawk at just how much cucumber Moffitt includes in his dishes. Moffitt says he’s a proponent of using an entire cucumber in his recipes; for some, that’s simply too much — and it has sparked playful debate among commenters.
“It’s perfectly polarizing,” he says. “Some people will hear, ‘Oh, you have to eat an entire cucumber,’ and be like ‘That’s a lot of cucumber.’ And then some people will hear that and be like, ‘That’s a regular amount of cucumber.’ You know what I mean? So it creates a little bit of controversy. … Is the whole cucumber too much or is the whole cucumber not enough?”
In reality, cucumbers have a host of health benefits including aiding in weight loss, lowering blood sugar and keeping bowel movements regular (but like anything, don’t actually overdo it by eating too many).
Moffitt doesn’t know how long his cucumber fame will last. After all, he says, TikTok trends are notoriously fleeting. Still, he’s happy to see where the cucumber craze will take him.
“I’m kind of just trying to appreciate the whole cucumber wave while it’s lasting,” he says. “I know these food trends come and go really quickly, so I’m just trying to appreciate being able to be a part of a food trend on TikTok.”
Read more at usatoday.com.