Long, green veggie

CUKE

Often sliced into salads or pickled for a tangy snack, this crisp garden staple is technically a fruit but usually treated as a vegetable.

"CUKE" is short for "cucumber," a long, green vegetable often used in salads or pickling. The clue plays on the informal nickname to keep the answer concise for crossword space. If you’ve heard someone call a cucumber a "cuke," the connection is straightforward—just a casual way to say the same thing.