Cucumber

Want to grab a bottle of olive oil and lunch? Then stop by Caseus, a cheese shop/bistro combo. The place is named for drained, pressed milk curds—and the folks here do know their cheese. The shop carries more than 100 artisanal varieties, which show up on the bistro menu. In this recipe, goat cheese adds wonderful flavor and texture to spicy hush puppies.

Chef Max Mackissock of The Squeaky Bean in Denver takes a back-to-nature approach to ingredients: He uses produce straight from the garden at his restaurant or the farmers’ market the eatery hosts weekly. With veggies like that, who needs meat? This tasty vegan dish has plenty of protein, plus healthy carbs, thanks to whole-grain, fiber-rich farro.

The lamb in this dish from Cress Restaurant lends immunity-building zinc. For extra fresh flavors, pluck the rosemary, thyme and mint from plants purchased at a garden center; they'll flourish in a sunny window, so you can use them over and over.

Fresh and colorful, this vegetarian entrée is an ideal bring-along for a potluck supper. Quinoa, a delicate grain with a texture similar to that of couscous, cooks up in just 15 minutes. A complete protein, it's also nutritious. Look for it at supermarkets and natural foods stores. Smoked paprika can be found in the spice section of the supermarket.

At 1105, a bar in Copenhagen, juniper-inflected gin is paired with caraway-flavored aquavit, Scandinavia's traditional eau-de-vie.

This salad is great with grilled chicken thighs, lamb chops, or leg of lamb.

Kathy Casey is one of Seattle's most talented chefs, and this cucumber sake-tini was inspired by her specialty drink, the Katana. We warn you that this martini is absolutely lethal, because the cooling cucumber masks the potency of the gin. The sake adds a little "je ne sais quoi" and the mint heightens the overall floral bouquet. The result is a drink that it is soooooooooo sippable that it's hard to stop. Due to popular demand, we often serve this at our Southern supper club.

What a fantastic barbecue side: It's juicy, crunchy, and bright enough to provide delicious relief even from your richest dishes, and substantial enough to stand in for starchy sides like potatoes. I add a ton of marjoram and dill, but chives and basil taste amazing, too.

If you don't have time to drain regular yogurt, buy thick, Greek-style yogurt, available at many supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

This tangy marriage of fresh tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion is a summer favorite. The flavor of gazpacho improves if allowed to chill overnight, but thereafter this soup has a short shelf life because the tomatoes sour very quickly. It this best prepared no more than a day or two before it will be eaten.

Healthy steak from the California Health & Longevity Institute near Los Angeles.

This is the one sauce you must make. It's a classic and very easy to prepare, but be sure you use only a superior quality Greek yogurt or labne spread. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough—it makes all the difference.

This is the standard salad-relish you find in every tavern and restaurant in Istanbul. It accompanies grilled meat and especially kebabs. Turkish food is often eaten with a spoon, and so is this salad—all its ingredients are finely chopped. Instead of a simple lemon vinaigrette, which is the most common dressing, I like to add a little balsamic vinegar and lemon zest. Add as much jalapeño as you like, but bear in mind that this Turkish salsa is meant to be refreshing and not overpoweringly hot.

At the Citymeals-on-Wheels event, our food editors were astonished by the variety of flavors layered in these summer rolls. Within the confines of each wrapper, chef Alfred Portale combined sweet crabmeat, crunchy tobiko (flying-fish roe), and creamy avocado, then finished it with a citrusy yuzu sauce.

After a few summer trips to Maine in search of the perfect lobster roll, I've become a purist of sorts. My favorite roll comes from a place in Cape Porpoise that uses only fresh lobster meat and Hellmann's mayonnaise. So that's how I make my lobster salad. Except I use frozen lobster meat and add a little diced yellow pepper for some crunch and color. Oh, and I add salt and pepper. I guess my lobster salad isn't quite like theirs after all.
You can make the lobster salad earlier in the day and keep it covered in the refrigerator. And you might as well slice the cukes while you're at it and keep them in the fridge separately. Assemble just before your guests arrive.

Cool to the eye as well as on the palate, this gazpacho-like starter gets its body and buttery undertones from cashews. Yes, the Cubanelle pepper was initially chosen for its starting letter, but its mild sweetness and juicy crunch clinched the decision.

Juicy, crunchy cucumbers lighten the starch in a rice salad, and lemony coriander accentuates the citrus in the vinaigrette. So-called Persian cukes seem especially beautiful against a background of exotic purple jasmine rice. This is a party dish for which, no doubt, you will become justly famous.