Cucumber

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero was humming for weeks after enjoying a salad of fresh buffalo mozzarella, cucumber, and the Italian wheat called farro at the Manhattan restaurant Il Buco. She set about reimagining it, and her version’s accents—tender lettuce, basil, and a light, lemony dressing—beautifully complement the cheese. Since fresh mozzarella is the star here, it's essential to use the best you can find. We love the kind traditionally made in Italy from the milk of water buffalo for its custardlike texture and sweet, milky tang. Recently, some American producers have gotten in on the act as well.

This C-food salad supplies the full RDA of infection-fighting vitamin C, which also helps you absorb iron from the octopus.

Korean tables—both in restaurants and at home—are always set with a series of banchan, or little dishes that can be eaten alone, with rice, or as an accompaniment to the main course. To keep things lively, banchan should run the gamut of tastes and textures, and this particular pickle really sparkles: It is sweet, tart, crisp, and fresh. Salting the sliced cucumbers and then squeezing out their excess water allows them to fully soak up the pickling mixture.

It's March, which feels like the longest month, and for many of us, it's still cold and dreary outside. Time to start fantasizing about sitting at a café table somewhere hot and dazzlingly sunnyéa Greek island would do nicely. These hearty sandwiches will take you there.

These sandwiches are portable and keep well in a lunch box. The hummus should be thick for the sandwiches, but if you want to enjoy the leftovers as a dip, thin slightly with a little extra olive oil.

Fresh mint and sliced cucumbers give this American-style salad a lightness that leaves you feeling satisfied, not stuffed.

Forget fuss—the key to this recipe is leaving everything alone. Tossing cucumbers with salt and then letting them drain prevents their moisture from diluting the flavors of the finished dish. A long, unattended marination enhances the sweet-sour blend of sugar and white vinegar that makes this salad especially refreshing.

Try to buy ripe tomatoes or let them ripen in a paper bag with an apple for two days.

All the flavors of the cold Spanish soup—in a chunky salsa. The secret ingredient here is smoked paprika, which is now available in the spice section of many supermarkets. That variety is slightly sweet, but a hot version (available at specialty foods stores) can be used instead, if you want more heat.

This pretty salad gets its name from the long slices of zucchini, which resemble tagliatelle pasta. I like to mix in some fresh mint and lemon for a nice zip, cucumber and sweet onion for crunch, and pistachio oil for fabulous depth of flavor.

Yellow tomatoes bring a touch of sunshine to this delicious chilled soup, which can be made as spicy or as mellow as you like.

Begin making this one day ahead, and serve with a platter of oysters on the half shell.

Find mung bean sprouts in Asian grocery stores and supermarkets.

A slightly tart dressing and a perfectly crisp-sweet cucumber salad are wonderful foils for rich, meaty chunks of crab.

A refined rethinking of a bagel-shop favorite provides a no—cook, imaginative way to appreciate the traditional flavor pairing.

The squid in this entrée is tender and picks up the flavors it's cooked with.

Of course, you can always take a simple store-bought rotisserie chicken to a picnic, but this Indian spin is way more fun. We love the chickpea layer so much that we make it even when there's no picnic planned.

This refreshing soup makes a great first course for a summer dinner party.

Substituting rice vinegar (instead of cider or wine vinegar) produces a pickle that's less tart.