Mint

Serve cooled, leftover salsa with chips.

Moroccan hospitality, always gracious, begins with mezes, the enticing little dishes set out to welcome guests before the meal. Cumin and mint are a classic combination, and they work particularly well with roasted beets — the cumin underlines their earthiness, and the mint freshens their undeniable sweetness.

You can barely take a step in the markets of Marrakech without tripping over fresh mint, or at least without being offered a glass of hot, sweet mint tea.

Lots of fresh herbs and plenty of lime juice make this summery noodle salad super refreshing.

Halloumi, a firm mild Cypriot cheese popular in Greece, can be placed directly into a dry nonstick skillet or onto a grill and cooked. The outside will get brown and crisp; the inside will be soft and melted. Serve right away.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Jasper White's The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, go to Summer Cooking Guides. This is one of my favorite sauces for grilled seafood, especially swordfish. It is also terrific with salmon, striped bass, halibut, tautog, and other white-fleshed fish suitable for grilling. Think of this recipe as a formula. The ratio of cucumber to the other ingredients is important, but from there you can adapt this sauce to match with different fish or even side dishes. For example, with a Latino or Caribbean dish like Black Beans and Rice, you could substitute fresh lime juice for the lemon juice and add chiles and cilantro. This recipe uses half yogurt and half sour cream, but you could use any combination of the two. Or, for salmon, you might want to use all sour cream, with dill. You could also make a low-calorie sauce using all low-fat yogurt. The first time you make the sauce, if you follow my guidelines but omit the jalapeño and use parsley and chives for the herbs, you will have a basic sauce. After that, you are on your own. The list of possible variations is extensive. For equipment, you will need a stainless steel (or plastic) strainer.

This recipe was created by chef Michael Kornick of MK Restaurant in Chicago. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

I like to think of tofu as a blank canvas just waiting for the application of texture and color. Here, I've panfried it to crisp the edges and draped it in a velvety Vietnamese-style caramel sauce. A shower of fresh herbs and browned shallots gives it an extra layer of flavor. If you prep the herbs and make the sauce ahead, you can put this on the table in under half an hour.

Charmoula is a zesty herb and garlic sauce from the Middle East.

In this dish, the mint pesto says spring every bit as much as the carrots do.

Paprika oil adds a hit of color — and flavor.

Editor's note: The recipe below is from Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York Times.

Cooking cucumbers takes them out of the salad realm, transforming them into a side dish that's perfect with fish or white meat. Perked up with mint and lemon, they're as refreshing as ever.

The cabbage and carrots in this dish supply 126 percent of your daily vitamin A, key to maintaining healthy eyes.

This recipe was created by chef Ryan Hardy of the Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

This North African-inspired stew is good over couscous with a little lemon juice and chopped mint. Because it's made with beef tenderloin, it's ready in minutes instead of hours.

Use this fresh mint syrup to make Mint Juleps or Mojitos.