Cool Cuppa Cucumber Salad

We're experiencing our first heat wave of the season here in New England which has me trying to rustle up healthy meals that do not involve the stove or oven. I've been making this salad for myself for lunch a lot lately as it meets both those goals and is cooling, simple, and delicious to boot. This is my own concoction inspired by several different recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. I seriously love this cookbook and it has become a go to source in my kitchen over the years.

I began experimenting with it back in the early spring when my mom had visited and left me some of her yogurt starter. I started making fresh yogurt with Jaffrey's recipe each week and was looking for different ways to make use of it. I've found it's wonderful to have the stuff on hand for smoothies, breakfast, baking, sour cream substitute, dressings, you name it! I'll have to share my process sometime and link back to this post. You really don't need one of those yogurt makers as I've learned they're kind of superfluous. That, and I really love a little authenticity in my ingredients when I can come by it. If you don't have homemade, some Greek yogurt from the grocery store will work too.

But moving on...the salad! The version in the photo is the basic "foundation" to which you can add any of the optional ingredients as well if you want to mix it up a bit or add some color. I like to grab some fresh mint from our balcony herb garden, but you can definitely experiment there too with other herbs you have on hand.

Cool Cuppa Cucumber Salad
Makes 1 bowl, double and triple amounts to serve more people

Ingredients
2–3 tablespoons rough chopped mint
1 large cucumber, quartered then chopped lengthwise
3–4 tablespoons fresh homemade/Greek yogurt
freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Optional Add-ins
Chopped radish
chickpeas
cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon lemon
minced garlic
Parsley/savory/lemon balm/different types of mint/chives

Directions
Just chop, mix, and enjoy!