Cucumber Salad

There are a lot of reasons to love cucumber salad. It's a simple, tasty, easy way to add some crunchy greens to a barbecue, cookout, or picnic—where it'll happily sit as long as you need, since it won't wilt. And it goes with just about everything, from pasta salad to burgers, to fried chicken, to our recommended Grilled Spiced Chicken Skewers.

If your main thought about cucumber salad is the slightly soggy, overly vinegary pile of damp cucumber coins that someone's aunt brought to a potluck when you were a kid, or that you got with your Mediterranean fast food, we're hoping this recipe will help you see just how much better a good cucumber salad can be. And we've made a few changes that, we think, really make a difference.

While white vinegar is fine, we've swapped it out for brighter fresh lime juice, which still gives it that tart tang, but with a much less abrasive flavor. And we've upped the herb content considerable, going from a few paltry dill sprigs to a fistful of chopped fresh mint and some scallions.

Want to give your salad a bit more kick? Consider adding a few slices of fresh jalapeño when tossing it together. The classic heat of the pepper works well with lime and mint.