With summer comes the desire to eat cool, crunchy salads. My interest in Middle Eastern cuisine has give me a new appreciation for humble cucumber. So often cucumber is relegated to the side: an afterthought thrown in to provide a hint of green or an element of crunch. Here in a refreshing, herbaceous salad, this unassuming summer vegetable is given a chance to shine.

I like to use miniature cucumbers, also known as Persian cucumbers, here because of their thin skin and diminutive size. But you could easily substitute an English or hothouse cucumber, which is also seedless and thin-skinned. (Not in the same way that my 8 year old is thin-skinned.)

This dish takes almost no time to come together and with the possible exception of mint and chives, uses ingredients most of us have in our refrigerator and pantry. (You could easily substitute other herbs, such as parsley, if needed.) In fact, this dish came about because I needed to make a side dish for dinner and my cupboards were quite bare in advance of a trip out of town. I had some cucumbers though and mint in my yard, and that was enough.

I can think of myriad uses for this tangy yogurt dressing which has just the right amount of acidity from the lemon juice and sweetness from the honey. My husband is famously adverse to mayonnaise so I use yogurt and buttermilk when I crave a cool, creamy kind of dressing. This one is sure to become a standby in my kitchen.

Summer cooking should be about fresh ingredients, big flavors and spending as little time in the kitchen as possible. So when you need a summer salad for a cookout, a picnic or just family dinner, keep it simple with this herb and cucumber salad in a tangy honey-yogurt dressing.