What’s cooler than being cool? Eating juiced, blended, smashed, or simply sliced cucumbers in any of our best cucumber recipes. With a water content of 95% (as well as a nice dose of vitamin C, vitamin K, and a tiny hit of potassium), refreshing, crunchy cucumber dishes are what many of us turn to for refreshment on the hottest days of the year. And while creamy cucumber salad and Greek salad and…well, any other salad…are great ways to use this fruit, one of the best things about summer cooking—when produce is aplenty—is not having to turn on the oven. There’s so much a crunchy raw cuke can do: slaws, pickles, lettuce wraps, noodles, cocktails, ice pops, dips (seriously, we could eat this tzatziki by the spoonful)—we could go on, but why don’t you just scroll down instead?

Looking for a way to use up scraped-out cucumber seeds? This cucumber-lemonade is just the thing.