Mint gives this summer salad a particularly refreshing taste. Good with kibbeh but not with fish, on account of the laban.

Break the laban curd with a spoon and stir until smooth. Combine with cucumbers. Work garlic to a paste with salt and mix it with a spoonful of laban before adding to the cucumber mixture. Add mint.

Finely shredded lettuce may be substituted for cucumber when out of season. (From Food from the Arab World Marie Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959)