What are your favorite summer recipes?

30 thoughts on What are your favorite summer recipes?

1. My favorites right now are radish sandwiches, tomato sandwiches, and cucumber sandwiches. Just slice up the veggies, put them on buttered bread, add some salt/pepper (and maybe a slice of cheese) , and you’re good to go. Other than that, I eat sauteed veggies with pasta/couscous/rice with olive oil and cheese.

   I only have a window unit AC for my 800 sq ft house in a southern state, so I try to not cook much in the summer.

2. Couscous and mini lamb burgers! It’s a light easy twist on Morrocan dishes. Just make some couscous from the store, toss it with olive oil, tomatoes, green onions, lemon juice, and feta. It’s great warm or cold. For the lamb (or use whatever ground meat substance you care to) pat into small patties and season both sides with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano. So yum. Serve with hummus. It’s never failed to impress guests and it’s great for summer.

3. Wow, good post. I just like it simple. Some ginger lemonade, ice, and a splash of rum. Crisp, cool.

4. Hmmm–

   Gazpacho or ajoblanco, both yummy, with boiled eggs, chives, croutons as fixins’

   Avocado and tomatillo soup, awesome. (an immersion blender helps for these soups)

   Cold sliced radishes with salty butter.

   Salads with almonds, feta, cranberries with an easy garlic vinagretter (srsly, you cut up a garlic clove, saute in olive oil, mix in some basalmic, and pour over salad)

   Grated beet salad with cumin/lemon juice/tamarind dressing.

   Grilled fish with lemon, olive oil, oregano and a spinach or lettuce light salad.

   Stuffed buttered zucchini (stuff it with rice and chickpeas).

   Take some cucumbers and tomatoes and do an easy pickling for a refreshing snack–mix them into some vinegar, water, and salt and leave for a few days. (pickling lite)

   Avocado and muenster or swiss with mustard and red onion on bread.

   Homemade hummus, buttered or unbuttered. Is good. Also babaganoush.

5. Saute some garlic in olive oil then add basil and tomato. This is good with pasta or on Italian bread with some fresh mozzarella.
   Also try corn salad with thinly chopped garlic, red pepper, cucumber and tomato tossed with a balsamic dijon mustard dressing.

6. If you’re planning to grow tomatoes and basil, you can make caprese salad. All you need to do is :
   -slice some tomatoes and arrange them on a plate
   -slice some mozzarella or bocconcini and put on top of the tomatoes
   – put basil on top of that
   – sprinkle with salt and olive oil

   Barring accidents with salt or oil, it’s difficult to screw this up.

7. I LOVE summer cooking–so much yummy produce to eat!

   Fresh tomatoes will never lead you astray. Chopped up with some herbs, garlic, and olive oil on good bread. Lightly sauteed and tossed with pasta. With slices of fresh mozzarella and basil for easy Capri salad.

   Black bean and corn salad: Cut the corn off a couple ears (you can wrap the corn in waxed paper and cook it in the microwave for 2 minutes). Mix with a can of rinsed black beans, add a minced jalapeno, some diced tomato, fresh lime juice, cumin, and cilantro.

   Also, if you’re truly a cooking novice: to make couscous: Boil 1/2 c of water. Add 1/2 cup couscous. Take the pan off the heat, cover, and let it stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork and stir in just about anything you want. (You can obviously make more or less–just keep the 1:1 water:couscous ratio)

   If you have a grill, you can cook just about anything on it–veggies in packets of aluminum foil, ears or corn, fish, chicken, etc.

   You might also pick up one of the summer issues of Bon Appetit or a similar magazine–they’re good about having seasonal recipes.

8. Salmon and green-beans sauteed in olive oil, with garlic, black pepper and salt, over rice. Can be spiced up or not, as you wish.

   Chicken salad with icy grapes and capers.

   Tuna salad with sweet corn and capers (everything is better with capers).

   Whole fresh Okra, coated with olive oil and black pepper/ kosher salt, bake in the oven at 400 for ~ 20 min or until toasty.

   Cottage cheese with fresh strawberries and honey.

   Black bean quesadillas (add eggs and you’ve got breakfast…)

9. Also, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison has fabulous recipes for just about anything you could find at the farmer’s market (including how to store and process it).

10. Put a couple of handfuls of spring mix, or spinach, or your rooftop lettuces on a plate. Crumble goat cheese over it, and a little balsamic vinaigrette and a dash of pepper.

    Cook one or two eggs over medium in skillet. Add salt, pepper, dill, oregano and garlic while cooking. Place egg on salad and voila!

11. Gotta second Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Has helped me figure out what to do with both usual and unusual produce and vast amounts of CSA riches that can otherwise go bad. One of my most used cookbooks.

12. Kristen mentioned hummus, so I’ll add my* recipe for that. It’s just a can of drained chickpeas, the juice of half a lemon, garlic (however much you like, 2 cloves is pretty standard), pinches of salt and cayenne and then equal parts (between 1/4 and 1/3 cup, depending on how wet your beans are) water**, olive oil, and tahini. Throw that all in the food processor or blender and give it a whirl. If it’s too thick to blend, stir in the tahini after blending.

    You can drizzle with olive oil, dust it with kosher salt, sumac, black pepper or cayenne pepper to fancy it up a little if you like.

    *Not originally mine, but I don’t remember where I learned it.
    **Or reserved liquid from the beans, if you prefer.

13. I usually crave more citrus in the summer. I love to marinate strips of chicken in lime juice and then cover them in chili powder before grilling them up. It’s ridiculously good on a salad with tomatoes and avocado (lime vinaigrette makes it just that much better).

    Are you a vegetarian? If so, oops. My favorite vegetarian meal to make is Sante Fe Black Bean Pizzas. It’s ridiculously easy (you use canned biscuits) and perfect for when I have my friends over. Recipe here.

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15. gexx beat me to the tomato sandwich, but I like mine with a little mayo in stead of butter. Something about the way tomato and mayo go together is magic.

    The best tomato sandwiches are made from really big heirloom tomatoes so the bread can be covered by one giant slice. They should also have so much tomato that you need to eat them over the sink!

16. Shishkebab is always fun – chop everything up, stick the chicken or beef (or tofu even) in some tasty concoction (think lemon juice and chili powder, or your favorite salad dressing, whatever strikes your fancy) get the bbq going, skewer it all and cook. It’s fun, pretty and tasty.

    I made curry for the first time last night, and it came out great. Boil cut up carrots, onions, potatoes with whatever spices you have around, cook up some lentils and add when they’re done, toss in some curry sauce from the store, and serve over rice.

    Stir fry is always great and easy too, and you can mix it up any way you like.

    I also found this cool website just yesterday, it seems like it might come in handy 😀 http://www.foodpairing.be Have fun!!

17. Any dietary restrictions? Kosher, vegetarian, vegan, coeliac?

    What drinks are you planning on pairing the meal/meals with? Do you have a grill?

18. No dietary restrictions, and I will eat just about anything. The only thing I actively dislike is capers (sorry Meg!). My standard summer drink is vinho verde (Gazela is my favorite cheap brand), or something sparkling with a little St. Germain elderflower liquor. But after looking over the Times article, I’m going to start making myself watermelon sugars. And yes, I have a grill.

19. Thirding (fourthing?) the Deborah Madison book. Not only is it great for “I have three pounds of chard!? What do I do with it?” moments, but she has a fabulous section on sauces and condiments that I’ve been using a lot lately. My favorites lately include romesco sauce, and homemade mayonnaise which is dead easy, delicious, and flexible (I really like it made with lemon, olive oil, a bit of garlic, and lots of fresh tarragon.)

    I’ll buy some veggies, cut them up, lightly steam or grill them, and eat them cold for the rest of the week with one of the sauces.

    One of my favorite farmer’s market meals lately: grape-sized potatoes and asparagus steamed over a bed of dill (this is a great trick that adds a ton of flavor. I usually use dill because it’s easy to get in bunches, but I bet basil would work great too), served room temp with the homemade mayo above.

    Grilled stuffed zucchini: Cut zucchini or summer squash into halves or quarters; scrape out the insides to leave a shell; mix up the zucchini insides with soft bread cubes, cut up cooked chicken, fresh chopped herbs, salt, and enough lemon juice and olive oil to make it mushy. Oil the outsides of the zucchini shells; pack with stuffing; grill medium/low till the stuffing just starts to brown.

    Grilled polenta: Boil 3 cups of water; whisk together 2 cups of medium or coarse grain cornmeal with 2 more cups of water; add to the boiling water; cook stirring frequently until it’s thick and stiff. I like just a little honey, salt, and pepper in mine, but you can add all sorts of seasonings, veggies, or cheese to make it much more of a meal in itself (veggies at the beginning of cooking, cheese at the end.) Line a baking pan with plastic wrap, plop the cooked polenta into it and spread it around, then stick it in the fridge for half an hour or so. Unmold it, cut into squares, dip or brush each square with olive oil and arrange on a grill basket. Grill at low for 5 to 7 minutes a side, until it has nice brown grill marks. I’d eat this for breakfast lunch and dinner. It’s lovely in salads, or with steamed vegetables and romesco sauce.

20. I personally love pasta because there are so many things you can do with it. Have you had pasta with pesto before? Have you grilled vegetables like peppers for your pasta? Have you tried an oil, butter and garlic sauce?

    Do you steam vegetables? It’s so fast and I find they retain a lot of flavour that way.

    Also, if you like curry, something quick is to just put a bunch of curry powder and a bit of cumin, pepper, chicken broth, and garlic powder into the boiling water while you’re boiling the rice. When I don’t know what to cook, that with steamed veggies makes an easy meal.

    Also, I suggest thepioneerwoman.com for some good recipes that are mostly pretty simple. She’s great if you want a change from cooks who are constantly caring about low-fat. If you want to try some new foods, I suggest danispies.com. She has some great 101 videos and other videos for some pretty quick meals.

21. I have a smallish studio with one window and no a/c, so I almost never turn on my oven in the summer. I could happily eat this no-cook meal every day of the week, though – I guess it’s basically a more veggified, chunky guacamole:

    avocado, somewhat forked up into yummy lumpiness
    cilantro, torn or chopped
    garlic (I use the food processor on “teeny”)
    tomatoes, I like them chopped pretty big in this
    scallions, in big chunks, and include the green part
    I dunno, you could throw in probably anything else, like zucchini or corn
    i usually add a bunch of lemon and/or lime juice as “dressing”
    cheese?

    and then you just get the crunchy kind of tortillas and have yourself a big scoppin’ dinner that isn’t nearly as junk-foody as it tastes.

    or if you don’t mind turning on your stove, it’s an awesome “rest of the taco” to beans or meat.

    (h/t to some ex)

22. A simple veggie stir-fry and rice is always good (I don’t add tofu or anything, just lots and lots of veggies).
    A cucumber salad with sweet vinegar and sesame seeds = yum!
    Light, brothy vegetable soups are nice for lunch.
    Fruit salads with a bit of agave drizzled on top is a good snack.

    Those are some Summer ideas, anyway 🙂

23. If I may be so bold as to pimp myself, these quinoa salads are perfect for summer:

    Greek-style Chickpea and Quinoa Salad

    Black Bean and Quinoa Salad with Grilled Jalapenos

24. Another vote for Madison. I learned to cook using her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (and I’m not even vegetarian!).

    I cooked my way through a lot of it and am in a more Meditteranean phase now, some of her non-American dishes are just…off. But her tarts, soups, sandwiches, etc are almost all amazing or at least good.

    I recommend the blog 101cookbooks as well. Bitten (Mark Bittman) is good too.

25. This is my fave summer recipe. It’s smooth and velvety and full of deliciousness (and super fast and simple to make). It’s easy to make this vegan by using soy yoghurt. It’s also be easy to halve it if you are only making it for a couple of people.

    Chilled Avocado Soup

    Ingredients

    4 ripe avocados
    2 spring onions
    3 1/2 cups well-flavoured vegetable stock
    2/3 cup plain yoghurt
    2 tbsp tomato paste
    hot sauce to taste
    1 tbsp tequila (optional)
    1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
    salt and pepper

    1. Cut avocados in half lengthwise and twist to separate the halves. Discard pits. Cut each in half again and peel.
    2. Place avocados in blender or food processor with onions, stock, yoghurt, tomato paste, hot sauce, lime juice, tequila, and cilantro. Process until smooth.
    3. Taste and add more hot sauce, lime juice or salt and pepper to taste. Process for a couple more seconds to blend.
    4. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and let chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
    5. Serve topped with a spoonful of yoghurt and garnished with cilantro.

    AWESOME

26. I like to do grilled asparagus with chicken breast. You just put the asparagus and the chicken on the grill. If you want, you can marinate the chicken first, but it should turn out fine even if you don’t. You can also toss the asparagus in olive oil and garlic before grilling.

    Or Warm smoked salmon with raspberries, in which you take lox, warm it in a pan with balsamic vinegar for about a minute on low heat, and then serve it with thinly sliced fennel bulb, raspberries, watercress, black pepper and wasabi to taste, maybe a squeeze of lemon.

27. Half cubed seedless watermelon, cubed cucumber, fresh mint leaves (chopped), and a little bit of (light oil) and raspberry vinegar dressing.

    Best summer salad ever

28. All purpose, super easy salad dressing:

    1/4 cup balsamic, sherry, or red wine vinegar, or lemon juice, or lime juice
    1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    1/4 tsp. paprika
    1/4 tsp. garlic powder
    1/4 tsp mustard powder
    1/4 tsp. honey (or a bit less)
    Dash (or more) cayenne pepper (optional)
    Salt and pepper to taste

    1/2 tbsp fresh, or 1/2 tsp dried of one of the following: rosemary, thyme, tarragon, chives, marjoram, oregano, sage.

    Pour everything into a jelly jar and shake, or use a fork to whisk up.

    All measurements are flexible and approximate, and the dressing will keep for several days in the fridge. Goes well on everything, and really difficult to mess up.

29. Jill, whatever you do, buy yourself a copy of the Joy of Cooking. It’s probably the best cook book there is. It covers everything from how to find ripe veggies and how to properly cut them to recipes for pretty much everything you can imagine. How to cook staple dishes to how to cook really fancy stuff. I have a lot of cookbooks but the JOC is the one I use more than any of the others.

30. Deviled eggs, pork bbq spareribs, potato salad, and cherry cobbler.

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