Summer Eating

With the heat coming on, I think we all want to minimize heating up the kitchen - cool salads, grilled meats and fish are what is mostly filling our table these days.

Snow peas, snap peas, cilantro, parsley, garlic scapes, scallions - I am starting to venture into a new cuisine for me to make - Indian food! I made a dish called Spring Pea Chaat with Lemon Raita. It is a fairly complicated recipe - not difficult, but does have 3 different components and a couple of unusual ingredients, so I am not going to post it to this site. All the prep can be done ahead and then mixed together to serve and it keeps for days. If you are interested, search Food and Wine and the title of the recipe and it pops right up. We will be making this all summer, and use it with other veggies, including green beans and squash.

Peas, squash, kohlrabi (the last for the spring - don't forget to rummage through your fridge regularly to see the goodies you had forgotten about) - simply washed and trimmed and use them as a snack with dip. Cool, crunchy, delicious and even healthy!

Escarole, radicchio, garlic scapes, a lot of herbs - chopped and sauteed the greens along with garlic scapes. Added a partial can of white beans and a little chicken stock so it was a bit "saucy". We had it alongside grilled chicken one night and leftovers with fish. It was really good! Making extra and then just reheating made it very simple.

Lettuces, scallions - made a very large salad with a balsamic dressing. We had some leftover grilled steak, so we sliced it thin and topped the salad with the meat. It made for a light and satisfying summer night meal.