When beautiful summer days are upon us, avoiding cranking up the stove keeps your home cooler. So, here are some recipes to keep you (and your kitchen) from roasting.
These tasty recipes are sure to keep you cool this summer. Some require a little time at the stove, but you can prepare them the night before (when it’s cooler) and enjoy them chilled from the fridge the next day.
Cold Soups
Just because it’s summer, doesn’t mean soup season has to end. There are plenty of cold soup options out there. Here are a few favorites.
Gazpacho
If you’ve never had it before, gazpacho is a chilled vegetable-based soup, perfect for fresh garden veggies (including those you picked up at the farmer’s market). Not only does it make a great meal on its own, but you can also serve it as a side dish or an appetizer.
All you need is a blender, a refrigerator, and some fresh veggies. Here’s an easy recipe for gazpacho—tweak it with your own vegetable favorites.
- Peel, and then cut up 4 large tomatoes (cutting them into quarters is good—they don’t have to be finely diced). Scrape out the seeds before sticking them in the blender.
- Add about 1 cup of chopped onion; 2 tbsp each of fresh parsley and olive oil; 1 tbsp each of lemon juice and salt; 1 cup of vegetable stock, and 2 peeled cloves of minced garlic.
- Blend these ingredients until they’re smooth.
- Pour the blending puree into a dish with a lid, and then stir in an additional 1/2 cup each of diced tomatoes, diced cucumber, diced red pepper, and diced red onion.
- Put the lid on and chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to eat!
If you find you like this simple recipe, you’ll be excited to know gazpacho is a popular dish, and there are hundreds of variant recipes online you can try.
Melon Soup
There are melon soups of all kinds. Some are meant for winter, while others are perfect for summer. Watermelon, of course, makes a great melon soup, but this recipe is for a cooling and refreshing cantaloupe soup.
- Begin by peeling and seeding 1 cantaloupe. Cube it and place it in your food processor.
- Add 1/2 cup of orange juice and blend until smooth.
- Put the puree in a bowl; add 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, and 1-1/2 cups of orange juice. Stir and refrigerate.
While cantaloupe is a staple for summer soups, you can find recipes with all kinds of variations, like three melon soups, soups that incorporate mint and cucumber, and more.
Salads
Salad is an easy summer option. You can adjust the serving size to make it a full meal or a side to complement one of the other recipes we’ve given you.
