What are your favourite summer recipes?

grandMattie - I make couscous salad too. I make the dressing first with walnut oil, apple vinegar, honey and mustard.
We like cashew nuts in the salad. And a small tin of sweetcorn.

Peeled cubed garden tomatoes, cubed feta, toasted baguette cubes, halved kalamatas, steamed beans, grated onion, oregan, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper. Serve on rocket.

I have a severe feta craving now

If you get a glut of runner beans and tomatoes in the garden I love this recipe. Put a layer of cooked runners in a dish and top with halved or sliced boiled eggs. Cover in cheese sauce. Decorate with lots of sliced tomatoes and sprinkle over some grated cheese. Cook until cheese is golden and bubbling. Good as a vegetarian meal with crusty bread or for a more filling meal I sometimes serve with small roast potatoes and sausages or bacon.

Summer pudding and Caprese salad.

Homemade tsatsiki and meat balls:

drain a liter of natural yoghurt by putting it into a sieve with butter muslin spread over it, over a bowl. It takes about an hour and a half to drain. If you are baking bread, you can use the whey that drains off instead of water or milk in your bread dough.
Rinse a cucumber in cold water then grate it into a sieve, salt well and leave to drain until the yoghurt is ready.

Mix yoghurt and cucumber well, adding 1 to 2 cloves of crushed garlic and two tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix 400 g minced beef, or beef and veal with two eggs, salt, pepper to taste and a couple of cloves of chopped or crushed garlic, add 1 tablespoon chopped chives and 1 tablespoon herbes de provence (both can be dried herbs)and two or three tablespoons of breadcrumbs. Stir the mince well.

Form into small balls , using a dessert spoon or your hands and fry in olive oil, turning down the heat after a crust has formed.
Serve the cold tzatiki, warm meat balls with freshly baked white or wholemeal bread.

Boys were mad for grilled salmon, samphire, steamed for a minute, and boiled new potatoes with mint and a little butter. I liked it too.

Ice cold gazpacho with all the usual bits plus a few prawns. Great way to use a glut of tomatoes

I'm getting hungry !!

Salmon trout, with cold new potatoes, French beans. Jacket potato with fillings.
Rice mixed with peas etc, pasta with sweetcorn, tomatoes prawns.

My mother made a delicious parsley pie: quice base, mix 2 eggs into a suitable (large!) amount of chopped parsley - filling should be parsley held together by egg. Sprinkle over some chopped bacon if you like, bake as usual.

Yummy! can eat it hot or cold.

Couscous salad. Just make a very garlicky and gingery dressing add a tiny little bit of powdered cinnamon, and pile lots of vegetables cut small [carrot, preserved peppers, fresh peppers, dried tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber...], serve with lettuce "cups" or just lettuce for crunch and it is delicious. I put in dried fruit and pomegranate seeds as well - very North African!

I'm with Kim on the potatoes & butter, though it's Ayrshire potatoes in these parts!

My friend always put vegetables in jelly with salad. You dissolve the jelly in half & half water & vinegar, then add, say, cucumber or celery to lime jelly, beetroot to raspberry, carrot to orange, or whatever you fancy.

annifrance*
What is caponata ?

I made prawn Thai curried soup with noodles last night so fresh with a spriz of lime in it. I get so fed up with salads sometimes. But my absolute favourite is a plate fresh picked runner beans sliced cooked with butter and pepper on yum.

A plate of Jersey Royals with abundant French unsalted butter does it for me every time.

Cook some bow pasta. Chop red peppers (finely), and cube cucumber. Run the cooked pasta through cold water and pat dry. Add the peppers and cucumber along with a packet of chicken tikka and stir in mayo. The tikka reddens the sauce. It's simple but delicious!

Roast aubergines,courgettes, garlic, tomatoes and herbs in olive oil. Cooled then tossed on to couscous with feta and anchovies.

Coronation chicken.

homemade pork pies.

Courgette fritters.

Quiche with different fillings.

Bacon and hard boiled egg pasties.

Pasta with pesto.

Caponata.

I make a thing my family call 'filo pizza'. I take a smallish baking tin and oil it well. Line it with just two slices of filo pastry (oil between the layers) and cover it with Prosciutto ham, and any combination of olives, feta, roasted vegetables, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. Bake it for 12-14 minutes at 170ish degrees. It's delicious. You can have it on its own or with salad. I often do it as a starter.

Ice cream. Lots of ice cream. With or without fruit.

I seem to be addicted to puy lentil salads these days! With roasted Mediterranean vegs and topped with halloumi. Yum!All sorts of topping with those lentils and they keep you "regular" ;-)

Fresh pineapple with chopped mint...so refreshing on a hot day.(when we get one!)
Sugared raspberries and fresh cream.
Good quality tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella,fresh basil ,olive oil .
Halved red peppers filled with tomatoes,garlic basil and olive oil. Baked,then served with lots of French bread to mop up the juices...heaven

Greenfinch, your recipe sounds like a salade Nicoise without the green beans, eggs, olives and anchovies. It's good making up your own with whatever you have. I love eating salads as you can get so much variety. I love quiches too with loads of salad, and it's good to have now because salad is so expensive in the winter.

Oh, I LOVE feta salad! You can vary it with seeds, sun dried tomatoes, grapes, nuts, anchovies...............
I also like curries; cold poached salmon with new potatoes.

mumofmadboys you have the same taste as me, summer pudding every time.

I also like rice or pasta salads. My particular favourite is spiced rice salad with sultanas and apricots.