Summer Cooking: Easy Summer Recipes
By Molly Watson, About.com Guide to Local Foods
Eating locally means eating seasonally. These seasonal summer recipes will help you get started using all the great local and regional products you find at farmers markets, farm stands, and co-ops. (Or, if you're industrious and lucky, in your garden!) More than just ways to use the summer produce you find, these recipes are designed to be cooked in summer: they only use other fruits and vegetables (besides the main ingredient) that are available in summer and they take hot summer weather and the need cool down into account too. And don't forget the summertime urge to grill!
What's In Season In Summer?
First things first, to cook locally means to cook seasonally. And to cook seasonally you need to know what's in season.
Summer Fruits
Juicy peaches, tangy cherries, and seedy brambleberries are some of the joys of summer seasonal eating. You'll never find them as fresh, as flavorful as they are when bought in season and at their best.
Summer Vegetables & Herbs
Summer's bounty doesn't stop at the fruit tree or berry vine. Summer vegetables and herbs--like crunchy sweet corn, bursting-ripe tomatoes, and fragrant basil--making eating seasonally and locally easy and delicious.
Summer Salads
What better way to enjoy your haul from your garden or the farmers market than a fresh, delicious summer salad? Try one of these simple, satisfying summer salads.
Summer Grilling
Grilling is one of the great pleasures of summer eating. Besides the been-there, done-that steaks and sausages, fruits and vegetables make great grilled dishes too.
Summer Desserts
Summer desserts are fruit-forward and fruit-backward. Of course the best summer dessert is a plain, perfectly ripe piece of fruit (my favorite is a bowl of just-picked blackberries or blueberries--don't make me chose!) but these easy fruit-laden desserts are a great way to enjoy summer's bounty.
- Black Cherry Tart
- Blackberry Honey Crisp
- Blueberry Pie
- Buttermilk Berry Cobbler
- Buttermilk Ice Cream
- Peach Pie
- Peaches in Mint Syrup
- Raspberry Cornmeal Cobbler
- Raspberry Peach Bread Pudding
- Sour Cherry Cobbler
- Strawberry Fool
- Sweet Corn Cake
Preserving Summer
Eating locally is eating seasonally, and a key to eating seasonally is preserving: freezing, canning, and drying foods from one season in order to enjoy them during another. Try these easy recipes for holding some of summer's bounty for later in the year.
