Summer is here! Time for cocktails in the sun, slices of cold watermelon, crunchy fresh meals, and long lazy afternoons with your toes in the sand. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve gotten together some of our favourite recipes for summer to spark your imagination and get you out of the stew-and-comfort-food rut.
Salads
Sunshine salad
Sweet, juicy mango with a bite of red onion is the perfect taste of summer: hence the name of this salad. It’s a great accompaniment to prawn skewers, spiced chicken kebabs or fish.
Potato and mushroom salad
Crispy potato, sprouts, litchis, chickpeas and a “whole whack” of mushrooms: this salad has it all, and the layers of flavour are sublime.
Chicken Caesar salad
Let’s be serious: just because you’re having a salad doesn’t mean that you’re against a braai. This is a very tasty way to get the best of both worlds.
Chickpea and green bean crunch salad
This is your archetypal whatever-is-in-the-fridge salad, so it’s very versatile: but don’t forget the chickpeas, they’re essential. There’s also a berry-spiked dressing that you simply have to try.
Mains
Mushroom and thyme pasta
This is a lovely simple pasta, with light fresh summery flavours, and it doesn’t take longer than 20 minutes to be on the table. If you don’t have thyme handy, it would be just as good with mint or basil.
Courgette fritters
Basil, bird’s eye chili and garlic make this one of the tastiest ways to eat your veggies. It’s great as a starter or finger-food, but makes a lovely main meal on a bed of feta and couscous.
Summer fettuccine with ricotta, mint and peas
Lemon and mint lighten up this pasta dish, while the gorgeous bright colours make it feel more like a salad. We suspect it would be just as tasty cold too.
Smoked haddock pasta with green beans and mushrooms
Smoked haddock pasta might seem a little unusual, but it’s a delicious alternative to salmon, and the orange colour looks very summery flaked in with the other additions. This is just as good hot or cold.
Five-spice chicken breast with cauliflower puree and baby spinach
This is a truly amazing spice-mix: you might never want to eat honey-mustard ever again. And if you’ve ever worried about dry chicken breasts, this milk-and-honey marinade is a must for keeping it perfectly juicy.
Rooibos-poached salmon
Rooibos is a great addition to poaching stock for chicken or fish: it adds a subtle, sweet flavour to the meat. This salmon poached in rooibos is absolutely sublime. It doesn’t sound as complicated as you might think – in fact it’s really easy.
Shallot and brie tart tartin
This sweet, salty tart is the perfect accompaniment to any meal in the sun: you could take it along on a picnic too!
Sweet potato tart with lemon asparagus and feta
There’s quite a bit of preparation here, but it’s delicious enough to warrant it: peas, mint, lemon and asparagus are some of our favourite summer flavours, and it’s easy on the eye for entertaining.
Get the recipe here
Sweet treats
Easy no-churn lemon meringue ice cream
This is simply genius. Instead of investing in an ice-cream maker or churning the frosty mix by hand every half hour, this is just a matter of whipping and mixing: your freezer does the rest. Thank you, condensed milk: now we get to enjoy tangy-sweet biscuit-flecked ice cream without any hassle.
Chai-spiced rooibos ice cream
This chai-spiced rooibos ice cream is one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had. It’s super easy to make and is a change from the usual run-of-the-mill flavours. You will need an ice-cream maker though, or it’ll be the hand-churn method for you.
Easy rum-and-raisin ice cream pops
These fruity, boozy ice creams are so easy to make and make a great finish to a Southern Hemisphere festive meal.They contain that most unfashionable ingredient, condensed milk, and are whipped together ready for freezing in under ten minutes (although you will need to soak the raisins for six hours in advance).
Lightly spiced guava ice cream
The perfume of fresh guavas drifting through a warm kitchen is one of the quintessential scents of a South African childhood. It’s impossible to describe the scent of a perfectly ripe guava to someone who hasn’t experienced the coral-pink deliciousness of this most luscious fruit. This is a light, sugar-syrup-based ice cream with just a touch of cream, spiced with star anise and cinnamon. Delicious.
Pink peach and vodka sorbet
Now that summer’s in full swing, celebrate the balmy evenings with this boozy little recipe to get you excited for those lazy days beside the sea.
