Summer Recipes

Summer recipes will feature berries of all types, salads, tomatoes, stone-fruit (peaches, nectarines), cherries. Eating with the seasons helps us to access the maximum nutritional quality of the food, and it also helps to lessen our environmental impact.

My favourite summer recipes include Zucchini Noodles with Hemp Pesto, these Elderflower Cordial Popsicles with Lemon and Mint and this Creamy Summer Coleslaw with Yogurt Dressing.

Elderflower Cordial Popsicles with Lemon and Mint [Vegan, GF]

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A simple summer treat using fresh elderflower homemade cordial. Free of refined sugar and packed full of flavour. These Elderflower Cordial Popsicles with Lemon and Mint are the perfect treat for those hot summer days.

The culinary delights of summer are countless and it can be hard to keep up with all the seasonal arrivals. I’ve been finding elderflowers at our local farmers market, the flower of the elderberry which are the dark purple late summer berries that are used in pies, jams or medicinally. For now, we have access to the beautiful white elderflowers, which are also edible, and offer a more gentle medicinal quality. To keep up with the seasons I wanted to celebrate this beautiful flower with this Elderflower Cordial Popsicles with Lemon and Mint.

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Smokey Moroccan Aubergine Dip

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This smokey Moroccan Aubergine Dip is straight from Morocco. The recipe was shared with me in a cooking class in Marakesh and is as authentic as it gets. This is a great healthy dip recipe that tastes great with flatbread, seedy crackers, or as a spread for sandwiches or wraps!

Moroccan really is the place to adventure if you are a foodie – from couscous Fridays to tagine breakfasts, just not enough days to try it all. I’ve shared my love for Moroccan cuisine with this Easy Moroccan Couscous Salad with Raisins. Now I want to share this Smokey Moroccan Aubergine Dip, also known as Zaalouk, which packs a whole lot of flavour with such simple ingredients.
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Baked Tempeh Asian Cabbage Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing

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Wow, where did summer go?! I’ve been holding on to the last of it with my smoothie bowls and salads, and here’s my last ditch effort at preserving summer. What makes this salad special is that Napa cabbage is the main star. It’s crunchy and delicious when shredded, and is a great calcium source that often gets overshadowed by calcium-rich kale and bok choy. This Baked Tempeh Asian Cabbage Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing is simple to prepare and uses fermented Apple Cider Vinegar as a base (also see Beet Apple and Kale Salad with Walnuts and Dill) which is something we could all eat a little bit more of. I hope you love this salad as much as I do. Here’s to finishing dinner while the suns still up. …

High Protein Zucchini Lasagna with Cottage Cheese

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I came up with this recipe with my roommate at the time was experimenting with cutting out lentils. With no members of the legume family in our diets, vegetarian sources of protein were limited. We had more than our fair share of Summer Tofu Salad Bowl and Vegetable Packed Crustless Quiche with Feta but there are only so many egg and tofu dishes you can stomach in a week. So I turned to protein-rich cottage cheese to help square out our vegetarian dinners. Using our high supply of zucchini from our weekly veggie box and my motivation to get some protein versatility into our diets, I came up with this High Protein Zucchini Lasagna with Cottage Cheese. Not only is this vegetarian dish high in protein, it is also great for those looking for a low carbohydrate meal and I have told that it complies with those that are following a keto vegetarian diet, or paleo vegetarian diet. And the best part is… it’s easy!
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Simple Vegetable Crustless Quiche with Feta

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This simple vegetable crustless quiche is a great way to use up leftover vegetables in a healthy and high protein meal. It is a great meal for kids as the grating of vegetables when combined with the eggs and cheese is a sneaky way to get a whole lot of veggies in!

The abundance of zucchini is a guarantee that summer is in full swing. Creative uses for zucchini have taken over my Pinterest news feed – ranging from stuffed, to chips, to zucchini noodles. People are mad about this summer veg but no need to get too fancy, zucchini can produce some quick and easy dishes as well. This Simple Vegetable Packed Crustless Quiche with Feta recipe is exactly that. No stove stop required combined with 2 1/2 servings of vegetables per serve and a whole lot of protein!
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Japanese Salad Bowls with a Miso Tahini Dressing and Brown Rice

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This Japanese Salad Bowl with Miso Tahini Dressing is a favourite in our household. The miso tahini dressing is so easy to make, and really goes great on anything! Serve it on some wholesome brown rice topped with some fresh vegetables, or try quinoa with roasted vegetables for something different.

I love the shift of household staples with the changing season. As the weather warms up, in comes the salads and salad bowls. I’ve already shared Baked Tofu Kale Quinoa Salad with Glory Bowl Dressing and then I followed that up with the lighter alternative Light Summer Salad with a Garlic and Tahini Dressing. Now my love of Asian flavours has inspired this Japanese Salad Bowl served with a Miso Tahini Dressing and Brown Rice, just in time to see summer to its end.
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Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

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This Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon has been adapted from two of my favourite cookbooks. The addition of crumbly feta and fresh rosemary on top makes it a quintessentially Greek recipe, though this can be omitted for a vegan red lentil soup more representative of a Turkish or Lebanese red lentil soup.

Red lentils are my absolute favourite lentil to cook with. They have the shortest cooking time (12 minutes!) and once cooked, they break apart to help form a thick and satisfying soup consistency. I recently learned that red lentils are, in fact, brown lentils, but without the outer skin! If you have browsed my other recipes you will see that 99% of my lentil dishes contain the humble red lentil, and 98% of those are curry-based dishes.

This recipe for Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon is adapted from two of my favourite cookbooks – Rebar from Victoria, and Whitewater Cooks from Nelson because, well why not enjoy the best of both worlds.
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Edible Flower Salad with Rose Petals, Chive Flowers and a Light Vinaigrette

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This recipe for edible flower salad features rose petals and chive petals, but really there are so many edible summer flowers that can be used. I love serving my flower salads with a light vinaigrette to as to not mask the delicate flavours of the flowers.

Floriphagia is the consumption of flowers as food. There are so many edible flours out there, and while the documented nutrition information is limited to ‘high source of vitamin C’ and ‘good source of antioxidants’, some may say that the benefits come from the energetics of eating flowers. I am sharing one of my favourite ways to eat flowers – a simple salad. A light vinaigrette helps to bring the salad together, without taking away from the delicateness of the flowers.

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No Fuss Healthy Baked Quinoa and Kale Patties

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Food is incredibly social and food is meant to be shared. The occasion of eating a meal with friends is more about nurturing the sole than nurturing the body. With spring in the air, BBQs and potlatches are in the foreseeable future – no better time to feed and nurture your favourite people! (like you need an excuse)
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The Basics of Canning, Let’s Start With Salsa!

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Tis the season for canning! Canning can seem daunting with all the sterilizing, boiling and sealing. Not only is it more fun to do with friends but if your a canning novice then it can also be safer. That said, if you have never canned before I would highly recommend it. I want to share the many benefits to canning – from health reasons to environmental reasons, as well as a Simple Salsa Recipe.
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How To Make Sprouts & Health Benefits of Sprouting Foods

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My top tips on how to make sprouts, and also why we should be including sprouts in our diet. The health benefits of sprouts include helping us to better access important minerals in nuts, seeds, legumes and grains. This is especially important for those following a plant-based, vegan or vegetarian diet.

I have been dabbling into sprouting foods since my early university days, but back then I was too poor to buy a proper sprouter. I’ve used everything from nut milk bags to glass jars and cheesecloth. If your a first-time sprouter, prepare to become addicted. Sprouting is one of the simplest things you will do in the kitchen -all you need to do is remember to water your sprouts, no green thumb required!…

Easy Non-Dairy Dessert – Raw Fruit Tart With Cashew Cream

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This was one of the first recipes I wanted to share with the world. This easy non-dairy dessert is one of my favourites – it is so easy to make and is definitely a crowd-pleaser. Top it with whatever seasonal fruit you have on hand. I love it with fresh berries, but it also great with peaches, sliced banana or just on its own.

My first experience with raw desserts was magical and now I will never look back. Raw desserts naturally do not contain any flour or refined sugar. Who knew that you could make a crust from blended nuts and dried fruit and that it would taste better than the real thing. I love this easy non-dairy dessert of raw cashew cream pie, both because it tastes delicious and because it is so so so healthy.
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Summer Recipes

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