It’s summer, everyone’s favourite time of the year. Make the most of what’s in season with these tasty recipes.

Eating in season is great nutritionally as everything is fresh. Plus, seasonal produce is generally the cheapest to buy. Fruit and vegetables are very nutrient dense and contain a wide variety of antioxidants to get you looking and feeling good. 

Read on to find out how to enjoy the most of what this season has to offer...

 

Because of the hot weather, summer is a great time for lots of salads and fresh fruit. Here are some recipes to make the most of it.

Summer Recipes

Dinners

Honey Citrus Grilled Chicken with Summer Salad
Serves Four

½ cup orange juice
Rind from half the orange
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 large chicken breasts cut into thin slices.
Salad vegetables of choice
Honey mustard dressing

Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Add the chicken and mix to cover. Refrigerate for at least half an hour, or overnight.

Mix together in a bowl a selection of seasonal vegetables - use lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado, raw grated beetroot and sliced celery.

Cook chicken in a hot pan until cooked through. Place salad on four serving plates. Spoon chicken on top of the salad, evenly among the four plates. Serve with honey mustard
dressing and some new season baby potatoes.

Blueberry and Spinach Salad
This makes a nice accompaniment to steak

1 punnet blueberries
1/2 rockmelon, sliced
3 spring onions, chopped finely
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
4 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup reduced fat natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons reduced fat milk
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
200 g baby spinach leaves, washed and drained

Mix together blueberries, rockmelon, celery, spring onions and toasted pine nuts. Make a dressing by mixing together the yoghurt, milk, parsley and mustard until smooth.  Serve fruit mixture on a bed of spinach leaves drizzled with the yoghurt dressing.

Desserts

Melon Ball sticks
Here’s a recipe for an attractive, healthy dessert that
makes a nice alternative to fruit salad.

Watermelon
Rock melon
Honeydew melon
Melon scoop (these are little scoops and cost around $8)
Skewers

Cut melons in half and roll small balls of melon with the scoop. This is much easier if the melons are cold, so leave in the fridge for a few hours before using. Thread scoops of melon onto the skewers, alternating colours. These make attractive, healthy ready to eat deserts.

Strawberry Soufflés
Impress your friends with this pretty dessert!

15 strawberries
½ cup good quality raspberry jam
2 egg whites
¼ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 punnet strawberries (extra)

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Cut the tops of the 15 strawberries and pulse in a food processor with the jam. Place half of this in a pan, stir and heat until boiling. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Add sugar and beat until sugar dissolved and the mixture is thick. Fold through hot berry sauce and vanilla essence. Spoon the remaining berry mixture into 6 ramekins. Spoon over the meringue mixture. Put in the oven for 4-6 minutes until the soufflés just start to brown. Serve straight away with the extra strawberries.

Nicola Graham