I was so excited to buy my first large grill, but now that I’ve cleaned everything up and parked it in the backyard, I have to admit it feels too hot to fit on a grill outside. I’m sure I’ll change my mind soon, but not this weekend! I plan meals around recipes that require little to no heat.
First up: Julia Moskin’s gazpacho, a dish worth revisiting every summer. Since you’re not heating any part of it, it’s worth taking extra care every step of the way to get a super silky, completely drinkable texture. This may mean that you have to process the mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and garlic in batches if your blender tends to get overwhelmed, and it certainly means pushing the mixture through a sieve before using it for at least six hours. put in the fridge.
While some gazpacho recipes include bread in the mix, this one doesn’t, which I consider a plus. It won’t feel repetitive to have it at the table with some bread or another big, juicy dish of bread, like Naz Deravian’s dooymaaj salad.
Her recipe reinterprets the Iranian snack as a salad of crunchy lavash, walnuts and feta in a simple buttermilk dressing with lots of spices. Together, I think these two dishes make for a dreamy, cooling weekend lunch—a perfect antidote to hot grills that yield hot food.
Another dish I’m really looking forward to this week is boiling a large pot of water. But listen, that’s the extent of the heat, and it will be more than worth it for an excellent Ligurian dish of pasta, green beans, and potatoes from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, where all the hot veggies and noodles are tossed together in a shimmering, fragrant pesto packed with fresh basil leaves, olive oil, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. A little more olive oil and cheese at the table, some very cold wine, and I couldn’t be happier.
And if you’re looking for something sweet, Melissa Clark’s no-bake lemon custards, also known as possets, are a marvel. They have a soft, pudding-like texture without eggs or starch. Instead, lemon juice does all the work.
Thanks for reading The Veggie, see you next week!
