boozy (or not) mint lemonade

Summer is in full swing, it’s going at full tilt, it's turned up to 11 and it’s hot. All I want to do is lie in a hammock, at a lake, but I don’t have a hammock or a lake particularly handy. Instead I have reoriented my whole life around finding and consuming cool drinks. My main motivation, my primary reason for being is cool drinks. Life has become a just a series of obstacles between me and my next cool drink. Lemonade is the quintessential, the platonic, the ur-summertime quaff. This sweet-tart minty lemonade is even more refreshing, even more summery and cooling than the standard version. 

You can feel perfectly free to booze this up or not. Just about anything you have handy would be delightful, vodka, gin or especially tequila turn this into a very fortifying little cocktail in a hurry.

boozy (or not) mint lemonade:

• ½ cup sugar

• 3 cups water

• 1 large bunch mint, about 2 cups

• 1 cup lemon juice

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Add ½ the mint and lightly crush with a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.

Stir together lemon juice, cooled syrup and most remaining mint (leaving a few stems for garnish if you like). Serve ice cold, with mint for garnish, with or without a spirit boost. Do your best to find a hammock.

three peas dinner

I love these crispy chickpeas, and I quite often just eat them on their own. They are satisfyingly crunchy, like chickpea popcorn. When I am feeling just slightly less lazy, I turn them into a proper supper: super fresh with lots of mint and lemon, rich and satisfying from goat cheese and bacon, and that nice smug-inducing healthiness from green pea shoots. This dinner has it all and it comes together fast too.

three peas dinner:

adapted from Bon Appetit

• 6 rashers bacon

• 1 can chickpeas

• 2 tbs grapeseed oil

• 1 cup pea shoots

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ½ tsp flaky salt

• pinch cumin & paprika

• 2 cups peas, fresh if possible but frozen is great too

• ½ cup mint leaves roughly torn

• olive oil and lemon juice for drizzling

Bake the bacon on a cookie sheet at 375 until crispy. Crumble and set aside.

Drain chickpeas and let dry as much as you can. Heat grapeseed oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Stirring frequently, fry chickpeas until they are crispy and golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Toss chickpeas with salt, garlic, cumin and paprika.

While chickpeas fry, bring water to boil in a small pan. Blanch peas briefly in boiling water until just tender. Drain and set aside.

Smear a generous dollop of goat cheese cream onto each plate and top with pea shoots, chickpeas, peas, mint and bacon crumbles. Squeeze lemon and a few drops of olive oil over top of everything.

preserved lemon and goat cheese cream:

Adapted from A new way to dinner

• ⅓ cup creme fraiche

• four ounces goat cheese

• 2 tbs reserved lemon, roughly chopped

• large pinch chili flakes

• pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

grilled haloumi & pearl couscous salad

It is time for the big summer salad. What you need in your life right now is a big, herby, hearty salad that can sit in the fridge and get better with time. You can cook once and eat this for the better part of a week. It’s worth doubling to really get you set up for the next few days’ meals without having to turn on the stove. Adding some grilled chicken or fish would make a heartier dish, but just this salad is plenty for quick summer dinner.

Halloumi is a delightfully squeaky, salty cheese. It has the fantastic property of not melting when roasted or grilled, so you can pan fry or BBQ it to get a lovely crispy-shattery crust with a very chewy almost meaty-hearty interior. I know it sounds weird, but try it if you haven’t already - it’s fantastic. You can find it often in Greek or Mediterranean specialty groceries, but if you can’t find it, feta will work here too.

halloumi & pearl couscous salad:

Adapted from Bon appetit

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup pearl or Israeli couscous
• 2 cups corn kernels, frozen is fine
• 2 tablespoons plus ¼ cup olive oil
• 8 ounces Halloumi cheese, sliced lengthwise ¾-inch thick
• 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Toast walnuts in a dry pan over medium-low heat stirring frequently. When fragrant and golden, remove from heat and roughly chop. Set aside to cool.

In a medium pot of salted water, cook couscous according to package directions, until just tender.

Grill halloumi in a tablespoon of olive oil in a grill pan (or a frying pan) over medium heat. Let the cheese get a good caramelization before flipping, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove from heat, cube and set aside.

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl, taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

big herb salad

Perhaps you are feeling, as I am, just a little overfed after the holiday season. My personal chocolate:vegetable ratio has been way off for a few weeks and I needed a little correction. This salad is an excellent and delicious way to get an entire day's vegetable servings in one meal. So efficient! Any new year's resolutions you may have about eating mountains of vegetables will be so easy to follow now. 

The abundance of bright, sunny herbs in this salad has been helping to combat my feelings of cold weather grumpiness. It's the opposite of standard winter fare, cozy warm, soups and stews and hearty, heavy dishes. Those are good too, but sometimes I want another kind of comforting winter meal, one that feels light and bright and reminds me that winter cannot actually last forever. It feels really luxurious to use herbs this way, as generously as a vegetable rather than as a sparse topping. 

Adding some roasted salmon or falafel makes it into a very filling meal. You can swap or add herbs; cilantro and basil would be great in this too. 

big herb salad: 

serves two as a main meal, more as a side

• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 
• 1 cup pea shoots
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped 
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 cup fresh mint, chopped
• 1 cup fresh dill, chopped
• a few slices of feta cheese 

Combine all ingredients and dress with yogurt dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. 

spicy yogurt dressing:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• juice from one lemon
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1  tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp crushed chile flakes 
• 1 tsp salt 

Blend all ingredients together and drizzle over salad. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

herbed harissa & feta carrot salad

I know that January is basically over, but I still feel like I am rebounding from my steady holiday diet of chocolate, cookies, wine and beef wellington. This salad is exactly the kind of thing I like to eat a lot of when I have spent a couple weeks eating...richly. It helps me feel balanced to eat big bowlfuls of bright, tasty vegetables. 

I saw this recipe over at smitten kitchen a little while ago and it looked great; I slotted it away in the back of my mind as a thing to try and then half forgot about it. Then I heard Molly Wizenberg talking about on Spilled Milk's carrot episode (Spilled Milk is a great podcast by the way, you should all go check it out!) and I remembered my intention to eat this salad. After it came so highly recommended by two brilliant women, I really had no choice. 

I made a few changes; I upped the herbs a lot. The original calls for a couple tablespoons each mint and parsley, I used at least a cup of each. I like how fresh and bright it is with large amounts of herbs, and it feels luxurious to treat them as another vegetable rather than a garnish. 

Note: Harissa is a chili and spice paste from North Africa. You can find it lots of supermarkets or specialty food stores. It's worth hunting around for, but if you're having difficulty finding it, this dressing will still be great with some chili flakes or powder for some heat.  

herbed harissa & feta carrot salad:

adapted from the genius smitten kitchen (where it was adapted from a reader, who adapted it from her mother who may have adapted it from cuisine magazine)

• around 10 large carrots, washed and peeled if you feel like it (I didn't)
• 1 cup parsley, finely chopped 
• 1 cup mint, finely chopped 
• 1/3 cup olive oil 
• 1/3 cup lemon juice 
• 2 cloves garlic, grated on a fine rasp 
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin (I like a lot of cumin, but you can dial it back if you prefer) 
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp harissa (I have a really mild harissa and I actually used more than this. Add it a bit at a time until you have the heat you would like)
• 1/2 tsp sugar 
• salt and pepper
• 1/21 cup feta, crumbled

Grate the carrots on the large holes of a box grater or on a food processor grater blade if you have one. Toss carrots, mint and parsley together in a bowl.

Combine all other ingredients together in a small jar and shake to combine. Drizzle over carrots and toss to combine. Let the salad sit and absorb the dressing for at least a half hour. Sprinkle feta over salad and eat it up. 

Photo credits: Tyrel Hiebert