5 summery recipes to be the hostess with the mostest this weekend

If this weather has you hankering after some fresh summer bites, you’ve come to the right place. This weekend, we’re very excited to put our quarantine-refined cooking skills to the test for anyone who might pop into the garden.

Whether it’s a summer salad, a sweet treat for dessert, or the all-important cocktails, we’ve had a look around and found some truly tasty summer recipes to crack on with for the weekend.

Little Green Spoon’s simple summer pasta salad

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 500g of Fusilli Pasta
• 1 Courgette
• 1 Aubergine
• 75ml of Olive Oil
• 1 Teaspoon of Oregano
• 25g of Pine Nuts
• 60g of Sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 Lemon
• 10g of Tomato Paste
• 5g of Fresh Basil

Method

1. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, drain it and set it aside to cool. You can run cold water over it to speed up the cooling.
2. Chop the aubergine and courgette into bite-sized chunks. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a large pan on medium-high heat. Sprinkle in the oregano and then add the veg and cook for about 10 minutes, tossing often, until tender and starting to brown.
3. Add the veg to a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper.
4. Add the pine nuts to the pan and toast just until golden.
5. Chop the sun dried tomatoes into small pieces and add them to the bowl along with the pine nuts.
6. Add the cold pasta to the bowl. Whisk together about 3 tablespoons of olive oil (it also works really well here to use the oil from the sundried tomatoes here), the juice of the lemon and the tomato paste until smooth.
7. Finely chop the basil and add it to the bowl. Drizzle over the dressing and toss well. Taste and season again as needed.

 

Mountain Mama Cook’s Za’atar chicken tacos

Ingredients

For the chopped salad:

• 100g diced red bell pepper
• 100g diced tomato
• 100g diced cucumber
• 30g diced red onion
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 teaspoons za’atar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the chicken tacos:

• 1 lb organic chicken fillets
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon za’atar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• flour tortillas
• cucumber dill dip or Greek yogurt for serving

Method

1. To make the salad that goes on the tacos, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
2. To cook the chicken, season the fillets with garlic powder, salt and za’atar.
3. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 3-4 minutes each side or until cooked through. Remove from plan and slice on the diagonal.
4. Serve tacos in flour tortillas with chicken, a scoop of the chopped salad and topped with Greek yogurt. Squeeze a little lemon on tacos if desired.

 

BBC Good Food’s Summer sausage rolls

Makes 20 rolls

Ingredients

• 2 large skinless chicken breasts
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 rashers streaky bacon, thinly sliced
• 4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• Handful basil leaves, chopped
• 375g/13oz pack ready-rolled puff pastry
• Flour, for dusting
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 25g sesame seeds

Method

1. Whizz the chicken and garlic in a processor until the chicken is minced. Tip in the bacon, sundried tomatoes and basil. Pulse for 5 secs to just mix through. Season well.
2. Roll the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface and cut in half lengthways. Spread half the chicken mixture along the middle of one of the pastry strips, then roll up the pastry, pinching the ends together to seal. Using a sharp knife, cut into 2.5cm long pieces. Repeat with the remaining pastry strip. Can be frozen, uncooked, for up to 1 month.
3. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the rolls on a large baking sheet. Brush with the egg, then sprinkle with seeds. Bake for 20 mins until golden.

 

Roz Purcell’s homemade coconut ice cream

Ingredients

• 4 tins full fat coconut milk refrigerated
• 4 tbsp. coconut sugar
• 4 tbsp. desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Keep the coconut milk in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Once the cream and liquid have seperated, scoop out the hard white cream into a bowl and discard (or keep the liquid for smoothies).
2. Place the coconut sugar into a blender and blitz into a fine powder.
3. Tip the coconut sugar and vanilla extract into the bowl with the coconut cream and blend using a hand whisk (or food processor) until smooth.
4. Stir in the desiccated coconut and pour into a bread tin or stainless steel lunch box.
5. Place in the freezer for 2-3 hours.
6. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, blend the mix every 45 minutes. It will be frozen in some parts more than others so break it up in the tin and scoop it out to remix. This will stop your ice cream from being icy and give it more of a creamy texture. I blended mine 3 times within a 2.5 hour window.

 

Absolut’s Pornstar martinis

Ingredients (to make one)

• 45 ml Absolut Vanilia
• 25 ml passion fruit purée
• 15 ml vanilla syrup
• 1 Slice Pineapple
• 1 passion fruit, halved

Method

1. Muddle one slice of pineapple in a shaker.
2. Add Absolut Vanilia, pulp from half a passion fruit, vanilla syrup and passion fruit purée.
3. Shake and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
4. Garnish with 1/2 passion fruit floating. Serve accompanied with a shot of champagne.