I was so excited to buy my first full-size grill, but now that I have it all cleaned up and parked in the backyard, I have to admit that it feels too hot to babysit a grill outside. I’m sure I’ll change my mind soon, but not this weekend! I’m planning meals around recipes that require little to no heat at all.
First up: Julia Moskin’s gazpacho, a dish that’s worth revisiting every summer. Since you don’t heat any part of it, it’s worth taking extra care with every step to get a super silky, totally drinkable texture. This could mean processing the mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and garlic in batches, if your blender tends to get overwhelmed, and it definitely means pushing the mixture through a sieve before popping it in the fridge for at least six hours.
While some gazpacho recipes have bread in the mix, this one doesn’t, which I think of as a plus. It won’t feel repetitive to have it with some bread at the table or with another big, juicy dish that features bread, like Naz Deravian’s dooymaaj salad.
Her recipe reinterprets the Iranian snack as a salad of crisp lavash, walnuts and feta in a simple buttermilk dressing with plenty of herbs. Together, I think these two dishes make for a dreamy, cooling, weekend lunch — a perfect antidote to hot grills turning out hot food.
Another dish I’m really craving this week requires boiling a big pot of water. But listen, that’s the extent of the heat, and it’ll be more than worth it for an excellent Ligurian dish of pasta, green beans and potatoes from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, where all the warm vegetables and noodles are tossed together in a shimmering, fragrant pesto that’s full of fresh basil leaves, olive oil, Parmesan 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 a sweet thing, Melissa Clark’s no-bake lemon custards, also known as possets, are a wonder. They set into a soft, puddinglike texture without any eggs or starch. Instead, lemon juice does all the work.
Thanks for reading The Veggie, and see you next week!
