Every summer I seize on one ingredient early on, my culinary song of the summer. As of now, watermelon is it, and there are no other challengers. Cut it up for salads with feta, tomatoes or pineapple! Blend it into frozen daiquiris! Use it to make chaat! Or just eat it by the slice, juicy and cold.
Incidentally, my co-workers from the Well desk here at The Times have answered a question I’ve always had: Is watermelon actually good for you? Spoiler: It is!
Along with the reddest watermelon, I’m eating the greenest pasta salad, which you’ll find below, along with four other high-summer dinners for this holiday week. (Speaking of, we have dozens of Fourth of July recipes picked out for you.) Any suggestions for me? Feedback? Write to me anytime at dearemily@nytimes.com. I love to hear from you.
1. Extra-Green Pasta Salad
You could chill or pack up this chicly green dish from Andy Baraghani to eat later at a picnic or cookout, or you could just eat it right away for supper. Its hypnotic color comes from spinach and basil; its salty depth, from miso. Sugar snap peas give the whole thing crunch.
2. Grilled Tahini-Honey Chicken Thighs
Yasmin Fahr whisks tahini with lemon, honey and olive oil for the marinade on this new chicken recipe, which you could cook on the grill, in a pan on the stove or in the oven. I endorse Yasmin’s suggestion for tucking the chicken into pita with avocado, cucumbers and feta to serve.
3. Basil and Tomato Fried Rice
An act of summer brilliance: Hetty Lui McKinnon tosses juicy tomatoes and handfuls of basil into a pan of fried rice. This recipe is highly adaptable, welcoming any addition you want to nudge into the pan. (I’m loving the commenter who said she was going to add bacon left over from making BLTs, using some of the bacon grease for frying.)
4. Grilled Shrimp With Chile and Garlic
Readers are raving about this recipe from Ali Slagle, which is thrillingly simple for how good it is (and how versatile — tuck the shrimp into tortillas, scatter them over grains or noodles, toss them into salads, you get the idea). Always remember that if you don’t have a grill, the broiler is your friend.
