On a hot summer day, I don’t want to spend much time at the stove, and food requirements are somewhat different than in the cold season: it should not only satisfy hunger, but also refresh it. For this reason, in the hot season, light and easy to prepare dishes are so popular.
Pick your recipe
Cook cold soup for lunch as a main course. There are many recipes for such dishes: okroshka, beetroot soup, gazpacho, tarator and many others. The preparation of such soups does not require much time and effort, and their benefits are undeniable. Cold soups saturate, make up for the lack of fluid in the body, refresh in the heat. In addition, thanks to the fresh vegetables and herbs that make up most of these soups, they are rich in fiber, vitamins and trace elements.
Use the variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs available in summer. It is best to use them fresh in salads, because heat treatment destroys most of the vitamins. However, you should not season them with mayonnaise, try to abandon it altogether in the summer. As a dressing, you can use more healthy products: olive oil, lemon juice, sour cream, natural yogurt, wine vinegar.
However, vegetables can be consumed not only fresh. The most useful ways to process them are steaming, stewing and baking. Vegetables prepared in this way are tasty both hot and cold, so add a variety of vegetable stews, eggplant or zucchini caviar, ratatouille to the summer menu. Another advantage of such dishes is that you can constantly experiment with the ingredients.
Prefer more nutritious dishes, but do not want to mess around the stove for a long time? Bake meat or fish in the oven. To do this, wash and dry the meat, salt, sprinkle with pepper and grate with your favorite seasonings. Wrap in a sheet of foil and send to a preheated oven. To make the finished dish softer, you can pre-marinate the product. For meat, you can use wine, soy sauce, kefir, wine vinegar, mineral water, kiwi as a marinade. For fish - lemon, soy sauce, white wine. Please note that fish, unlike meat, can not be pickled for a long time, otherwise it will lose its taste and will fall apart when baked. To decorate the finished dishes, use greens.
Please household members with light desserts made of fruits and berries: jelly, smoothies, mousses, fruit soups and salads. If you have a blender or food processor, their preparation will take a few minutes. After chilling such desserts in the refrigerator, you can offer your family a healthy alternative to ice cream from the store.
Do not forget that in the summer you need to drink more. If you are tired of ordinary water, you can make up for fluid loss with home-made compotes, fruit drinks, and lemonades. However, do not make them too sweet. Tea also quenches thirst well - herbal or green without sugar.