Simple Cooking

Toss grilled carrots and fresh avocados with a chile-ginger dressing that's sweetened with honey for a simple side that can easily double as a light lunch.

This salad is inspired by Chinese dish lao hu cai, otherwise known as tiger salad. Unripe plums, nectarines, or peaches marinate in a spicy dressing and get tossed with crisp celery and herbs.

No ice cream machine required for this frozen treat, as the cream is whipped before being frozen.

No ice cream machine required for this frozen treat, as the cream is whipped before being frozen. 

Grated cassava takes the place of flour in this classic Filipino cake, which soaks up the rich coconut milk, and lends a sweet, nutty flavor and a sticky, chewy texture.

As wild as it may seem, pour hot water over peak summer fruit and batter before sliding the lot into the oven for cobbler with an extra-crackly, extra-satisfying crust.

This bright, vinegary sauce is works wonderfully with all manner of panfried or deep-fried battered foods, including scallion pancakes and dumplings.

Quick pickled vegetables are welcomed any time of the year. Use fresh produce like cauliflower, carrots, radish, radish pods, or raw turmeric for this preparation.

This mango achaar is of our favorite ways to eat tart mangoes in the summer. This sweet-spicy preparation traditionally pairs with seasoned or stuffed rotis and parathas.

Let’s be honest, this salad is a vehicle for eating crispy, melty cheese for dinner. Not just any cheese, but rich and dense grillable cheeses like bread cheese, Halloumi, or paneer. When grilled or seared, these varieties brown and crisp on the outside while becoming soft and meaty inside, without melting into a puddle.

Keep the mushrooms whole or in large pieces (so they don’t fall through the grate), and you will be rewarded with burnished, concentrated mushroom goodness.

This all-purpose condiment is an ideal finisher for anything you might care to grill. Make it ahead and have it ready to spoon over grilled meats, fish, and vegetables.

Tangy labneh gives this ice cream serious Froyo vibes. With the crushed granola, you could almost eat it for breakfast.

These potatoes are simmered in seasoned water until tender, then grilled for a touch of char and smoky flavor. Bathe them in a mix of garlicky melted butter and miso, and this side dish becomes a star.

Grill your corn right away over the high heat of just-lit coals, then let it hang out in a cooler while you grill proteins and more delicate vegetables. The corn will finish cooking by steaming in the cooler and stay warm for hours.

Sometimes the best meat in the butcher’s case isn’t beef. Pork shoulder is virtually guaranteed to be pleasantly fatty and flavorful.

The formula for this cooling summer soup couldn’t be simpler: blended cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet red peppers, plus garlic, herbs, and fresh citrus.

Canning and preserving have long been an essential tactic of survival, and chowchow is a condiment born of both ingenuity and necessity. Here, green tomatoes not yet ripe enough to eat are transformed into a bright pickled expression of the first days of summer. It has been said that chowchow began as a collection of remnant produce that couldn’t be used in other dishes, so it became its own reclaimed relish. As you chop each vegetable, consider that origin: making the most from the least, creating abundance from scarcity. You can use four heatproof glass pint jars for this, though I prefer eight 8-ounce jars instead so I can share it around. Using pickling salt, such as Morton Canning & Pickling Salt, helps the liquid stay clear and keeps the cabbage from turning brown.