Eating well in summer: our ideas for a change

In summer, everything feels lighter! Our minds feel lighter, we dress lightly, and we cook lightly too. Suddenly, we want to cook differently, craving tasty and easy-to-make recipes that might shake up our habits a bit. Canopéa invites you into the kitchen to discover a few of these simple and truly delicious recipes to enjoy during the summer.

Summer cooking: classic recipes reinvented

Summer soups: served cold, of course!

For cooling down, we still haven’t found anything better than cold soups. There is, of course, the essential gazpacho, made from tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, basil, olive oil, and lemon juice—a recipe we never get tired of. Perhaps more original, and useful for avoiding food waste, are vegetable top soups. Radish, carrot, and turnip tops are cooked in broth with two potatoes. That's it! But how about trying a soup with a slightly bolder blend? A tomato and melon soup, for example? It is made without cooking, simply by blending the vegetables together and seasoning them with basil and lemon. And it is… delicious!

Canned tuna: absolutely essential!

Canned tuna is truly a summer must-have. It’s amazing how many recipes you can create from a simple can of tuna. It enhances sandwiches for your outings and summer buffets, and is a key ingredient in many salads, vegetable dishes, pasta, or rice. Another super simple and delicious recipe: tuna rillettes. They are made from tuna, a spreadable cheese like Saint-Môret, crème fraîche, lemon juice, and chives. Enjoy them as a starter on a slice of toasted bread or as a light main course served with a green salad.

Ceviches: original fish marinades for summer

In summer, raw fish is divine. So, why not try ceviche, a perfect fish marinade for hot weather. Sea bream ceviche is made from raw fish fillets, diced tomatoes and peppers, then chilled for 30 minutes in a lime marinade. Other fish are also suitable for this type of preparation: swordfish, salmon, sea bass, tuna, and also scallops.

No summer table without carpaccios

You are surely familiar with beef carpaccio: thin slices of beef drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice, and garnished with basil and Parmesan shavings. Served with pesto pasta, it has become a staple of summer tables. To step out of the routine, you can make this recipe using veal, dried beef (viande des Grisons), or fish (salmon and sea bream), or even scallops. Vegetarians will likely prefer a good grilled eggplant or mushroom carpaccio. Carpaccio also makes its way to dessert: pineapple, peaches, and strawberries, sliced thinly and drizzled with lemon juice. Serve them with a scoop of ice cream or sorbet and a few mint leaves, along with a sweet sauce made from water, brown sugar, and a few spices: pepper, vanilla, cardamom or coriander seeds… it’s all a matter of taste!

Quick recipes using eggs

Eggs are such a wonder in the summer! Hard-boiled, they garnish your vegetable, pasta, and rice salads. Cooked, they are part of several original recipes. Tortillas are one such example. Made of eggs, potatoes, onions, and fresh goat cheese, they are very simple to cook and simply delicious. Tortillas look like a cake, which you can cut into cubes and enjoy as an appetizer. As a large slice served with a salad, the tortilla becomes a main dish.

Another way to eat eggs: piperade. Somewhere between an omelet and scrambled eggs, it is made of tomatoes, peppers, eggs, and chorizo, not to mention a touch of chili and garlic to spice it all up. Served with rice, it’s a summer must. Another way to treat yourself in summer: omelets. We don’t always think of it, but omelets can be enhanced with all kinds of ingredients to change their flavor: grated cheese, mushrooms, chives, ham, spices… All these delicious omelets can be eaten cold, making them the perfect dish for your summer picnics.

Stuffed vegetables: so varied, so delicious

It’s not just tomatoes that can be stuffed. In Nice, they know well that other vegetables lend themselves to this kind of preparation. You can take inspiration from the "petits farcis niçois" to diversify your summer menus: in addition to classic tomatoes, there are round zucchini, peppers, eggplants, and sweet onions, which are stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs, ground lamb, and sausage meat before being baked in the oven. It certainly whets the appetite!

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