Your Labor Day Barbecue Will Shine with These Peak of Season Produce Dishes

peak season summer produce

While Labor Day was created as a tribute to the American laborer, it has since also become synonymous with the end of summer—one more weekend, extended by this glorious extra day, to grill, sip cold drinks, and take in some of the (hopefully sunny!) final days of the season with friends and family. When you plan that perfect picnic dish to share at Labor Day celebrations, you’ll want to use in-season produce to unlock the best flavors in your sides, dips, and desserts. Let’s savor these last days of summer and take advantage of these fruits and vegetables that are at the top of their game, right now!

Strawberries

Strawberry Shortcake Parfaits

Chowhound

In the U.S., we have easy access to produce throughout the year, but off-season, these foods might as well be called by another name. Have you ever eaten wintertime strawberries? They are nothing like their juicy, bright red summertime counterparts. It’s like comparing apples to…well, potatoes! Super-flavorful in-season produce can often stand on its own at a barbecue—fresh strawberries are a welcome accompaniment to savory grilled fare. But, if you want to dress up strawberries a bit, a dessert is the way to go! Get our recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Parfaits, a handheld take on the classic strawberry shortcake, and let the fruit be the star!

Tomatoes

Cherry Tomato Tart with Anchovies and Garlic Confit

Molly DeCoudreaux

If my latest CSA box chock-full of tomatoes is any indication of what’s in-season, then I’d say it’s prime time for tomatoes! Heirloom, beefsteak, cherry, grape, and so many more—a slice of ripe, red (or sometimes green or yellow) tomato is the perfect addition to any variety of burger (unlike that pale pink tomato-of-the-winter). A flatbread or tart is an ideal way to showcase tomatoes—so easy to slice and share with friends and family. Get this recipe for Cherry Tomato Tart with Anchovies and Garlic Confit (though I know some of you might opt to ditch the anchovies!).

Eggplant

summer eggplants

Papa Spud’s

Growing up in a Midwestern suburb (the next stop for my family after the Polish Southside of Chicago), I have to admit I did not have much exposure to eggplants. But, as I encountered first eggplant parmesan, then Thai spicy eggplant dishes, followed by baba ganoush, I’ve grown to embrace this funny-looking purple “fruit.” Approaching Labor Day, you should embrace it, too, as it’s in peak season. If you don’t go full-on baba ganoush at your barbecue, a similarly delightful appetizer can be made with eggplant and hummus (store-bought, if you’re tight on time). Get our recipe for Eggplant and Hummus Pita Crisps.

Peaches

Peach Caprese Salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Amy Neunsinger

Nothing says summertime like a sweet, juicy peach! “Cling” to the final days of summer (see what I did, there), with a salad that highlights everything fresh and wonderful about the season. Basil and mozzarella play a co-starring role to two kinds of peaches, all dressed simply with olive oil and white vinegar. Get this recipe for Peach Caprese Salad.

Cucumbers

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Chowhound

Cucumbers—so boring, right? Wrong! Think of all those wonderful Asian salads, those Mediterranean falafel bowls—heck, they’ve got a whole “water” dedicated to them. This Labor Day, bring a tangy salad that allows cucumbers to take center stage. When produce is in season, there’s no need to hide your vegetables —let them shine! Get our recipe for Creamy Cucumber Salad.

Blueberries

Rustic Blueberry Tart

Chowhound

Peak-of-season blueberries are a whole other ballgame. Bursting with flavor, they thoroughly put their bagged, frozen cousins to shame. While frozen berries do have their place (it’s hard to deny the convenience!), fresh blueberries deserve the full attention of your tastebuds. As with the other recipes, a tart allows the produce to take the spotlight—let the blueberries do their thing, and the happy murmurs of munching guests will soon follow. Get our recipe for Rustic Blueberry Tart.

Corn

Fresh Summer Corn and Tomato Salad

Chowhound

Corn is so ubiquitous at summertime barbecues, how could you not include it in your Labor Day celebrations? As is the case with all the other produce mentioned, summertime corn is on a completely different level than its canned and off-season counterparts. And if it’s sweet corn? Forget about it! This is another food I’ve underutilized throughout my life, having only recently learned this quick way to microwave it. When you can prep corn this easily, you have a delicious addition to so many dishes, especially ramen and veggie bowls. For a barbecue, you can bring back the cherry tomatoes, and put together a salad that lets corn show off. Get our recipe for Fresh Corn and Tomato Salad.

Watermelon

summer watermelon

Raw Pixel/Unsplash

Presented without recipe, I give you: watermelon. A crowd-pleaser at any summer gathering, you’re a hero if you remember to bring the sliced watermelon. It’s sweet, it’s juicy, and it’s about 92 percent water, providing lovely hydration to counterbalance any summertime imbibing. If you’re not sure what to bring to Labor Day’s last hurrah for summer, do yourself (and everyone else) a solid, and make it watermelon.

Related Video: How to Slice Watermelon with Dental Floss



from Food News – Chowhound https://ift.tt/2NDgo74

Comentarii

Trimiteți un comentariu

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Telehealth hubs offer care options for people living on the edge the virtual world

Imagine
At Catholic Charities Opportunity Center in downtown St. Paul, Senior Clinical Manager Stacie Joncas works with some of the people who’ve been hardest hit by the many crises that have befallen the Twin Cities over the last few months. “These are people who are really having a rough time right now,” she said. “With the murder of George Floyd, the riots and COVID, what we’re finding is a huge increase in mental health and substance use problems among our client population.” A day center for people experiencing homelessness and for members of other vulnerable communities, the Opportunity Center provides a safe place for people to spend time, eat a hot meal and get help with a variety of issues, including looking for a job, finding affordable housing and getting support for mental health and addiction concerns. When COVID-10 hit Minnesota this spring, most health care providers made the shift to telehealth as a way to safely see their patients without risk of spreading the virus. While
Citiți mai multe

Overuse on cattle feedlots is a key factor in antibiotic resistance, report says

Cattle producers purchased 42 percent of all medically important antibiotics sold for livestock use in the United States in 2018 — about the same amount sold for chicken and pork production combined, according to a scathing  report published this month by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In fact, in 2018, nearly as many antibiotics of medical importance were sold for use in cattle (5.6 million pounds) as for human use (7.5 million pounds). Most of those antibiotics wouldn’t be necessary if the U.S. beef industry made changes in how they raise cattle and produce meat. Cattle producers in the U.S. use antibiotics three to six times more intensively than do their counterparts in the European Union, the report points out. That’s because the drugs are fed routinely to cattle on U.S. feedlots — even when no animals are sick. The European Union, which is the third-largest beef producer globally, not only discourages the routine feeding of antibiotics to cattle, it has announ
Citiți mai multe

Bringing Your Ballpark Food Favorites Home

Imagine
You know what I love? Baseball . There’s just something about it, you know? As America ’s pastime, it’s so historically and culturally significant—patriotic, in fact. As a summer sport, it was always a game I enjoyed during a break from school , when fun, relaxation, and baseball were what life was all about. As a daily sport, it’s great for someone like me. The practice to game ratio is great; when you win, you get to keep the momentum going; and when you lose, you can get right back to it the next day. Now that I’m older, and no longer play the game myself, it’s this last reason that really sticks with me. Baseball is an everyday sport. Sometimes it’s a grind. Sometimes it’s full of highs. In that way, it’s a lot like life. It also becomes a part of your life due to this same, everyday nature. For six months, it becomes your routine. You watch, or listen, spending time with the announcers for a few hours, as you go about your day. It’s a hobby, a passion, habitual. You know what
Citiți mai multe