Food

Blueberry season is the perfect time to use your juicer to upgrade one of summer’s most iconic treats: the root beer float. Consider sprinkling with a whisper of grated nutmeg. Source some quality coconut or regular ice cream if you don’t have an ice cream maker to make your own.

This is sure to become your new favourite summertime thirst-quencher. You can stir gin or white rum into serving glasses for a grown-up beverage.

Sweet potato is the surprising ingredient here and can be juiced with good results. The fetching orange hue is a tip-off that each sip is loaded with beta carotene, an antioxidant that can be converted to vitamin A in the body to help bolster bone, immune, and eye health.

Inspired by the classic Spanish cold soup, this juice is refreshing and nutritious all in one. The sweetness of the watermelon is a perfect counterweight to the earthy elements of the vegetables. It’s tantamount to sunshine in a glass.

Juicing is a great way to work more of those nutritional overachievers known as greens into your diet. Pineapple provides just the right amount of sweetness, while ginger gives each sip a little bite. For most juicers, it is not necessary to remove the skin of the pineapple, as it will just be turned into pulp.

The cornucopia of power foods in this perfectly sweet ruby red juice makes it a nutritional standout. Beet juice is loaded with nitrates, which help open up blood vessels—a benefit that studies assert can lower blood pressure numbers and maybe even improve exercise performance. You can also blend in a red-skinned apple.

Wild rice has a nutty flavour that complements light creamy desserts and adds great texture and nutritional value. The berries are chock full of healthy antioxidants.

Roasted or sprouted Canadian pulses easily complement or replace seeds and nuts in granola bars or muesli. They’re nutty, earthy, and full of fibre and protein. This recipe can be made into bars or crumbled to use as a topping for yogurt.

These burgers are perfect as bite-sized sliders for a party appetizer, or as full-sized burgers for lunch or dinner. They’re chock full of pulses, healthy fats, and antioxidants.

Canadian-grown quinoa is slightly darker in colour, stickier in texture, and nuttier in flavour than its South American counterpart. Its characteristics complement this delicious risotto dish.

Who says burgers are just about the beef? These salmon burgers are sure to become a summer favourite for the grill, while the strawberry-infused salsa will guarantee that nobody will miss the bun. For a grill-free option, you can pan-sear the salmon burgers on the stovetop. If you are avoiding wheat or gluten, you can replace bread crumbs with pulverized gluten-free crackers.

Gravlax is a traditional Scandinavian preparation of salmon in which it is cured with salt and dill. Delicious! Plus, it’s far from a high-flying kitchen feat to make your own gravlax, though it does require a certain amount of patience before you can slice the velvety flesh—three days, to be precise. Use this recipe as a perfect make-ahead option for summer get-togethers or turn it into a quick and cool midweek dinner by doing all the prep work over the weekend.

Bored stiff of the same old lunch sandwich? Well, there is nothing fishy about this sandwich that is sure to add excitement to midday meals or even summer picnics. Serve extra chutney with egg dishes.

Here is a dish that is as fetching to the eye as it is delectable to the palate. Buttery salmon, a vibrant sauce featuring earthy-sweet seasonal peas, and toasty fried shallots make it worthy of company. If preferred, you can also use skinless salmon.

Asian meets Latin American in this incarnation of ceviche. Crunchy edamame beans provide a wonderful textural contrast, while placing all the contents in lettuce leaves makes each bite taste extra fresh. Ceviche doesn’t make for good leftovers, so make sure you’re feeding a table of salmon lovers. Alternatively, you can halve the recipe for a more intimate dining experience. To quicken prep, ask your fishmonger to skin the fish for you.

Miso and maple syrup are a surprising pairing that work together beautifully to elevate salmon’s buttery flesh. Serve with roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus spears, or even on a bed of soba noodles.     Woodn’t you know? Cooking your catch of the day on cedar planks not only infuses the salmon with smoky, woody flavour, but also encourages even cooking and protects the fish from direct heat—so there is less risk of dealing with a sticky situation. Be sure to only use untreated cedar.

Originating from Cyprus, semisoft and slightly nutty halloumi cheese is unique in that it resists melting when heated, so you can luxuriate in its warm, golden crust and velvety centre. Look for this high-protein cheese in Middle Eastern markets or in some supermarket cheese aisles. When boiled and oven roasted, quinoa is transformed into tasty crunchy crumbs. Soon you’ll want to sprinkle them on everything from salads to pasta dishes and stir-fries to soups in lieu of bread crumbs or nuts. Simple swaps Come stone fruit season, you can swap out the strawberries for juicy peach slices. If you can’t locate fiery-sweet peppadew peppers, use roasted red peppers.

This interpretation of the iconic BLT has plenty of crunchy appeal. Crisping seasoned tempeh in the oven is a stellar “facon” alternative to traditional bacon without the overload of fatty calories. Although the tomato vinaigrette can be made two days ahead if chilled, it’s best used warmed or at room temperature, and the chives should be stirred in just before serving. Make and take Each of these sandwich-salad hybrids can be enjoyed for lunch or dinner. To take them to go for workday lunches, proteins such as tuna or chicken can be prepared ahead of time and tossed with vegetables in your transport containers. To avoid unappetizing soggy greens, however, keep dressings separate and add to salads just before serving. Up in smoke If you’re not using liquid smoke for the tempeh marinade, consider applying smoked paprika for a little smoky essence.

PB&J may ride high on nostalgia, but it’s hardly a well-balanced meal. Here, the Thai-inspired peanut dressing stands in for peanut butter, raspberries add sweetness in the spirit of jam, and granola is a crunchy garnish in lieu of toast. Thigh highs The best thing about using chicken thighs to lend this salad plenty of satiating protein is that you can relax a bit when you’re grilling them. Even if you overcook the meat a bit, it won’t dry out to the same extent that breast meat would.

Although often as exciting as laundry, turkey and cheese remains one of the most popular lunchtime staples. Here, we’ve kicked things up a notch by serving moist poached turkey on a bed of greens and adorning it with tangy goat cheese dressing. Great groats Crunchy buckwheat groats are sure to become your new favourite salad topper. If you come up short locating groats in stores, you can use toasted walnuts instead.

For the most part, soggy mayo-laden tuna salad sandwiches and subs are far from culinary bright spots. This incarnation is another matter, as it’s a plateful of wonderful textures and fresh flavours. Look for pole- or troll-caught tuna, which is the most sustainable option. You can also use a good quality canned albacore tuna.

This recipe uses a combination of decocting (extracting the essence of an ingredient by simmering it) and infusing, the method of flavour extraction most common to herbal teas. Boiling lemon grass unleashes a heavenly scent; no wonder lemon grass tea is a beloved beverage in Thailand. Coconut water naturally sweetens this tea, while Thai basil ensures the drink doesn’t become cloying.

Raspberries are perhaps the hottest commodity in any garden—but people tend to be less keen on eating a bowl of raspberry leaves, although the leaves have a long and storied medicinal history. Combined with orange and rosemary, raspberry leaves make a surprisingly decadent-tasting herbal iced tea. Tip: Make ice cubes out of freshly squeezed orange juice if you prefer a more citrus-flavoured beverage, or freeze some of the tea into ice cubes with raspberries in them. Double duty If you make a more concentrated version of this tea by using 3 cups (750 mL) water instead of 4 cups (1 L), it can be turned into a bubbly beverage. Fill your glass halfway with iced tea and top up with sparkling water.

Colour-wise, this is the showiest of these herbal iced teas. Its brilliant magenta hue comes from hibiscus, a plant known for its tart taste and health benefits (hibiscus tea has shown promise in lowering blood pressure in mildly hypertensive people). Strawberries curb the tang of hibiscus, especially when we take a page out of Russian tea culture and sweeten this tea with jam. Jammin’ Choose jam naturally sweetened with agave or juice rather than refined sugar. Ice queen When you make a pot of hot tea or prep fruit for fruit salad, make a habit of setting aside a little tea or a few pieces of fruit to freeze as ice cubes so you’ve always got gorgeous ice on hand. If you want fruit or other solids to rest in the centre of a cube, fill the ice cube tray only halfway with water or tea, add the fruit pieces, and freeze. Then fill the remainder of the tray with liquid and freeze again.