Summer

Short ribs aren’t just for braising. Make sure to grill them to medium doneness, just long enough to render fat and tenderize, without letting them overcook or toughen.

For this dinner-worthy sandwich, you’ll sear the eggplant on the stove, then marinate it in oil and vinegar to make it silky-soft and flavor-packed. 

With the help of the large holes on a box grater, zucchini transforms into a pile of soft shreds. Cook it down with olive oil, onion, and garlic and it becomes a creamy, caramelized mush that’s great spread on toast (like in the recipe this one was inspired by, Jennie Cook’s Zucchini Butter), stirred into scrambled eggs, or turned into pasta sauce with the assistance of cream and lemon juice. You’ll be amazed by how many zucchini cook down into this one dish—a very good thing when you’re staring down a pile of this prolific summer star.

Doogh, a salty-tangy Persian yogurt drink, is the perfect antidote to a humid summer afternoon. It’s traditionally made with dried mint (and sometimes dried rose petals and/or black pepper), but this recipe employs fresh mint for a boost of bright flavor and color. This drink can be made with flat water, but club soda adds a refreshing fizzy finish.

Adobo—both a style of preparation as well as the name of a dish—is one of the most widely known foods of the Philippines, often referred to as its national dish. To make adobo, which can be wet (very saucy) or dry (crispier and less soupy), pork, chicken, tubers, vegetables, squid, lamb, shrimp, or even duck, is simmered in vinegar, often with soy sauce, black peppercorns, and bay leaves. This recipe channels the same flavors of bright vinegar and dark soy sauce, using eggplant as the base, with the addition of ground pork for extra richness.

A quick sear gives corn kernels caramelized edges and concentrated flavor. Here, they're cooked with crisp chickpeas, then tossed with za'atar and dressed with a mixture of ginger, jalapeños, miso, and tahini. 

This super-flexible, all-purpose salad turns cabbage into luscious tangles of crisp leaves coated in a rich and bright dressing.

Turn juicy-sweet peaches into creamy sorbet, no ice cream maker required. 

Juicy ripe peaches, raw sweet corn, and roasted peanuts come together in this peak summer snack—a perfect way to refresh after a day in the sun.

This Persian rice dish, known as kateh gojeh farangi, is the ideal late summer comfort food. The cinnamon tames the natural acidity of tomatoes, creating a sweet-savory aroma and flavor.

Snatch up summer’s last big, juicy heirloom tomatoes and join Sohla El-Waylly for a grilled naan and tomato party. Grated raw tomato and ghee-sizzled nigella seeds create a base for pretty-in-pink raita and do double duty smeared on the naan during grilling. Meanwhile, big tomato wedges get tossed in spiced yogurt before charring on the grill. The dough for the naan is sticky and soft, but don’t be tempted to add flour. A supple and moist dough is key to a tender, bubbly bread. Just keep kneading and the dough will grow bouncy and smooth. If you haven’t worked much with yeast, don’t fear! Flatbread is a forgiving place to start playing with fermentation.

In Brigid Washington's home country of Trinidad and Tobago, this garlicky eggplant dish, known colloquially as baigan or melongene, isn’t considered a recipe because all it requires is a low flame, a handful of garlic cloves, a generous dash of curry powder, and eggplant.

A member of the larger umbrella group of easy fruit desserts, a buckle features tons of fruit barely held together by tender cake. We're talking so much fruit that the cake buckles around it, hence the name. There are many regional buckle variations, and not all have a streusel topping. This particular recipe, however, has got lots of big crumbs—and we think you’ll be glad that’s the case. 

Peanut butter, jelly, and buttery crackers in (no-churn!) ice cream pie form.

Supremely beefy, not outrageously expensive, and fast-cooking, skirt steak is our favorite steak of all.

Chef Omar Tate makes a natural version of Kool-Aid by mixing freeze-dried sweet cherries and strawberries with citric acid for tartness.

Summer’s most accessible cocktail is much like the season itself: easy, relaxing, refreshing, sunny, and filled with fruit and flavor.

More caramelization, more surface area to char, a quick cook time, and easy to share pieces are only a few of skewering’s advantages.

Brad Leone’s go-to charred, smashed, and miso-garlic-butter–tossed grilled potatoes.

This potato salad gets a sweet-meets-zingy upgrade with red onion, bell peppers, sweet relish, and plenty of mustard.