If someone in your life loves their hearty meals, don’t take them off the summer menu – give them a warm weather makeover instead
Our eating habits change during the hot weather so it’s no surprise that people are on the lookout for summer recipes that incorporate their favourite food but don’t make them feel overly full or sluggish.
As we all reach for dishes like tapas and Mediterranean salads served al fresco, we often put our hearty and homely Irish recipes to the back of our minds until October, when warming stews return as the star of the show.
But what if we want to keep a little taste of tradition in the summer months? To help incorporate traditional Irish recipes into summer menus, Hannah Duxbury, Head of Culinary at HelloFresh Ireland has provided tips and recipe spins to do just that.
1. Turn your colcannon into a potato salad
“Colcannon is an Irish classic, but a hot, filling potato dish doesn’t exactly bode well in a heatwave,” Hannah explains. She recommends deconstructing your colcannon to make a delicious Irish potato salad. Boil and season your potatoes and leave to cool, use uncooked spinach leaves instead of cabbage and toss in a garlic butter dressing. “Finish off with a sprinkle of bacon chunks for a perfect summer side dish, advises Hannah.
2. Make the most of Irish seafood
“In Ireland, we’re so lucky to be surrounded by some of the best seafood in the world, so of course using this in summer recipes is an absolute must.”
Hannah’s summer fish of choice is hake as it can easily be sourced fresh from the likes of Galway Bay and is favoured in dishes like Spanish tapas. “It’s the perfect nod to tradition with a twist. I recommend cooking hake in a herb butter (using freshly grown Irish herbs of course) on the barbeque or in a pan for a perfect summer main.”
3. Barbecue Irish beef
“Homemade Irish beef burgers are already delicious in their own right, but when they’re cooked on a barbecue? Wow!”
Because of the high quality meat we have access to here, it’s easy to cook really succulent, juicy meat dishes – these are elevated even more so when cooked over charcoal. Hannah’s method of making a really easy homemade beef burger is “adding a splash of Worcester sauce and mustard to a beef mince and breadcrumb mix, squashing it into patties, and popping it on the grill.”
