Tuesday Tea: What's your best cookout recipe?

All hail summer potlucks and picnics

[photo: Lee Myungseong/Unsplash]

There’s plenty for me to dislike about summer, specifically, mosquitoes, sweaty knee backs and elbow creases, and humidity. (Dave calls me the human barometer because I’m so sensitive to humidity.) But! Cookouts? BBQs? Potlucks? Picnics (in the shade)? YES, PLEASE.

When I was a kid, we had a few enormous reunions on my mom’s Italian side of the family. We took over a recreation area that had a massive swimming pool, a covered picnic pavilion, and a big grassy field where my dad and cousins could set off fireworks after dark. I can still see the long wooden picnic tables covered in serving bowls, crockpots, and trays of food: salads, lasagna, meatballs in red sauce, baskets of bread, coolers of sodas and beers. It’s all got a nostalgic sepia-toned haze in my memory.

If I were going to one of those epic cookouts now, as an adult, I’d take one of these salads. They’re my go-to for something colorful and delicious to feed a crowd.

Turkish Chopped Salad

I’ve been carting this recipe around with me since college. I found it in a magazine at a checkout counter in Syracuse, New York, and have made it so many times, it’s committed to memory.

It’s ideal for potlucks because it’s pretty and delicious and doesn’t taste like health food, so you can your loved ones into eating veggies. Plus, it’s an equal opportunity side that goes great with any grilled meat or fish, hot dogs or burgers. You can also throw it over pasta or rice, and/or add chick peas.

It tastes best when eaten fairly soon after mixing, and more than one day in the refrigerator will turn it into a mushy mess. If you’re taking it on the road, keep the dressing and veggies separate until just before eating.

Turkish Chopped Salad

Dressing:

• a large handful of parsley

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1 clove garlic, crushed

• 1/4 teaspoon cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 teaspoon sumac (optional; it will still taste great if you don’t have this somewhat unusual spice on hand)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Salad:

• 2 cucumbers, peeled

• 1 green pepper, cored

• 1 red pepper, cored

• 3 tomatoes, cored

• 1/2 medium red onion

• 1 bunch radishes, tops removed

• 1 can black olives, drained

• feta cheese (if you’re into it)

Directions:

Make the dressing. Chop the parsley and place in a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, oregano, and sumac. Whisk until blended, then slowly drizzle in the oil, stirring the whole time. Season with salt and pepper, taste, then adjust seasonings. (You can also blitz this with a stick blender.)

Prep the vegetables. Dice all the vegetables into roughly the same size – a 1/4-inch dice works well – and toss them into a large mixing bowl. Slice the olives and add to the bowl. If you’re not going to eat it right away, stop here.

Toss it! Pour the dressing over the salad (and add feta crumbles) and toss until the vegetables are coated. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Muffaletta Salad

When I was a kid, my parents would sometimes take us to a food market in Reading, Pennsylvania with stalls of butchers, produce vendors, prepared foods. My two favorite stands were the bulk foods (hello, sesame sticks!) and the Italian deli where we’d buy perfectly-spicy and just-greasy-enough sliced pepperoni and brightly-colored muffaletta salad.

You don’t have to time travel back to 1980s Pennsvylania to get it — it’s really easy to make and tastes amazing. Here’s my take on a Muffuletta Salad: crisp-tender cauliflower, carrots, and celery tossed in a simple, flavorful vinaigrette that’s spiked with the briny bite of olives and finished off with the hot-sweet balance of both pickled banana peppers and roasted red bells.

Muffaletta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head cauliflower, coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)

• 2 medium carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)

• 2 medium celery stalks, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 1 anchovy fillet, minced (or 1 teaspoon anchovy paste)

• 1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)

• 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/3 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped

• 1/3 cup pitted black olives, chopped

• 1 roasted red bell pepper (from a jar or freshly roasted), chopped

• 1/4 cup jarred, sliced banana peppers, drained and chopped

Directions:

Prep the veg. Steam the cauliflower, carrot, and celery until just tender, about 12-14 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, use a whisk or fork to mix the vinegar, anchovy, garlic, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper until combined, then drizzle in the olive oil, whisking constantly. (Again, you can just whirl all of this with a stick blender.)

Toss! When the veggies are just the way you want them, drain excess water and add the hot vegetables to the dressing in the bowl. Toss with two wooden spoons until coated evenly. Add the olives and peppers, tossing again with the wooden spoons until combined. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Place in a covered container in the fridge until cool, then adjust seasonings again. Serve chilled.

Note: This tastes even better with age. It’s delicious when you make it and mind-blowingly good the second and third days. Should the leftovers last long enough for you to grow weary of eating it as a salad, heat it in a non-stick skillet, then drizzle it with a little more extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle it with a handful of chopped parsley, and serve it as a hot side dish.

More of my favorites

• Classic Potato Salad with Bacon

• Belly Dance Beet Salad

• Snap Peas with Lemon, Mint, and Pistachios

Spill the tea: What's your best cookout recipe?