Tomato tonnato
This summery-take on vitello tonnato that uses ripe summer tomatoes instead of veal with a tuna sauce is a Mediterranean holiday on a plate.
Prep time 20 mins
Cook 30 mins
Serves 6 as a shared dish
Paul Farag's zucchini with pistachio tahini and duqqa
Prep time 20 mins
3 hrs (marinating time)
4 as a side dish or shared plate
Salade Niçoise
A classic salad to channel those 'summer on the French Riviera' vibes.
Prep time 20 mins
Cook 20 mins
4
Grilled zucchini and buffalo mozzarella salad
Zucchini and buffalo mozzarella is all it takes to create a beautiful side dish for any barbecue.
Prep 15 mins
Cook 15 mins
4 as a side dish
Shaved globe artichokes with lemon, olive oil and parmesan
Four ingredients are all it takes to create this sublime spring salad.
Prep 15 minutes
-
Serves 4 as a side salad
Baby beetroot, blood orange and curd salad
As delicious as it is beautiful, this citrus infused salad is the perfect addition to your spring menu.
Prep 30 mins
Cook 1 hour
Serves 4-6
Fig, mozzarella and basil oil salad
When figs are this jammy, the only thing to do is to tear them, dress them up and turn them into your next dream salad.
Prep 20 mins
Cook 15 mins
Serves 4 as a starter
Roasted apricots with straciatella and rosemary oil
Roasted apricots are surprisingly versatile, adding bursts of intense fruit flavour and acidity to whatever they meet, from breakfast dishes to leafy salads. In this starter they come cheek-to-cheek with fresh-tasting cream cheese and prosciutto.
Prep 10 mins
Cook 10 mins
Serves 4 as an antipasto
Herb salad and ginger-lime dressing
There’s a surprise in every mouthful of this refreshing salad, yet the ginger-lime dressing has all the herbs singing to the same tune. The recipe is from Duncan Welgemoed’s book Africola.
Prep 20 mins
Cook -
Serves 4
Raw beef with roasted rice, lime and chilli
Old-school fine dining meets 21st-century Thai glamour in this fresh take on steak tartare. Cucumber and lettuce take the place of the traditional crisp toast accompaniment, and the smoked chilli seasoning is oh-so-moreish.
Prep 15 mins
-
Serves 4 as a shared starter
Summer chopped salad with citrus sesame dressing
For a casual summer lunch with friends – think outdoors in the shade of a Jacaranda – you can’t go past a chopped salad. Bill Granger’s version, from his book Australian Food, offers all the colours and textures of summer in a bowl.
Prep 30 mins (plus cooling)
Cook 20 mins
Serves 4
Salad of summer squash, lemon basil, anchovy & ricotta
A composed salad, such as this from Embla’s Dave Verheul, is a feast for the eyes and a breeze to make. Summer squash are the delicate centrepiece here, surrounded by a strong supporting cast of assertive flavours.
Prep 10 mins
Cook -
Serves 4
Green goddess bowl with charred cucumber
Charred cucumber lends a smoky accent to this bowl of quinoa, seeds, nuts and leaves – all of which are basically an excuse to eat more green goddess dressing. Mmm, creamy goddess goodness!
Prep 15 mins
Cook 15 mins
Serves 4
Rice noodle salad with pork skewers
Fresh tropical southeast Asian flavours make this noodle salad the perfect go-to for your next barbecue.
Prep 25 mins
Cook 15 mins
Serves 4
Lobster with pink grapefruit and fennel fronds
Lobster is essentially culinary perfection in a very hard shell, so the secret to highlighting its excellence is to intervene as little as possible. Four other ingredients are all you need for this summer-by-the-ocean recipe.
Prep 10 mins
Cook 10 mins
Serves 2-4
Roasted carrots with spices and labne
Turn a roasted vegetable dish into a show-stopping side using spices and creamy labne.
Prep 15 mins
Cook 30 mins
Serves 4 as a side
Ibrahim Kasif's Turkish mountain salad
Turkish mountain salad, also known as shepherd's salad, is a chopped salad of tomatoes, walnuts, herbs and pomegranate arils. This recipe is from Ibrahim Kasif of Sydney’s Stanbuli.
Prep 15 mins
-
Serves 4
Annette’s tomatoes and peaches with honey vinegar and burrata curds
There’s tomato salad, and then there’s tomato salad to the power of ten. Analiese Gregory’s version from her latest book, How Wild Things Are, is exponentially more tomato-tasting than any you’ve grown up with. Bonus: ripe peaches and creamy curds!
Prep 30 mins
Cook 5 mins (plus setting, marinating)
Serves 4
Peach and haloumi salad
Make the most of summer’s fragrant white peaches with this super-easy salad. When crisp-edged warm haloumi meets cold juicy fruit, expect an explosion in your mouth – it’s a flavour bomb.
Prep 10 mins
Cook 5 mins
Serves 2-4
Watermelon and apple cucumber salad with Thai basil
Beat the heat with salad this summer. Watermelon and cucumber – crisp, thirst-quenching and refreshing – are natural allies in the fight to stay cool, and a Vietnamese-style dressing rounds out the collaboration.
Prep 10 mins
Cook 1 min
Serves 6 as a side
Heirloom tomato salad with sumac-spiced pickled shallots
Tomatoes are available all year round, but only summer tomatoes are truly worthy of the name – fragrant, juicy, popping with acidity and sweetness. This salad, accented with quick pickled shallots, highlights their seasonal perfection.
Prep 10 mins
Cook 20 mins
Serves 4 as a side
Cannellini beans, mint, feta and blistered tomatoes
Sure, legume-based salads are a thing of virtue, packed with protein. But that’s not why we love them. Think of the cannellini beans in this recipe as a creamy blank canvas for daubs of big, big flavour.
Prep 20 mins (plus overnight soaking)
Cook 40 mins
Serves 4 as a light meal or side
Braised scapes and asparagus
This recipe is based on the classic reduction method: most of the stock evaporates during cooking, leaving behind tender garlic scapes and asparagus in a deeply flavoured buttery glaze.
Prep 5 mins
Cook 10 mins
Serves 4-6 as a side
Warm duck, lychee and banana blossom salad
Not all recipes from Michelin-starred restaurants translate easily to Australian home kitchens, but this one’s a cinch. At Paste, chef Bee Satongun roasts her own duck; to save time, start with one from Chinatown.
Prep 40 mins
Cook 5 mins (plus roasting duck)
Serves 6-8
Freekah and charred broccoli salad with tahini-yoghurt
Who said anything about health benefits? The superfood factor might be one reason to love this salad of grains and greens, but we’d make it again and again for its snappy flavours and textures.
Prep 20 mins
Cook 45 mins
Serves 4
Roast beetroot, fior di latte and fennel salad
Almost too pretty to eat, this little arrangement of vibrant beetroot, delicate fennel and fresh fior di latte makes a perfect starter. Adding some thick spears of white asparagus would not be gilding the lily.
Prep 15 mins
Cook 1 hr 15 mins
Serves 4
Fennel, avocado and celery salad with Gorgonzola dressing
Light and perfectly dressed – this is the salad version of a Hollywood lead, ready for her close-up.
Prep 15 mins
-
Serves 2 as a light meal