Recipes

Light summer recipes: 10 quick, light and tasty ideas

Melon and ham skewers

Pamper yourself with our light summer recipes, one tastier than the other and perfect to satisfy even the most demanding palates.

Even if it only lasts a few weeks a year, the swimsuit rehearsal always causes a bit of panic. To stay fit, however, you don't have to give up good food , you just need to understand how to cook it in the right way. This is why today we come to your rescue with some light summer recipes, simple to prepare but really tasty. Curious to find out which ones we have selected for you?

With the arrival of the beautiful season we feel the desire to prepare fresh and light meals. The richer preparations are set aside for a few months in favor of recipes based on fish, fresh fruit and vegetables . We will therefore see 10 light and tasty summer recipes: how to prepare a rice salad with seasonal and fresh vegetables, but also a whole series of second courses perfect for both lunch and dinner. And if you're wondering, yes, there's room for dessert too!

Sea Salad
Light chicken salad
Zucchini gazpacho
Pan-cooked Swordfish
Salmon salad
Skewers with mozzarella, ham and melon
Rice salad
Tuna tartare
At Cold Yogurt Cake
Light ice cream

Sea Salad

There are no boundaries when it comes to seafood salad and wherever you are along the country you have probably tasted it at least once . But perhaps you don't know that it can be prepared at home in a simple way.

Ingredients for 4 people:

600 g of octopus
500 g of calamari
1 kg of mussels
350 g of prawns
extra virgin olive oil to taste
2 cloves of garlic
black olives to taste
1/2 red onion
1 lemon
parsley to taste
pepper as needed
cherry tomatoes to taste

First clean the octopus and squid and boil the former for 40 minutes, the latter for 20. Open the mussels in a pan with garlic and a drizzle of oil, then clean the prawns and sear them for 2-3 minutes in a frying pan. part. Cut the larger fish into chunks, transfer them into a bowl with the shelled clams, the prawns, the sliced olives , the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and the sliced onion . Season the light seafood salad with oil, salt, pepper and fresh parsley emulsified with lemon juice.

Light chicken salad

If you are not a fan of fish recipes, we recommend you try one of our light chicken salads . Among the most popular summer dietary recipes of all , it is perfect for dinner or lunch and lends itself very well to being customized to your liking. This is how we like it.

Ingredients for 3 people:

400 g of chicken breast
3 tomatoes
mixed salad to taste
onion to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste
Salt to taste

This basic summer recipe starts by cooking chicken breasts on the grill for a total of about 10 minutes. In the meantime, place the salad, the washed and chopped tomatoes and the sliced onion on a plate. Then distribute the chicken and season with oil and salt.

From here it is then possible to create ever new and tasty versions by adding, for example, grapefruit, cheese and walnut kernels, different types of fruit such as melon, pineapple and apple or seasoning it with a yogurt sauce. You will surely find the right version for you among our proposals.

Zucchini gazpacho

Fresh and light, zucchini gazpacho is unlike any recipe of its kind you've ever tried. The preparation is as simple as it is unusual and all you have to do is try it to discover its goodness.

Ingredients for 4 people:

500 g of courgettes
1/2 leek
2-3 slices of homemade bread
40 ml of apple cider vinegar
Salt to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste

In a pan, brown the leek with a drizzle of oil, then add the courgette slices and cook, adding a pinch of salt. Separately, soak the bread cut into pieces in a mixture of water and vinegar. Add it to the courgettes as soon as they are ready and blend with the immersion blender until you obtain a creamy consistency, possibly adding water. Store it in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Pan-cooked Swordfish

Since it is a very lean fish, you can prepare swordfish in a pan without too much fear. A handful of minutes will be enough to create one of the light summer recipes par excellence.

Ingredients for 4 people:

4 slices of swordfish
white wine to taste
1 clove of garlic
parsley to taste
thyme to taste
Salt to taste
pepper as needed
lemon juice to taste

Put a drizzle of oil in the pan with the garlic, parsley and thyme then brown the swordfish slices on both sides. Add the white wine (half a glass will be enough) and after adding salt, continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Serve immediately, finishing with lemon juice if desired.

Salmon salad

Two words are enough to describe the salmon salad : light and tasty . With a few ingredients that go well together, you can create a perfect single dish if you are looking for light summer recipes. Let's see the details of the preparation.

Ingredients for 4 people:

200 g of fresh salmon
100 g of mixed salad
10 cherry tomatoes
1 avocado
1 lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
sesame seeds to taste

First, slice the salmon and marinate it with oil and soy sauce for 30 minutes. In the meantime, wash the vegetables and dry them then place the salad on the bottom of a plate. Distribute the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and the avocado cut into slices and seasoned with lime juice. Sear the marinated salmon in a pan then add it to the salad. Season with oil and salt and enrich with sesame seeds just before serving.

Skewers with mozzarella, ham and melon

If you are tired of seeing the usual sad combination poorly served, we recommend you try the skewers with mozzarella, ham and melon . They are prepared in 10 minutes , do not require cooking and are also perfect to serve as an aperitif .

Ingredients for 8 people:

1 melon
mozzarella morsels
100 g of raw ham

The preparation of this light summer recipe is really simple. Using the appropriate tool, cut small balls from the melon pulp and thread them onto skewers, alternating them with morsels of mozzarella and slices of ham. Serve them on a plate for an aperitif and you will make a great impression.

Rice salad

Could rice salad be missing from the light summer dishes par excellence? Since we know that you always have some difficulty in preparing the right quantity, as well as with falling back on ready-made preparations, we want to give you a roundup of advice for preparing it in a workmanlike manner .

Ingredients for 4 people:

350 g of rice
3 hard boiled eggs
3 cans of tuna
peas to taste
350g canned corn
3 frankfurters
2 carrots
black olives to taste
basil to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste
Salt and Pepper To Taste

While you cook the rice in plenty of salted water, focus on the vegetables . Cut the carrots into julienne strips, blanch the peas and drain the corn. Combine everything in a bowl together with the partially drained tuna, the sliced frankfurters, the olives and the chopped hard-boiled eggs. Drain the rice, cool it and add it to the other ingredients. Flavor with basil , season with oil, salt and pepper and you're done.

Tuna tartare

If you think there is only one way to prepare it, know that you are making a big mistake. Tuna tartare , like its meat equivalent, lends itself to many variations, one better than the other. The secret is to choose very fresh fish (obviously blast chilled) and cut it with a knife. We show you how to prepare it in the basic version but in the article you will also find all the variations.

Ingredients for 4 people:

400 g of chilled tuna
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1 lemon

If you are not sure whether your tuna has been blast chilled, place it in the freezer for 96 hours before proceeding with the recipe. Cut the meat into very small cubes and transfer it to a bowl. Season it with oil, salt and lemon juice, then distribute it on the plates using a pastry cutter. Of all the light summer recipes, it is certainly the most refined !

At Cold Yogurt Cake

Among the light summer dishes, at least one dessert could not be missing. We thought we'd offer you the cold yogurt cake because it doesn't require cooking and can be prepared with just a few ingredients. It's a sort of light and tasty cheesecake, perfect for quenching your sugar cravings.

Ingredients for 4 people:

100 g of butter
280 g of biscuits
380 g of yogurt
350 g of cream for desserts
50 g of icing sugar
1 sachet of vanillin

Blend the biscuits then mix them with the melted butter. Pour everything onto the bottom of a springform pan, pressing well to obtain a compact base . While it rests in the refrigerator, whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla, then add the yogurt . Pour the filling onto the base and transfer everything back to the refrigerator for at least 5 hours before consuming it. You can decorate with fresh fruit or with toppings of your choice.

Light ice cream

Do you think it's not possible? Yet making light ice cream is really simple. You don't need cream, milk or sugar, just a banana, fruit of your choice and just a little vegetable milk. Here is the procedure for the last of our light summer recipes.

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 banana
130 g of fruit of your choice
70 ml of vegetable milk

Cut the fruit into chunks and place them separately in ice bags and then in the freezer overnight . The following day, blend it with a very powerful mixer, adding the milk little by little, until you obtain the characteristic consistency of ice cream. Consume it immediately by distributing it into cups.

We are sure that we have made an impression with at least some of our light summer recipes: they are all delicious and simple to prepare!