The summer bounty is here, and there are plenty of delicious options to pick from at local farmers markets and produce stands. If you wind up chucking once-perfect crops in the compost after finding them sad and soggy at the bottom of your fridge, here are a few suggestions about how to remember and cook with those fruits and veggies:
Keep it on the counter: Low-tech and worth it for people who just need to remember what they have. A decorative kitchen bowl filled with cantaloupes or cucumbers could be a simple reminder to use what you’ve got. While I usually have an attractive produce arrangement in the fall, I admit my summer arrangement is more function than form: I currently have a produce-filled cardboard box sitting on the counter. It’s easy to eyeball the remaining tomatoes before grabbing what I want for a salad or sauce. This strategy isn’t a good choice for houses or particular produce prone to pests. In the summer, any citrus goes straight into my fridge—otherwise, I get an outbreak of fruit flies.
Stop scrolling: If you’ve got decision paralysis about dinner tonight, don’t research on the internet. Instead, focus on keeping the flavors simple and delicious. A salad can just be chopped up cucumbers and tomatoes. It can even just be cucumbers! Granted, you’ll likely want some fat (olive oil, sesame oil or Greek yogurt) and some flavor (salt, fresh herbs, hot sauce or even a light syrup), but there’s no reason to spend more than five minutes looking for the “perfect” dinner recipe when easy is staring you in the face.
Make a meat-and-three: The meat-and-three is a Southern staple, and does not have to include meat. The restaurant version reflects homestyle cooking, often foregoing complicated dishes for simpler cafeteria-like fare. Most of the meat-and-three restaurants once open in Athens have now closed. It’s easy to recreate this at home. Fix a main (baked tofu, grilled chicken, pan-seared fish) and three sides—a sweeter option (sliced fruit), a spicy option (cooking lentils in fermented kimchi liquid is a new favorite for me) and a green option (green beans, cucumbers or leafy greens). Yes, you’ll have more dishes to clean at the end of the meal, but you can cook or prep all the sides while the main is cooking.
Put produce at eye level: Out of sight, out of mind applies to veggies. If you bought something at the farmer’s market (such as shishito peppers or garlic scapes) that looked beautiful, but you’re not quite sure what to do with it—stick it in a prominent place in your fridge where you’ll have to see it every day. This won’t give you the genius lightbulb moment immediately, but will help you to remember it before it rots in the bottom of the produce drawer.
Freeze or pickle it for later: Maybe this isn’t a great week for home cooking—that’s OK, too! Maybe you figuratively bit off a bit more than you could chew at the farmer’s market. There aren’t too many bits of produce that you can’t freeze or pickle in order to take advantage of later, when you have the time and interest. Stocking up on some freezer bags and/or apple cider vinegar during your next grocery run. Having these things on hand means you could freeze the last cup of blueberries for tasty winter pancakes instead of tossing them. Unsure about what to do with the last three radishes in the bunch? Pickle those suckers and stick them in the fridge for a few weeks.
Everything becomes tacos: If you’re really lost on what to do with your produce, stick it in a taco. There’s not much you can’t stick in a taco, given a small enough chop and a dusting of garlic, paprika and cumin.
Ask your friends: They also have to eat every day, and might have skills in some areas that you lack. One of my friends makes the best kale salad. Another is always introducing me to fun condiments like chili crisp that I didn’t even know existed. Poll your friends about what they like to cook and eat. You might find yourself with more good ideas than you thought possible.
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