The weather has been really fantastic recently - a very unusual occurrence in these parts. The past two years, summer consisted of a good week in May, when we all dashed out and bought wardrobes full of summer gear - followed by wintry weather spent looking longingly at our lovely (and totally unsuitable) clothes, while dressing in warm tops and jeans!!!
Well I have been making hay while the sun shines (so to speak) and doing lots of cooking on the barbecue. These are some burgers I threw together using just lamb, chopped mint and a nugget of feta cheese in the center of each one - yumm, and as easy as you can get.
I served these aubergines with the burgers, they come from Nigella Summer (I've been referring to it alot recently) and were a great match with the lamb. I sprayed my sliced aubergine with olive oil* and then barbecued them - they came out just perfect (aubergine can be very oily if you're not careful). They are stuffed with a mixture of feta, chili, mint, lemon juice and zest - I am using zest every time I use lemon or lime juice since I heard that the zest prevents skin cancer, double win (flavour and health)!
I mirrored these flavours in the salad dressing, mashing up some feta in lemon juice, grated in some garlic and added this mixture to a low fat plain yogurt with a very small amount of olive oil. All in all a pretty healthy meal.
* I have a plastic bottle with a spray top (bought it in Boots Chemist, in the travel section) which I fill with equal amounts of extra virgin olive oil and water. Far cheaper than the "light" oil sprays in the supermarket and zero nasty additives.
10 comments:
Hmph you could have invited me to your barbecue. :D Everything looks stunning. I love the idea of the feta in the burgers. I am not a fan of aubergines but yours look so good I am willing to try again. Lovely dressing on the salad too. Great idea with the spray. I have a pack of those wee bottles upstairs too. Nice one.
Your photography keeps getting better and better. I love these photos. Enjoy your summery weather. It's cold here in Melbourne, but for winter that just means I need to wear jeans and a warm jumper. After London's previous winter, this is like an autumn.
Ciao, I'm happy summer is finally here in Milano!! It's hot really hot, I'm going to spend some w/e at the seaside! I love your summer recipes very yummy!Have a nice day
Thanks for the kind comments - much appreciated :-}}
Granny - I use the spray for roast potatoes during the week (need the real thing on Sundays!!)
I love Nigella's aubergine involtini! I make them too, a great summer dish for veggies - sounds silly but I think it's harder catering for vegetarians in the summer than in the winter - so its a good dish for the non meat eaters at a barbie (and the meat eaters too)
mmmmm these dishes are mouthwateringly good! Loving the aubergine dish particularly. So glad you are enjoying the sunshine. Lucie x
I love that Nigella recipe too! It's such delicious finger food! And I like doing that with salad dressings too. So much lighter and as you said, you know what's in the dressing :)
Everything looks great! I love summer food. Now I'm hungry...
Cheers,
Rosa
this all looks so great.. so glad i'm back for the weekend and can try out all the amazing stuff growing in the garden... one week away and everything has exploded!
I am off to a barbie this afternoon, but having seen this I think I would rather come to yours!
;-) x
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