The best summer dishes to stay cool

How to make a faux potato salad

To some of us, over 50 means eating a lot more carefully and in smaller quantities. I constantly look for ways to make tasty, gorgeous, and healthy dishes.

I love sauces, and making a smooth, creamy-looking but delicate and light sauce is challenging. I don’t want my sauces to look like “diet sauces,” so I experiment with all sorts of ingredients to make tasty but low-calorie sauces—and they need to look appetizing and creamy!

Summer dishes are beautiful, fun, colorful, and light. They should also be quick to put together.

When I think of summer dishes, I think of cherry tomatoes, parsley, and fresh herbs in general, potato salads, gorgeous zucchini, pasta salads, and any type of salad.

Parsley is the ultimate summer fresh herb.  I also love cilantro, but I understand that it’s not for everyone. 

Summer Salad

Today’s inspiration was a photo of a beautiful potato salad that I saw in the New York Times cooking section. It looked perfect for a summer dish. The only problem is that I am cutting down on my carbs, and – well, this was a plate full of potatoes and mayo, and it’s not quite how I want to eat.

So, I substituted a few ingredients but went for the look of this dish.

For a crunch, my potato salad had two small potatoes, one large, lightly steamed zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and raw carrots.

I watered down the mayonnaise with lots of lemon juice because I wanted the potato/mayo salad look, and I love mayo with fresh lemon juice. Thinly cut scallions and carefully picked garden parsley were sprinkled onto the salad, along with fresh cilantro.

The faux potato salad looked similar to the NYT salad, and it was delicious!

Summer dinner

My summer dinner consisted of broiled white fish drizzled with organic Portuguese olive oil and faux potato salad—a delicious and light summer dish that looked a lot fattier than it was.

 Zucchini pasta and faux potato salad from my next summer dish

It’s summer, and zucchinis are everywhere here in Portugal. I have seen them in different colors and gorgeous shapes; some have flowers. 

I am on a quest to find creative ways to make zucchini dishes, and today, I went with classic zucchini pasta. It was very simple to make. All I had to do was get the spiralizer out and twist the zucchini—out came a healthy and light pasta.

I threw the leftover faux potato salad over the zucchini pasta, added a pinch of cumin to change my faux potato salad’s taste, and added olive oil.

This dish looked like a heavy pasta dish, but it was a delicious light summer dinner—a feast for the eyes and my tummy.

Whenever I use a leftover dish for an encore, I eat it the next day or no more than two days later.

I like fresh food and don’t want to get bored with my meals. Eating the same foods repeatedly tempts me to look for comforting and unhealthy foods.

Now, I’m going back to my desk and searching for more summer dishes and zucchini recipes. 

Do you have a favorite summer dish? Share it here in the comments!

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Updated June 9, 2024