Give each vegetable the heat and cooking time it needs to retain flavour and texture. Browse colourful everyday dishes that make seasonal produce the main event rather than an afterthought.
Recipes
Roast the hokkaido slices and red onion with oil and thyme and finish with feta, walnuts and a little honey. Add the honey and feta towards the end, so that nuts and cheese do not burn and the pumpkin still browns vigorously.
Mushrooms are roasted separately, while risotto rice with onion, white wine and hot stock is cooked gradually until creamy. Finally, the mushrooms are returned to the rice to remain browned; Parmesan is stirred away from the heat.
Roast the hokkaido, onion and ginger, boil them in vegetable stock until soft and puree them finely with coconut milk. Cut pumpkin pieces into equal pieces and add lemon juice only after pureeing to ensure that sweetness, pungency and acidity remain balanced.
Roast the aubergine, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes in the oven with garlic, olive oil and herbs. Cut the vegetables into similar sized pieces and spread them on a large baking tray so that they brown instead of stewing in their own juice.
Toasted ciabatta cubes are briefly mixed with tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, basil and red wine vinegar. Add dressing to the bread but keep the edges; therefore, mix just before serving.
Sweat the onion, peppers and zucchini with cumin, boil them with tomatoes and then put the eggs directly in the sauce. Reduce the tomato sauce before the eggs and cook the egg whites while the egg yolks remain creamy.
Courgette and peppers are grilled, halloumi is given strong grill strips and everything is layered with tomato and lemon yoghurt in the bun. Halloumi is grilled just before assembling, because it quickly solidifies when cooled.
Drained tuna and white beans are mixed with tomatoes, red onion, parsley and lemon-olive oil dressing. Rinse the beans thoroughly and add the tomatoes at the end to prevent the salad from becoming watery.
Cherry tomatoes are broken up with garlic in olive oil, then mixed with firm pasta, pasta water and burrata. Do not cook the burrata, but open it on the hot pasta first; this way the core remains creamy.
Corn cobs are grilled all around and still hot spread with lime-herb butter, peppers and chilli. Apply the butter only after grilling, so that it does not drip into the embers and the herbs remain fresh.
Sliced peaches are grilled briefly and served with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and a balsamic honey dressing. Ripe but firm peaches retain their shape on the grill; add mozzarella and basil on the plate.
Couscous is cooked in vegetable stock and served with grilled zucchini, bell peppers, chickpeas and lemon tahini sauce. Loosen couscous with a fork after soaking and add vegetables and sauce in portions only afterwards.
Salmon fillets are oiled and grilled with lemon, and a fresh cucumber salad is made with yoghurt, dill and a little honey. Grill the salmon on the skin side first and turn only once; salt the cucumber salad just before eating.
Grated zucchini is salted and squeezed thoroughly, then fried with egg, feta, flour and dill to form crispy fritters. The drier the zucchini, the better the fritters will hold and the less flour is needed.
Courgettes, peppers, aubergines and mushrooms are oiled, grilled in portions and served with chive curd. Do not cut vegetables too thinly and do not overfill the grill to create real roasted flavours instead of liquid leaking out.
Short pasta is cooked al dente and mixed lukewarm with tomatoes, olives, mozzarella and balsamic dressing. do not rinse the pasta under cold water; warm it up with the dressing, adding rocket and basil before serving.
Watermelon and cucumber are mixed with feta, mint and lime vinaigrette and sprinkled with roasted pine nuts. Drain the melon and cucumber well and salt just before serving, otherwise too much liquid will accumulate.
Cold cucumber soup with dill is a light summer soup without a stove. Cucumber, yoghurt, dill, lemon and olive oil are pureed finely and served well chilled.
Tomato gazpacho is a cold summer soup made from ripe tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, olive oil, sherry vinegar and some white bread. It is pureed, well chilled and served fresh to taste.
Roast the lamb shanks vigorously and braise them slowly until tender with root vegetables, red wine, stock and herbs. The meat is ready when it comes off the bone slightly; the sauce is reduced and seasoned only after braising.
Spring onions and goat cheese are placed on the base of the tart and are baked with egg-cream icing, thyme and a little honey. The bottom remains crisper when the spring onions are briefly sweated and the icing is not filled to the brim.
Wild garlic is finely sliced and mixed with cream cheese, yoghurt, lemon and olive oil to a spreadable spread. Do not process wild garlic warm and let it simmer briefly before adding salt, because cream cheese already brings spice.
Young potatoes are cooked in their skins, marinated still warm with vinegar-mustard dressing and later mixed with egg, radishes and herbs. Warm potatoes absorb the dressing better, while eggs and radishes are added only after cooling.
Grated carrots are mixed with eggs, oil and sugar, flour, almonds, cinnamon and baking powder are only briefly added and baked as muffins. Grate carrots finely and do not stir the dough for long after adding the flour so that the muffins remain loose.
Pre-cooked white asparagus is wrapped in ham, doused in a mustard and cream sauce and gratinated under Gouda. Drain the asparagus well to prevent the sauce from becoming watered down and the cheese from actually browning.