What to eat for dinner during this heatwave?

[MooMinCow]

I'm flummoxed, really I am

All my usual tried and tested meals just feel wrong in the heat

Plus I have one non egg eating veggie in the house to cater for!

Going to shops later, please inspire me! (I have couscous, quinoa, halloumi and mozzarella already)

BBQ style things, chicken, pepper and halloumi skewers (minus the chicken for the veggie)
Moroccan Cous Cous salad side (sultanas, chickpeas)
tomato, mozzarella and basil platter.
some garlic breads.

Sorry I can't help you. I grew up in a tropical country, hot all day and all year round. I eat at least 3 hot meals a day. I love hot food. Think of it as balancing the temperature inside and outside you body.

But if you don't subscribe to this - how about cold noodle salads with thai-style dressing of soya sauce and lime juice? Or chilli oil and soya sauce with a drop of sesame oil.

I roasted a chicken and some peppers last night, threw them together with a bag of leaves, buffalo mozzarella, croutons, tomatoes, avocado, some parma ham fried til crispy and broken up int little pieces, steamed asparagus. Made gravy in the roasting pan then turned it into a salad dressing with some extra oil and lemon juice. Delicious (obvs leave the chicken out and use different dressing for the veggie!)

Yes, that was kind of the sort of thing I was thinking of. Or a tabbouleh kind of salad with the couscous or quinoa?

Problem is the (elderly) veggie is fussy about textures and 'new' foods and I don't really want to be making 2 lots of food in this heat!

Mezze definitely the way to go, I'm doing halloumi with tabbouleh, houmous & falafel this evening.

I'm also a big fan of this warm salad, with either salmon, leftover roast chicken or a couple of hard boiled eggs [http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1511706/italian-bean-and-olive-salad]

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1511706/italian-bean-and-olive-salad

Uptoapoint - we're Asian, so used to spicy hot food, but the thought of cooking and eating curry/dhal and rice is not appealing today!

MooMin I understand. I always fancy hot (temperature-wise) food as well as spicy food - but I find the thai-style flavours to be somehow cooler (temperature-wise, not fashion-wise) IYKWIM. Sichuan flavours too. Yum. I'm hungry.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1841643/harissa-chicken-traybake-with-peppers-and-feta this is lovely with couscous. Leftovers are delicious cold too

Helen, that looks delicious. Suppose I could bulk up the couscous with chickpeas for the veggie?

Ice cream.

Yes you could easily, or do extra roasted veg and feta and do the chicken in a separate tray. My partners sil is a veggie and that's what she does. Roasted vine tomatoes go nicely with it too. It's one of my favourite recipes. I use fresh sweet peppers rather than ones from a jar. Never been one to follow a recipe to the letter

I was doing Kedgeree tonight but am changing it to cold smoked haddock and rice with salad!

My mum always used to make chaat type dishes during a heatwave. I remember dahi puri was a particular favourite. Obviously depends on having somewhere you could buy everything easily so it's just an assembly job rather than actual cooking. But will make your elderly vegetarian happy.

Karma, I'm sat here actually craving a plate of pani puri but unfortunately I'm no where near an Asian shop.

(Pani puri or Golgappa are bite sized puffed balls filled with chickpea/potato and a chilled coriander/mint/tamarind water. You pop the entire thing in your mouth and crunch down and its literally a flavour explosion in you mouth!)

Oh dear, so my post was most unhelpful then!

If it makes you feel any better, I too am now craving chaat with no immediate way to resolve

I roasted a chicken and a potato salad, with asparagus and fresh peas

Well in the end I went for a tabbouleh style couscous with chickpeas and the MN halloumi and veg kebabs. Seemed to have gone down well and plenty of couscous left over for tomorrow. Think I will do roast chicken thighs and chorizo tomorrow.

Grilled chicken, couscous and iceberg lettuce with home made ranch dressing tonight. DD will eat chicken but if not I would have added chickpeas, feta or haloumi to her dinner.

Home made pizza and Salad for tonight.
Tuna fillet, new potatoes and salad for tomorrow.

Pasta Trapanese- - based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. Dead easy to make and is somehow very refreshing. you basically put 7-8 fresh small whole tomatoes, a handful of almonds, a deseeded fresh red chilli, a big bunch of basil and a few mint leaves in a food processor. whizz up until fairly smooth, then add 50g Parmesan and a good dash of olive oil. we had it last night stirred into hot pasta and then again for lunch today stirred into cold pasta as a salad, with some chopped rocket stirred in.

Oops, you need a peeled garlic clove thrown into processor too!

Stir fry is quick to make and nice in this weather

We like wraps with lettuce, red onion or spring onions, sour cream dip and quorn chicken (breaded goujons, BBQ nuggets etc)

Salads, easy things. Tonight it's fish fingers, chips and peas here as children have friends over and it's easy to do without too much washing up.