By Dan Clapson
As sad as it can be to wave goodbye to tasty spring ingredients like asparagus and fresh morels, summer means we can look forward to a plethora of exciting Canadian-grown fruits and vegetables arriving at local markets and grocers. Each week there will be more and more (and more!) freshly-grown bounty to be enjoyed, which means there’s no better time of year to get cooking.
With the proliferation of in-season fruits and vegetables comes the common query: What’s something new that I can do with [insert fresh summer ingredient name here] this summer?

5 interesting ideas to make the most of summer fruits and vegetables
Try grilling unlikely veggies like leafy greens, cucumbers and radishes
If your barbecue isn’t being put to work on a daily basis, are you really embracing the summer season?
Grilling summer squash, onions, carrots and bell peppers is nothing new to one’s summer dinner agenda, but I think it’s time to branch out a bit. Both swiss chard and kale are great options for greens that can handle a quick grill at high heat. Watch as their stems tenderize, leaves wilt and leave ends start to crisp. Whole scallions will also grill in a very similar way, adding an interesting dimension to your finished product.
Cucumbers and radishes may seem like unlikely candidates for grilling, but once you’ve tried it once, I promise you’ll be hooked—you can try this grilled radish recipe as an easy guide.
Combine cooked and raw veggies and/or fruits to create unique salads brimming with textures
Unless we’re talking about dips, purees or sauces, having multiple textures in a dish almost always helps turn something from good to great.
Take a Greek-style salad for instance. Try grilling or roasting half of the vegetables it calls for and allow them to come to room temperature before continuing along with the recipe. What you’ll end up with is a salad that boasts a bite that encompasses so many elements of flavour and texture: sweet, soft, crunchy, tangy, salty, sweet, bitter…and even a little umami from the grilling or roasting. Magic!
Don’t be afraid to try using berries like cherries (BC sweet and Prairie sour and everything in-between), haskaps and wild blueberries in savoury recipes



Tarts, pies, dessert bars, pound cake…there are a million ways to use locally-grown berries in an al fresco-friendly dessert at this time of year, but why not lean savoury once and a while?
Toss together a few barbecued peaches and grilled onions with a splash or two of cold-pressed canola oil and grainy mustard and you’ve got a vibrant accompaniment for virtually any grilled protein. (Plums, nectarines and apricots work well in this equation too.)
Generally speaking, caramelized onions that are cooked down with chopped fruit of choice (approximately 1:1 ratio), with a little salt and a splash of vinegar will never lead you astray if you’re wanting to make a sweet-savoury condiment.
On that note, you’ve got to try this recipe for raspberry-macerated onions from my cookbook Prairie. It’s nothing more than mashing together berries with thinly sliced onions, honey, oil, garlic and salt and letting the mixture sit until softened. The end result is a beautiful fresh-tasting condiment to use all summer long.
Don’t ask yourself “Will it pickle?”. Rather, ask yourself “Why not pickle it?”
These days, it’s impossible to deny that pickles are the moment. While most of the viral pickle trends centre around a classic dill pickle being repurposed in a myriad of ways, know that there are so many fresh ingredients that can be amped up by a simple quick pickle.
A few of my favourite ingredients to quick pickle in the summer are: Swiss chard stems, kale stems, pitted cherries, halved or quartered strawberries, and sliced peaches and plums.
All of these things make for a pleasantly tangy addition to a simple garden salad, a charcuterie board or simply served on the side with grilled proteins like steak, turkey skewers, pork ribs, chicken thighs, and…well, you get the point!
Quick pickling with fruits is beneficial to both the fruit and pickling liquid, leaving you with a fruit-infused vinegar too. So make sure to strain and save it for tasty vinaigrette or marinade.
Infuse locally-distilled spirits with summer fruits—or vegetables and herbs if you’re extra adventurous
To anyone out there who loves sipping on a bright, refreshing cocktail in the summer sun, this tip for infusing alcohol with summer fruit is for you!
Being a neutral spirit, vodka is always a great base for making a fruit-infused spirit, but gin can definitely work too.
Cleaned and chopped fruit—tossed with a little sugar to get the maceration going—and a clean bottle or mason jar(s) is all you need to give a basic vodka or gin and fruit level up. Store in a dry, cool place, shaking the bottle or mason jar every now and again; once or twice a day is fine.
(Note: Alcohol will extract flavour and colour quite quickly, sometimes in mere hours, but the longer an infusion sits, the more potent it will taste.)