It is hot! And I have no AC.. And my ceiling fan had died. Which means I am definitely not turning on the oven, and even the stove top can be unpleasant. Luckily for me, it’s zucchini season, and I’ve been mixing up a ton of zucchini “pastas,” or raw salads, if you’d rather call them that. I use a ridged vegetable peeler to create long, spaghetti-like ribbons, but some people like the wider, ribbon style cut you’ll get if you use a mandolin slicer. Either way is good, and if you have really good knife skills, you can do it all by hand. My favorite way to dress up the zucchini is with pesto, fresh cherry tomatoes, and a grating of Parmesan
on top, which also happens to be the easiest. I’ll also add a protein like chicken, salmon, or shrimp if I’m eating the salad as a main course. Yum!

Check out these other sauce and topping ideas. They would also work on good, old fashioned grain pasta too:

Lemon-yogurt cream

Avocado cream sauce

Creamy peanut sauce

What’s your favorite summer meal to beat the heat?