Delectable Vegetarian Summer Recipes

With the summer heat's temperatures on the rise, many meals will revolve heavily around the easiest way to devour fresh seasonal produce and utilize that grill. So don’t reach for the same old recipe rotations, refresh your mealtime routine with these amazing vegetarian summer recipes everyone will love. Our collection of sun-kissed, rainbow-hued, and easily prepared recipes has something for everyone to enjoy with indulgence spread throughout!

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Now let’s begin with our burger of choice this summer, a meatless burger that will be devoured in an instant! Serve these super flavorful burgers with a quick cilantro yogurt sauce and lots of bright-colored crunch veggies on top!

Curried Chickpea Burgers

Ingredients:

15.5 oz. can chickpeas                                                 2-3 garlic cloves

1cup brown rice, cooked                                              ¼ cup shredded carrots

3 tablespoons shallot, finely chopped                         1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons greek yogurt                                          ½ teaspoon turmeric

2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder                                      ⅛ teaspoon coriander

½  teaspoon salt + additional to taste                           ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoon flour                                                          4 tablespoons panko

 Instructions:

1. In a food processor or using an immersion blender, blend together chickpeas, brown rice, shredded carrot, shallot, and garlic until well mixed together. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients - lemon juice, greek yogurt, turmeric, curry powder, coriander, salt, cumin, cinnamon, flour, and panko - together with the chickpea mixture. If the mixture is warm and difficult to form (which can happen if you've used just-cooked rice), place it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
3. Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form 4 equal-sized patties from the mixture and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes on each side.
4. Heat a grill pan over medium heat and coat with coconut oil (or oil of choice). Place patties on the pan once oil is heated and pan fry until each side is golden brown, approximately 3 minutes on each side. Press flat with a spatula as needed.

Serve with burger buns, cilantro, yogurt sauce, tomato, and lettuce as desired.

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If you’re on TikTok lately, you are probably familiar with the viral recipe of the Grinder Sandwich that is everywhere! It’s an Italian-style sub sandwich that is packed with lots of meat, cheese, veggies, and a mayo-based red wine vinegar and pepperoncini sauce. So here is a meatless and healthier recipe with all the incredible flavors, textures, and colors that will brighten up any summer table.

                                           Vegetarian Grinder Salad

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained & rinsed                       2 teaspoons olive oil

½ teaspoon granulated garlic                                           ½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon smoked paprika                                            ½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon onion powder                                                Cayenne pepper to taste

1 head iceberg lettuce                                                       1 cup croutons

¾  cup chopped pepperoncini                                          1 red onion

1 cup diced tomatoes                                                                                                  fresh parsley & oregano to taste                                                       

1 cup cubed cheese (I used vegetarian parmesan but you can use whatever you like)

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayo, I used vegan mayo               2 tablespoons olive oil                      1/4 cup red wine vinegar                             1 tablespoon lemon juice                      2 cloves garlic, minced                                1 teaspoon dried oregano                Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Start by preparing your chickpeas. Drain and rinse your chickpeas and then add them to a medium-sized pan over medium heat with a couple of teaspoons of oil.  Cook chickpeas for a few minutes, until starting to brown, and then add in your seasonings.  Mix together to make sure all the chickpeas are coated and cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Make the dressing: add all dressing ingredients to a bowl, or jar, and mix until everything is combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
3. Prepare your lettuce next. I wanted this to be more of a chopped salad, so I used an entire head of iceberg lettuce and chopped it into bite-size pieces.  Add the iceberg lettuce to a large bowl.
4. Assemble your salad. To the top of the iceberg lettuce, add your chickpeas and all the remaining salad ingredients.  I sectioned off everything so you could get a good look at all the individual ingredients but you can also just throw everything into the bowl on top of each other.
5. Pour over the desired amount of dressing and enjoy!

This next recipe is super easy, has only two ingredients, and is unbelievably refreshing! All you will need is watermelon and lemon juice to make this crowd-pleasing summer drink. Watermelon, after all, is the perfect summer snack, being 92% water it will help you stay hydrated, it's naturally sweet, low in calories, and just happens to be a beautiful vibrant color of pink. Fabulous!

                              2-Ingredient Watermelon Lemonade

Ingredients:

1 small seedless watermelon                            1/3 –1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Instructions:  

1. Cut the rind off the watermelon and then cut it into bite-size chunks. Place watermelon into a blender and blend for about 1 minute, until it’s completely liquid.  You may need to help it get started at first but eventually, it will all blend.
2. Place a mesh strainer over a large bowl and pour watermelon juice into the strainer.  Let juice drain out.  You can pick up the strainer and rock it from side to side to encourage more juice to come out but you don’t want to use a spoon to press down everything in the strainer.  If you do that it will allow some of the pulp to get through and you don’t want that.  Once it’s just pulp left in the strainer you can dump that out and strain the rest of the juice.
3. If there are lots of bubbles on top of the watermelon juice, or if some of the pulp got through, use a spoon to scoop it off the top. You may want to let it sit for a few minutes to let things settle down before doing this.                            
4. Pour the fresh lemon juice into the watermelon juice and mix until combined. You can use as little or as much lemon juice as you like.  I usually use about 1/3 cup.  Enjoy watermelon lemonade over ice and garnish with fresh herbs or a lemon!

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The grand finale recipe has the kids in mind, this rainbow fruit salad is packed with tons of healthy fruit and is great for breakfast, snacks, and even dessert! You certainly can just use whatever fruit you have on hand to make fruit salad and top it with a dollop of whipped cream. YUMMY!

Rainbow Fruit Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

 2 cups diced strawberries                 2 cups mini orange slices                               2 cups diced pineapple                     2 cups peeled & diced kiwi                            2 cups blueberries                             2 cups red grapes, I sliced mine in half          2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice      2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey

Optional toppings or mix-ins: whipped cream, coconut whipped cream, sprinkles, apple juice

Instructions:

1. Add the lemon juice and maple syrup to a large bowl and whisk together.
2. Add all the fruit to the bowl and mix until combined and all the fruit is coated with the syrup. If desired you can mix in some extra sweetener or top with whipped cream.