Summer fun can get toasty when the temperatures soar. If you’re feeling worn down by a day in the sun, beat the heat with a menu packed with cool, refreshing foods.
Stews and soups might be fine for a crisp fall or cold winter, but summer food should be light, easy to make and eat, and cooling. Let’s look at some cool menu choices for your next summer soirée.
Foods that Refresh – Menu Makers for Summer
There are a variety of ways to serve up a menu that’s refreshing, just by choosing foods that lend themselves to being served cold.
Vegetable Salads
Crisp salads loaded with fresh summer vegetables are the quintessential summer food. From leafy green salads to creamy potato and egg salads, there’s a choice for even the most finicky of eaters.
In fact, when kids are in tow, try pasta salads — almost every kid loves pasta!
Cocktail Salads
As beautiful as they are tasty, cocktail salads are a great way to add elegance and flavor to your menu. Choose from a variety of shrimp cocktail recipes, or add a cold fruit salad brimming with fresh, seasonal berries and fruits.
Appetizers
The sky’s the limit for cooling finger-foods!
From simple vegetable and cheese trays to homemade salsas, hummus, or even sushi — it’s easy to whip up some flavorful bites that are as simple to make as they are to eat.
Cold Soups
You can make an elaborate soup, like Vichyssoise, or just chill with a piquant bowl of gazpacho. There are plenty of chilled vegetable soup recipes, and even a number of cold fruit soup varieties as well.
Desserts
Ice cream, popsicles, frozen fruit bars, and freezer pies — there’s no end to the number of summer desserts you can put on ice.
Drinks
Whether you’re serving cold beer, chilled wine, soda, water, or even mixed drinks, smoothies, or milkshakes, all you need is your favorite beverage and a whole lot of ice to make any drink refreshing.
Even traditionally hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate can find new life as summer sippers when served on ice.
A Commercial Ice Maker Makes Keeping Summer Foods Cool a Breeze
Forget loading heavy bags of ice into your car, only to find them half-melted by the time you get home. When you have summer foods you need to keep cool, a commercial ice maker is the answer.
Commercial ice makers like the Manitowoc ice machine can generate all the ice you need for your next summer picnic, gathering, or event.
And let’s face it, you’ll need ice to keep your cold dishes cold, but you’ll also need some for drinks. You want clear, fresh-tasting ice that won’t add flavor to your beverage, and that’s where a commercial icemaker excels.
Not only can a Manitowoc ice machine produce all the ice you need, there’s a model to fit in even the smallest of spaces.
So, don’t sweat it this summer — serve up a menu that will have friends and family chillin’ with the help of a commercial ice maker.