When Corn Meets Squash: The Perfect Late-Summer Menu

There is always that point in August when something starts to change.

The days are still hot. The grill is still getting plenty of action. Colorado produce is absolutely showing off. Then you get one cool evening and suddenly you start thinking about soup.

Not full blown soup season, of course. Let’s not get carried away.

This is one of my favorite times of year to cook because we get to have a little bit of everything. Summer is still giving us peaches, tomatoes, sweet corn and fresh herbs, while those first hints of fall start sneaking onto our plates.

So don’t pack up the grill and start putting pumpkin spice in everything just yet. Keep the peaches. Add the apples. Let’s cook between seasons.

Start With What Summer Is Still Giving Us

Late August is not the time to abandon summer produce. Quite the opposite.

If you live in Colorado, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Palisade peaches are here, farmers markets are packed with beautiful produce and backyard gardens are producing tomatoes and zucchini faster than people know what to do with them.

This is peak flavor territory.

Grab those tomatoes. Buy the corn. Take home the giant bag of peaches you swore you weren’t going to buy. Then start changing how you use them.

Earlier in the summer, I want everything light, crisp and fresh. As we move toward fall, I start adding a little more depth. Grill the peaches, roast the tomatoes and char the corn. You are still cooking with summer ingredients, but suddenly they feel a little warmer and richer.

Keep Those Palisade Peaches Around

I will happily find an excuse to put Palisade peaches on just about anything while they are available.

They are fantastic straight from the fruit bowl, but late summer is a great time to start playing with savory applications.

Try grilled peaches with burrata, fresh basil and balsamic. Add sliced peaches to a grilled chicken salad. Make a peach salsa for pork or fish. Roast peaches and serve them alongside pork tenderloin. You can even toss them on a pizza with prosciutto, goat cheese and arugula.

Peaches are one of those ingredients that can easily move from a bright summer dish into something a little richer. And yes, dessert absolutely counts. A warm peach crisp with vanilla ice cream is basically summer and fall sharing the same bowl.

Now Bring in the Apples

This is where things start getting interesting.

As apples begin showing up, you can start mixing them into dishes that still feel perfect for August and early September. You do not need to immediately make an apple pie. Try adding crisp apple slices to a salad with goat cheese, toasted pecans and a simple vinaigrette.

Pair apples with pork. Add them to a grilled cheese sandwich with sharp cheddar. Make an apple slaw for grilled chicken or pulled pork. You can even combine apples and peaches in the same dish.

That is the beauty of cooking between seasons. There are no rules saying your summer ingredients have to leave the kitchen before your fall ingredients can come in. I say let them hang out together.

Give Your Salads a Little More Substance

I love a good summer salad, but as the evenings start cooling down, I want a salad that actually feels like dinner.

This is an easy place to start transitioning your menu. Keep your greens and fresh vegetables, then add something warm. Grilled chicken. Roasted sweet potatoes. Warm grains. Toasted nuts. Roasted squash. Grilled corn. Try a salad with mixed greens, grilled chicken, sliced peaches, toasted pecans and goat cheese. Or make a grain bowl with quinoa, roasted vegetables, fresh tomatoes, herbs and a good vinaigrette.

You still get all those fresh summer flavors, but the meal has a little more staying power.

Don’t Put the Grill Away

Please.

We still have plenty of grilling season left, in fact one can argue you can grill year round here. The grill is one of my favorite tools for transitioning into fall because it gives food that smoky, deeper flavor without requiring you to turn on the oven when it is still 90 degrees outside.

Grill your peaches. Throw some zucchini on there. Grill chicken thighs with rosemary and garlic. Cook pork chops and serve them with an apple chutney. Grill sausages and pair them with peppers and onions. You can even grill wedges of squash.

August grilling does not have to look exactly like June grilling. Start swapping a few ingredients and suddenly your dinner has a completely different personality.

Start Playing With Warmer Spices

You can change the entire feel of a dish just by changing the seasonings.

Summer tends to lean heavily into bright flavors like citrus, fresh basil, cilantro and mint. Keep those flavors around, but start introducing some of the warmer spices we associate with fall. Think cinnamon, cumin, smoked paprika, nutmeg, ginger, rosemary, sage and thyme. You do not need much.

A little rosemary on grilled chicken can instantly make dinner feel more like September. Add smoked paprika to roasted potatoes. Put cinnamon and ginger into a peach dessert. Use sage with pork. Mix thyme into roasted vegetables. This is one of the easiest ways to start shifting your cooking without completely changing what you are making.

Roast a Few Things

There comes a point every August or September when I finally feel ready to turn the oven back on. Not every day, let’s be reasonable. But roasting is one of the easiest ways to take summer vegetables into the next season. Roasted tomatoes become sweeter and richer. Roasted zucchini gets beautifully caramelized. Peppers become smoky and soft. Corn gets a completely different personality when roasted. Then, as squash and root vegetables start appearing, you can toss those onto the pan too. One sheet pan can easily have summer and fall happening at the same time. That sounds like dinner to me.

Cook With Me

One of my favorite things about cooking is that food is always changing with us. The ingredients change, the weather changes and what sounds good for dinner changes right along with it. That is what makes cooking fun.

At Chef Aarika’s Kitchen, I love helping people get into the kitchen, try something new and discover that great food does not have to be complicated. Our team loves hosting in-home dinner parties with seasonal menus or themed private culinary lessons. We would love to celebrate the changing of the seasons with you!