Light and Yummy Summer Meals for Alfresco Dining

One of the great joys of summer weather is the rainbow of fruits and vegetables that make salads so inviting. The NEFF Oven FullSteam function makes it easy to prepare tender, flavour-packed meats, fish and poultry while also maintaining the freshness, colour, vitamins and minerals of your vegetables. It’s easy to create succulent, healthy meat, chicken, fish and vegetable dishes using the Griddle plate, which transforms your cooking zone into a grill. The Griddle plate is designed to enable oil to escape through the gaps, ensuring a lighter, healthier meal.

To ensure that you spend more time enjoying the weather, we have selected some of the tastiest, simplest, lightest meals to enjoy outdoors. They are maximum taste with minimal effort.

Tandoori Chicken with Roti Bread

This spicy chicken is tempered by a cooling, creamy yoghurt-based sauce. It’s bound to be a family favourite and it’s surprisingly easy to master. By preheating your oven on CircoRoast with medium steam, baking the chicken breasts is quick and the juices, flavour and tenderness are maintained. Take any guesswork out of the picture by using the MultiPoint MeatProbe, which ensures that meat is cooked to perfection every time by measuring the internal temperature of large cuts of meat, poultry and fish. For expert guidance on how to use the MultiPoint MeatProbe, view this handy video guide.

While the chicken is being steamed and baked to tender perfection, whip up a colourful salad of leafy greens, juicy cucumbers, crisp onion and sweet, red cherry tomatoes.

Rice Paper Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Combining crunchy, smooth, light textures of rice paper rolls filled with fresh vegetables and tasty chicken is a winning formula. With the creamy peanut sauce on the side, this meal is a delicious lunch or light dinner. Plus, it’s likely you have most of the ingredients already in your fridge and pantry–bonus.

If you haven’t tried sambal oelek, you’re in for a treat. The Indonesian chilli, ginger and garlic sauce adds a fiery, tangy element to this dish. Thanks to the CircoRoasting and FullSteam functions of your oven, there’s minimal cooking time. The preparation is the fun part–you might want to recruit your friends and family to help with filling and rolling once the sliced ingredients have been laid out.

Coconut & Sesame Chicken Tenders with Mango Salsa

This dish tastes as delightfully bright, zesty and fresh as it looks. Popping with the verdant green of coriander and spring onion, sunshine yellow mango and the bittersweet lime, it is the ideal summer dish. The crumbed chicken is adaptable too. If there’s any left over, you can use it in tacos, salads or healthy lunch wraps. The secret to this dish is in juicy, succulent chicken. Achieving this is easy using the CircoTherm function and just the right amount of steam to moisten the meat using VarioSteam. The preparation and cooking time is minimal, making this a wonderful meal to return to over and over again.

Tips to keep your meals lighter and healthier

 Where possible, removing the skin and any additional fat from your meat before cooking can be a simple way to make your meal healthier. Using steam, spices, herbs and other seasonings ensures your meat retains its full flavour. Lighter sauces that are based on yoghurts and vegetables can also be an ideal way to dial up the flavour without unnecessary oils and butter. And by choosing a wide array of colourful, seasonal fruits and vegetables to add to your plate, you’ll find it easier to feel satisfied without depriving yourself of the joy of a range of delicious, fulfilling foods.