Snacking Dinners Is the Cookbook of the Summer

Summers in my North Carolina hometown were marked by long, steamy days and the simplest and best of foods: pimiento cheese sandwiches (on white bread ONLY), tall glasses of crumbled-up cornbread in buttermilk, and raw corn on the cob still warm from the sunbaked field.

Even though I have since moved nearly 3,000 miles away, I kept most of my Southern summer eating habits, which really amount to snacking. A combination of intense heat, busy schedules, and pitch-perfect produce means that only the simplest dishes need apply for a spot on my patio table.

Turns out, summer snacking isn’t just a thing in the South. Georgia Freedman’s new cookbook, Snacking Dinners, is a hearty endorsement of this effortless way of eating, no matter where you live. While her book isn’t explicitly about summer eating—the recipes within will allow you to pull delicious dishes out of your magic kitchen hat year-round—it feels especially relevant right now.

I fired off a few questions to Georgia to get her take on how she snacks bountifully during these long summer days.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is a snacking dinner? What does this mean to you?

A snacking dinner is a way to make dinner fun and quick by ignoring all the “shoulds” we’ve learned about dinner—that it has to be a “complete” meal with a protein, a starch, and sides; that it has to meet all of your nutritional goals for the day in one meal; that it needs to be a hot meal eaten with a knife and fork (or spoon)—and just eat foods that you love and make something that’s easy to throw together in just a few minutes.

This could mean making a twist on a favorite childhood snack, like onigiri filled with smoked salmon or a grown-up version of pb&j made with your favorite nut butters and a mix of fresh and dried fruit. It could also mean taking 20 minutes to pull together the kind of meal you’d get at a wine bar or order from the appetizer section of a menu, like an antipasti board. The key is that it should be full of flavors you love, easy to make, and super fun to eat.

A snacking dinner is such a nice option for busy home cooks. For someone who’s never cooked this way, what suggestions do you have for getting started?

I think of snacking dinners as a way to make my busiest evenings easier. I always assume that at least one of my dinners will be derailed by a late meeting, traffic, homework questions from the kid, etc, so I plan one snacking dinner for the week and use that on my busiest day.

Most nights, we lean into “pantry snacks:” foods I can make with ingredients that I always keep around in my cabinet, like a black bean picadillo with canned beans, raisins, olives, pine nuts, and spices, or a make-your-own spicy tuna handrolls with canned tuna, short-grain rice, a few seasonings from the back of the fridge, and some nori and cucumber. Once you identify your favorite pantry friendly snacking meals, you can just keep those ingredients on your regular shopping list alongside your sandwich bread, milk, etc. That way they’re always available when you need them.

What’s your go-to summer dinner?

The burrata with fresh summer fruit, pesto, honey drizzle, and toasted baguette on the cover of the book is one of my absolute favorite summer meals. I just get whatever fruit looks best at the market and pile it on the bread with the creamy cheese as a base. If I’m feeding a crowd, I also like to make a big pasta full of raw sweet corn, a mix of fresh and roasted tomatoes, some sautéed leeks, chunks of mozzarella, and lots of fresh basil. It’s the best flavors of the season all on one plate. 

Summer veggies vs. summer fruit—which do you choose, and why?

Fruit—which, to be clear, includes tomatoes! I love corn and okra and soft salad greens (and I eat a salad for lunch pretty much every day of the summer, because there are so many delicious things I can throw in), but you really can’t beat peaches and berries and figs and apricots. And what would summer be without tomatoes?

What’s your ultimate tomato sandwich?

The classic combo of tomato, mayo (ideally Kewpie), and white bread is always great. But my “ultimate” tomato sandwich is actually a cross between that classic and a pimento cheese sandwich. I love it so much that there’s a finger sandwich version in my book. If my tomatoes are really flavorful, I’ll use the pimento cheese as a tangy spread, so the thick slices of tomato are the stars; if the tomatoes I’ve got are not as good as I’d hoped, I just add more cheese and the flavor is still spectacular.

What is a summer barbecue requirement for you?

An elaborate salad of some kind (or two). We try to keep barbecues easy and cook almost everything right on the grill, so I always make a big salad full of interesting flavors to add a fresh note and round out the meal. Sometimes it’s just a wedge (always a hit!) or a green salad filled with thinly sliced sweet peas, ribbons of carrot, papery rounds of cucumber and radish, and maybe some fresh herbs.

What is the first recipe someone should make from your cookbook, and why?

Given that it’s summer, I’d absolutely start with that burrata-fruit dish on the cover. And if you want something just a teeny bit more elaborate, or just prefer something hot for dinner, I’d go with the broiled feta and tomatoes with crusty bread. It’s basically that viral pasta dish from a few years ago where you bake a block of feta with chopped tomatoes all in one pan, but instead of adding pasta at the end (and kind of ruining a gorgeous dish by turning everything into mush), you eat all the ingredients on toasted baguette. I’ve also added some mild peppers and olives to the mix to boost the flavor.

What is one recipe from your cookbook you keep making over and over again?

The kimchi melt. There isn’t a photo, so I worry that this recipe will get overlooked, but I make it all the time! It’s like a tuna melt but with lightly seasoned kimchi in place of the fish, and I add some potato chips on top for some fun crunch. It’s a perfect “pantry snack” because I always have the kimchi, bread, seasonings, and cheese in my kitchen (and often the chips), and it has such an amazing flavor.

You’re running late and pop into a grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. What are you grabbing?

The artisan breads section is pretty much the first thing you see when you walk into my favorite grocery store, and if I don’t have a plan in mind it becomes a perfect place to start building a meal. Once I grab a fresh baguette or a sourdough boule, I can opt for a super-simple dinner by just getting some cheese or pre-packaged pâté (and probably some soft salad greens); or I get some ricotta and fresh greens to make delicious toasts.

If I want to make something more elaborate, I can head to the fish counter for some salmon or a couple pounds of clams, or get some ground meat and good-quality canned tomatoes to make meatballs with a super quick tomato sauce. A good loaf of bread is the perfect backbone for so many different kinds of meals.

BUY THE COOKBOOK: Snacking Dinners