Hot Weather, Cool Kitchen: 21 Vegan Recipes for People and a Planet that Need to Chill Out

Marla Rose
2 min readAug 24, 2023
Credit: Unsplash

The Chicago area is now experiencing the triple digit weather so many have lived through (or are currently still enduring) after a fairly cool summer by our standards. I am not complaining! Give me pleasant autumn weather year-round and I’d be happy.

I thought it might be nice to gather together some recipes that will not heat up your kitchen. Most are cold — yes, of course I’ve got gazpacho but there is so much more! — and a few are warm but made in the slow cooker so your home can stay cool. You will notice that most fit into the light meal category, which is fine for those hot days. I did not include any dessert recipes because, come on, just buy some dairy-free ice cream and be done with it, you know?

Before we get to the recipes, just a quick reminder that in addition to the other benefits, plant-based diets are one of the best ways to dramatically shrink our environmental footprints, including creating 75% less climate-heating emissions than diets in which more than 100 grams (or 3.5-ounces, less than a quarter pound) of meat a day was eaten. Don’t like climate change? You shouldn’t. Let’s do something about it.

Okay, now…let’s get to it, shall we?

Soups

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