Greek salad: the ultimate heatwave dish

Good lord, it’s hot. I mean, really, really hot. Right now, the heat is so overwhelming as to feel like it is tangible, as if you could reach out and touch it. All we’re capable of talking about is the heat; any other polite conversation is too much for our fried brains. Normally, when our annual heatwave hits, I proffer some halfway house of a recipe: a dish that only needs the hob, not the oven, or is sufficiently refreshing or brightening that it justifies the added kitchen heat. But, this year, even that compromise seems unmanageable.

At this stage, it would feel disingenuous, nay cruel, to offer up a recipe even for something like for ice cream, as that’s going to require making a custard base and honestly, who can bear the thought of standing over a stove waiting for eggs to coagulate? Not me.

We are not a country with the infrastructure to survive even the slightest increase in temperature, let alone what we’re facing now.