Discover the mouthwatering inspiration behind Thistle's summer menu – from freeze-dried fruit creations to vibrant falafel bowls, and refreshing lettuce cups, plus the return of one of our top-rated meals of all time.
I know it’s kind of a cliché, but summer is without a doubt my favorite season. The weather is warm, the sundresses make a reappearance and the garden is bursting with color and delicious flavor. When Thistle’s Culinary R&D team sat down to plan our summer menu, we had a few special ingredients in mind – peaches, strawberries, summer squash, and sweet corn. There are 30+ new and seasonal meals on our summer menu, so here's a deep dive into some of our very favorites!
One ingredient we had a lot of fun experimenting with this season’s menu was freeze dried fruit. Freeze drying is a dehydration process that removes the food’s water content by turning it from ice to vapor. The process preserves the ingredient’s nutritional value and creates a highly concentrated, bright flavor – perfect for our summer dishes! You can try these freeze dried strawberries in our new breakfast, Strawberry Cake with Vanilla Cashew Cream. In contrast to fresh or frozen strawberries, the freeze dried versions mix in nicely with the batter without losing color, and hold their shape so you can enjoy a bright burst of strawberry flavor in each bite. Our vanilla cashew cream adds a creamy richness to the cake, not to mention a little boost of protein and fat which help keep you feeling fuller longer.
Freeze dried fruit is also featured in our Chocolate Covered Strawberry Overnight Oats and our new Banana Pudding Mousse Cup. For both of these recipes, we ground up freeze dried fruit and then mixed in the pulverized ingredient to infuse the entire meal with the tangy fruit flavor. Notably, Thistle has been a longtime sourcer of freeze dried berries from Karen’s Naturals. We had a blast expanding the variety of items we source from this incredible partner and utilize their unique product in new and exciting ways.
The Blue Lagoon Falafel Bowl is a personal tribute to an incredible falafel sandwich I ate last summer at a tiki bar in New York, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since. I knew I wanted to find a way to Thistle-ify this delicious meal to meet our macro and micro nutrient standards. A few years ago Thistle’s Chef de Cuisine Naiha Falkner created a really unique falafel crumble for a salad, so I decided to bring that recipe back inspired by my falafel experience. Naiha’s flavor-packed falafel crumble is paired with sweet pineapple pieces, tangy pickled cabbage, and protein-packed orzo made of legumes, topped with a drizzle of vibrant Blue Lagoon Ranch infused with blue spirulina. Each of these beautiful colors and contrasting flavors join together to create a really hearty, creative, and incredibly delicious falafel bowl. Thank you, Tiki Chick, for the inspiration!
Recently we’ve rolled out new meal formats, like sandwich kits and lettuce cups, to offer seasonal variety for our members eager for more types of Thistle meals. A new lettuce cup meal we’re launching this summer is our Veggie Burger Lettuce Cups, made with housemade black bean burger crumbles and paired with crisp little gem lettuce, sliced roma tomatoes and diced, fresh red onion. We tie the “burger” experience together by serving it with a sweet and tangy Thousand Island burger sauce. This lettuce cup meal can also be enjoyed like a regular salad by tearing up the lettuce cups and mixing everything together with the dressing on top. Voilà – your lettuce cups have transformed into a salad.
We’ve also transformed our Thistle Cobb Salad to reflect the seasons, something we do throughout the year so that we’re also sourcing the freshest ingredients for this menu mainstay. Our Summer Cobb Salad is topped with a Strawberry Ranch that features a beautiful pink hue and just a touch of sweetness, and is just as familiar and delicious as a classic ranch dressing. The Summer Cobb Salad also has roasted zucchini, shredded broccoli and carrots, our funky Sorghum “Bleu” – truly summer on a plate! We use vegan bacon from our partners Cool Foods for the final topping.
We are especially excited to bring back seasonal favorites from last year that our members are anticipating to return on the menu. Our Grilled Corn and Poblano Chile Salad is one of those special dishes that emulate some of the best of summer produce. It’s no surprise it’s a top rated dish of all time! What makes this dish so memorable and delicious is the Roasted Jalapeno Ranch dressing. We roast whole jalapenos so they’re nice and charred, and then deseed them and blend them together with our homemade vegan mayo, fresh cilantro and lime juice to make the flavor really shine. Another star of this salad are the grilled sweet corn and poblano peppers, which add a nice smoky flavor that is balanced by the bright crunchy cabbage and garlic rice. This meal is one of my personal favorites!
Our snacks often play double-duty as desserts for their delicious sweet flavors and meal formats. We are bringing back our Peach Cobbler Mousse with Sweet Smoked Almonds – a member favorite and one that screams summer. Thistle’s Chef de Cuisine Naiha Falkner grew up in the South and has a special place in her heart for BBQ, or rather anything smoked. If you see something “smoky” on the menu, you can bet it's one of Naiha’s creations, and this Peach Cobbler is no exception. These Sweet Smoked Almonds are roasted with maple syrup, cinnamon, smoked paprika and a touch of chipotle powder to give a smoky, sweet crunch that pairs perfectly with the tangy coconut mousse and sweet peach compote. The taste of summer in every bite!
Check out Next Week's Menu to view the upcoming fully prepared and nutritious meals you can get delivered right to your doorstep.
Discover the mouthwatering inspiration behind Thistle's summer menu – from freeze-dried fruit creations to vibrant falafel bowls, and refreshing lettuce cups, plus the return of one of our top-rated meals of all time.
I know it’s kind of a cliché, but summer is without a doubt my favorite season. The weather is warm, the sundresses make a reappearance and the garden is bursting with color and delicious flavor. When Thistle’s Culinary R&D team sat down to plan our summer menu, we had a few special ingredients in mind – peaches, strawberries, summer squash, and sweet corn. There are 30+ new and seasonal meals on our summer menu, so here's a deep dive into some of our very favorites!
One ingredient we had a lot of fun experimenting with this season’s menu was freeze dried fruit. Freeze drying is a dehydration process that removes the food’s water content by turning it from ice to vapor. The process preserves the ingredient’s nutritional value and creates a highly concentrated, bright flavor – perfect for our summer dishes! You can try these freeze dried strawberries in our new breakfast, Strawberry Cake with Vanilla Cashew Cream. In contrast to fresh or frozen strawberries, the freeze dried versions mix in nicely with the batter without losing color, and hold their shape so you can enjoy a bright burst of strawberry flavor in each bite. Our vanilla cashew cream adds a creamy richness to the cake, not to mention a little boost of protein and fat which help keep you feeling fuller longer.
Freeze dried fruit is also featured in our Chocolate Covered Strawberry Overnight Oats and our new Banana Pudding Mousse Cup. For both of these recipes, we ground up freeze dried fruit and then mixed in the pulverized ingredient to infuse the entire meal with the tangy fruit flavor. Notably, Thistle has been a longtime sourcer of freeze dried berries from Karen’s Naturals. We had a blast expanding the variety of items we source from this incredible partner and utilize their unique product in new and exciting ways.
The Blue Lagoon Falafel Bowl is a personal tribute to an incredible falafel sandwich I ate last summer at a tiki bar in New York, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since. I knew I wanted to find a way to Thistle-ify this delicious meal to meet our macro and micro nutrient standards. A few years ago Thistle’s Chef de Cuisine Naiha Falkner created a really unique falafel crumble for a salad, so I decided to bring that recipe back inspired by my falafel experience. Naiha’s flavor-packed falafel crumble is paired with sweet pineapple pieces, tangy pickled cabbage, and protein-packed orzo made of legumes, topped with a drizzle of vibrant Blue Lagoon Ranch infused with blue spirulina. Each of these beautiful colors and contrasting flavors join together to create a really hearty, creative, and incredibly delicious falafel bowl. Thank you, Tiki Chick, for the inspiration!
Recently we’ve rolled out new meal formats, like sandwich kits and lettuce cups, to offer seasonal variety for our members eager for more types of Thistle meals. A new lettuce cup meal we’re launching this summer is our Veggie Burger Lettuce Cups, made with housemade black bean burger crumbles and paired with crisp little gem lettuce, sliced roma tomatoes and diced, fresh red onion. We tie the “burger” experience together by serving it with a sweet and tangy Thousand Island burger sauce. This lettuce cup meal can also be enjoyed like a regular salad by tearing up the lettuce cups and mixing everything together with the dressing on top. Voilà – your lettuce cups have transformed into a salad.
We’ve also transformed our Thistle Cobb Salad to reflect the seasons, something we do throughout the year so that we’re also sourcing the freshest ingredients for this menu mainstay. Our Summer Cobb Salad is topped with a Strawberry Ranch that features a beautiful pink hue and just a touch of sweetness, and is just as familiar and delicious as a classic ranch dressing. The Summer Cobb Salad also has roasted zucchini, shredded broccoli and carrots, our funky Sorghum “Bleu” – truly summer on a plate! We use vegan bacon from our partners Cool Foods for the final topping.
We are especially excited to bring back seasonal favorites from last year that our members are anticipating to return on the menu. Our Grilled Corn and Poblano Chile Salad is one of those special dishes that emulate some of the best of summer produce. It’s no surprise it’s a top rated dish of all time! What makes this dish so memorable and delicious is the Roasted Jalapeno Ranch dressing. We roast whole jalapenos so they’re nice and charred, and then deseed them and blend them together with our homemade vegan mayo, fresh cilantro and lime juice to make the flavor really shine. Another star of this salad are the grilled sweet corn and poblano peppers, which add a nice smoky flavor that is balanced by the bright crunchy cabbage and garlic rice. This meal is one of my personal favorites!
Our snacks often play double-duty as desserts for their delicious sweet flavors and meal formats. We are bringing back our Peach Cobbler Mousse with Sweet Smoked Almonds – a member favorite and one that screams summer. Thistle’s Chef de Cuisine Naiha Falkner grew up in the South and has a special place in her heart for BBQ, or rather anything smoked. If you see something “smoky” on the menu, you can bet it's one of Naiha’s creations, and this Peach Cobbler is no exception. These Sweet Smoked Almonds are roasted with maple syrup, cinnamon, smoked paprika and a touch of chipotle powder to give a smoky, sweet crunch that pairs perfectly with the tangy coconut mousse and sweet peach compote. The taste of summer in every bite!
Check out Next Week's Menu to view the upcoming fully prepared and nutritious meals you can get delivered right to your doorstep.
