Grilled Squash with Chickpeas, Raisins + Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

Every week, Caroline Wright creates simple, civilized recipes for Food52 that feed four -- for under $20, in under 20 minutes.

Today: Make the most of summer vegetables -- while they're still around -- by making a substantial, satisfying salad. 

My CSA has been loading us with summer squash for the past few weeks, as we are nearing the end of the growing season (and approaching scorched earth season) here in Texas. Perhaps that is why I am so smitten with the vegetable family lately, out of an acceptance of the inevitable and a challenge to celebrate it in different ways. 

This recipe is a different response to my constant summer craving for salad (a more altruistic but equally persistent craving than that of, say, a soft serve ice cream from a truck on a city street). This is a knife-and-fork dish, considered a salad only in the way that, respectively, a warm plate of root vegetables dressed in vinaigrette is a salad in winter. Neither its flavor or its texture is yielding, with creamy spiced chickpeas and forkfuls of smoky, tender bites of zucchini dressed in a garlic yogurt. 

Grilled Summer Squash with Charred Chickpeas, Raisins + Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

Serves 4

3 medium, mixed summer squash (such as zucchini, yellow, pattypan), cut lengthwise into 1-inch wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest plus lemon wedges for serving
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 garlic cloves
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

As a freelance food writer and cook, I first wrote this style of recipe as a column on my blog, The Wright Recipes, as an excuse to cook good food for my friends in a quick and simple way. 

Twenty-Dollar, Twenty-Minute™ Meals grew into a cookbook that was published by Workman in May 2013. The recipes found here are original, made especially for Food52 to once again celebrate simple food with friends.

Photos by Caroline Wright