When temperatures inch toward 80 degrees, it’s OK to use the word “cook” loosely. This time of year, dinners are often made on the fly anyway, tossed together after a day at a park or by a pool. The New York Times Cooking recipes below stick to those unwritten rules of summer cooking: They must be bright and quick, with absolutely no oven required.
Find more summer dinners at New York Times Cooking.
In this six-ingredient recipe, Ali Slagle employs a straightforward technique to yield flavorful results. Simply resting well-seasoned, just-grilled meat over fresh summer produce creates juicier, softened vegetables without any additional cooking.
Is it even summer if you haven’t casually thrown together an assembly line dinner of tacos? Yewande Komolafe pairs cumin- and cayenne-spiked shrimp with a tangy slaw of lime-pickled cabbage for tacos with plenty of verve.
Recipe: Shrimp Tacos
If you have to turn on the stove, it’s best to streamline where possible. That’s what Ali Slagle does here, tossing both lentils and orzo into the same pot of boiling water so you’re firing only one burner. All of the other elements in this vibrant vegan salad, including the zucchini, are left uncooked, so that there are a variety of textures and temperatures.
This Seville-style gazpacho from Julia Moskin makes the perfect lunch or dinner on days when turning on the stove sounds sacrilegious. This chilled, creamy (but creamless!) soup takes a cool 20 minutes to blend, season and strain.
Few recipes rival the simplicity of a cooling block of silken tofu draped in a dressing that comes together in mere seconds. While the beauty of this dish lies in how little work it requires, Hetty McKinnon has plenty of suggestions for how to amp it up: Add fresh herbs, top with crunch peanuts or fried shallots, or serve with something pickly, like kimchi, pickled mustard root or tangy radishes.
A well-dressed salad can make for a light but filling summer meal. “Adding to the chorus of folks saying this dressing is stellar!” one commenter wrote of the umami-rich blend of cashews, garlic, mustard, miso paste and caper brine in this recipe from Becky Hughes. If it’s too hot to turn on the oven for the toppings — crunchy chickpeas and rustic croutons — you could make quick work of them on the stovetop.
A satisfying way to prepare fresh summer tomatoes is to grate them. Tejal Rao seasons what is essentially a no-cook sauce with coconut oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves to create a fragrant base for lightly fried nuggets of paneer.
Recipe: Paneer con Tomate
As one reader wrote, this recipe from Ali Slagle is “fantastic for a hot summer day.” The cooking required is minimal. Simply crisp chickpeas and peanuts in a skillet for five to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Everything else is a heat-free breeze: just a little smashing, a little chopping and some plating.
Tuna salad recipes are incredibly personal. Some skip mayonnaise entirely, while others go hard on the celery and onion for extra crunch. Naz Deravian loads hers up with fresh herbs and pickles for brighter, tangier bites. In this sandwich, the most savored component might just be the topping of crushed, salty potato chips, which make each bite taste like summer camp.
Recipe: Tuna Salad Sandwiches
You can treat this shrimp salad from Melissa Clark one of two ways: with the shrimp left whole for an elegant dinner salad over your favorite lettuces, or roughly chopped for tucking into sandwiches akin to a tuna salad. The choice is yours!
Recipe: Shrimp Salad
Kay Chun takes the punchy flavors of Vietnamese green papaya salad and applies them to a bounty of produce for a cooling salad that is just as good on its own as it is served as a side. Mangoes, snap peas and avocado tossed in a fish-sauce dressing rest atop crisp lettuce leaves, for textures that run from refreshingly crunchy to meltingly creamy.
Hetty McKinnon takes a no-cook tomato salad to new heights with a crunchy topping of sunflower seeds, pepitas, almonds, pistachios, oat granola and sesame seeds seasoned with chile flakes. Canned chickpeas and feta add protein and make this a satisfying yet light dinner.
When in doubt, arrange your favorite fruits and cheeses on a plate and call it dinner. The flavors here are integral to the Iranian table, so much so that a perfect bite of herbs, walnuts, briny cheese and flatbread has a name in Persian: loghmeh. Do exactly as Naz Deravian does, or use her recipe as a template, and incorporate whatever fruits or vegetables look best at the market.
Recipe: Naan-o Paneer-o Sabzi (Bread, Feta and Herb Platter)
A crunchy BLT with perfectly ripe tomatoes is a no-brainer in the summer, so allow us to tempt you with a less obvious suggestion: Turn the sandwich into a pasta. This twist on the classic from Colu Henry keeps the vibes seasonal with cherry tomatoes and will take you only 30 minutes to prepare.
Recipe: BLT Pasta
Much like a Bomb Pop or a platter of sliced watermelon, tomato toast is a quintessential summer food. Follow Melissa Clark’s lead and dress yours up with sardines, some sliced onion and torn basil, and you’ve got yourself a classic pantry meal.
A few pantry and fridge staples — garlic, soy sauce, black vinegar, red-pepper flakes, scallions and herbs — do a lot of work in this deceptively simple dish from Hetty McKinnon. Hot oil is poured over wide noodles and the fixings — yo po mian means “oil sprinkled noodles” — pulling complex flavors out of simple ingredients with hardly any cooking.
Recipe: Yo Po Mian
Darun Kwak’s kimchi bibim guksu is spicy, adaptable and quick to assemble. Bibim guksu, which means “mixed noodles” in Korean, doesn’t usually include kimchi, but, in this case, you’ll be glad it’s there to provide tang and heat.
Recipe: Kimchi Bibim Guksu
Mayonnaise is the secret ingredient in this zippy grilled chicken recipe. Ali Slagle slathers it on boneless, skinless chicken, which flavors the meat, encourages browning and prevents the other seasonings — grated ginger and lime zest — from burning off on the grill.
This tuna salad, adapted by Tejal Rao from the chef Scarlett Lindeman, isn’t the kind you tuck between two slices of white bread or spread onto a Ritz cracker. It’s bright and fresh and juicy, worthy of the best oil-packed tuna you can find. Cooling cucumbers and creamy avocado round out a meal made for the evenings you resolve not to cook.
Recipe: Scarlett’s Tuna Salad
Yasmin Fahr clearly must have had weeknight summer evenings in mind when she developed this garlicky, herby warm salad. The dish comes together in just 15 minutes, leaving you plenty of time to pull out some patio chairs, make a spritz and enjoy dinner al fresco.
Recipe: Spicy Shrimp and Chickpea Salad
The beauty of a big bowl of rice vermicelli noodles is that it’s good at any temperature: hot, warm, “left out on the counter for 30 minutes” or cold. In this recipe from Genevieve Ko, the noodles, along with sliced pork chops, carrots and a ton of tender herbs, get tossed in fish sauce, maple syrup, shallots, chile, garlic and lime juice.
Using the best produce and seafood summer has to offer means you don’t actually have to do much when it comes time to cook them. These seared scallops and tomatoes from Lidey Heuck are a perfect example of that, requiring little more than shallots, garlic, wine and lemon juice to really shine.
Orzo is a tremendously underrated pantry player and deserves a spot on your dinner roster. Kay Chun uses it as the base of a salad inspired by the flavors of piperade, a Basque dish of stewed peppers, onions and tomatoes. Finishing the dish with crumbled feta adds welcome brininess.
Recipe: Orzo Salad With Peppers and Feta
Inspired by potato salad, this chickpea salad from Lidey Heuck is lighter and packs more protein. Pile on a couple scoops of leafy greens, as you might with a tuna salad, or spread a thick layer in between two slices of lightly toasted sourdough for a picnic-ready sandwich.
This soy milk noodle dish is enjoyed during the summertime in Korea, and for good reason: It’s a cold, refreshing, five-ingredient soup you can make in half an hour if you plan ahead. The prep work comes down to an overnight soaking of soy beans, which serve as the base for a nutty and rich broth. From there, this recipe from Kay Chun is a breeze.
Gently poached fish à la Alison Roman won’t keep you hovering over the stovetop for too long. Any meaty, mild white variety of fish — cod, haddock, pollock, halibut, flounder — will taste delicious when cooked in brothy tomatoes seasoned with fish sauce.
“One of the best flavor-to-effort ratios of any meal I have made,” one reader wrote of this highly rated and highly adaptable stir-fry from Ali Slagle. While her chicken and asparagus combo is foolproof, you could easy switch it up with cubed pork and green beans, or tofu and peas.
Put those in-season beefsteak tomatoes to work in this nostalgic recipe from Francis Lam. Barely scrambled eggs are added to a ginger-tomato sauce, creating a savory, tart-sweet final dish. Serve it over steamed rice or with a piece of generously buttered toast.
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