Good Advice: What to Eat When It’s Too Hot to Cook Dinner

During this summer’s early heatwaves, I made pretty much all of my go-to no-cook dinners. I purchased poached shrimp at a seafood shop, dressed it with mayo and Old Bay, and piled it into hot dog buns. I blended a batch of cold cucumber soup. I turned a can of chickpeas and a couple of jars of chutney into a decent chaat. And then I pretty much gave up, wondering if the right move was actually a big bowl of ice cream. Could be!

Or maybe I just need more ideas. So for this week’s edition of Good Advice, I asked 15 food pros for their it’s-too-freaking-hot-to-cook dinner recommendations: the meals they crave when the last thing they want to do is turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen even more.

I might just print this one out and stick it on the fridge for next week’s 90+ degree days. But I’ll also keep a pint of mint-chip handy just in case.

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“Summer in New York City is brutal, especially being a chef and standing in a hot kitchen all day. When I’m home cooling off by my AC, I never want to turn the stove on; instead, I’m always trying to make the quickest meal possible. That’s why I buy a rotisserie chicken on a weekly basis, and shred it and use it throughout the week.

One of my favorite things to make is my green goddess chicken salad. Listen, I am always trying to get my protein in, and this is the WAY to do IT! In my Nutribullet, I throw in basil, mint, cilantro1, scallion, parsley, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and a lot of Greek yogurt to make a quick and easy green goddess sauce. Then I use to dress half of a shredded chicken, along with any veggies I have on hand. Lately it’s been corn, tomatoes, or snap peas, but you can go wild with it. Sometimes, I’ll eat it with chips, otherwise, I’ll have it with rice crackers, or on Ezekiel bread.”
—Edy Massih (Keeping it Zesty), author of Keep It Zesty

“I love an empty-the-fridge, no-cook dinner made with whatever cooked proteins, fruits, and vegetables I already have. My favorite combo is carne asada with watermelon, really ripe heirloom tomatoes, avocado, and sliced onion. I make a simple dressing with lime juice, olive oil, garlic, and chiltepín and pour it over everything. Then finish it with cilantro and crumbled Cotija and usually eat it with tostadas or chicharrones.

I’ll use any cooked protein I have, whether it’s meat, fish, tofu, or beans, along with whatever fruits and vegetables look good. I love pairing in-season fruit and vegetables for a sweet-savory contrast. The dressing pulls everything together: lemon or lime juice, sometimes mixed with a little orange or grapefruit juice for sweetness, whatever dried or fresh chiles I have and whatever herbs need using up.

This way of eating is inspired by all the salpicones I have eaten while traveling through the Yucatán: cold mixtures of cooked meat or seafood, vegetables, herbs, and lots of citrus, especially sour orange.”
—Rick Martinez (Sázon), author of Salsa Daddy and Mi Cocina

“Before moving to Spain, I was not a big boquerones lover—they’re the meaty yet delicate white anchovies soaked in a vinegary brine—yet, once I scooped them onto a very thin, salty potato chip at a beach picnic, they won me over. I find their mild, briny flavor and their melt-in-your-mouth texture incredibly refreshing.

For a quick no-cook dinner I turn it into a bit more of a ‘meal’: First, I crush a spoonful of capers with my fork to release their brine in the bottom of a bowl. Then I cut super ripe, juicy tomatoes into thick chunks, mix into the bowl and drizzle them with my best olive oil and sea salt. I lay the boquerones on top, drizzle again with good olive oil, sea salt, lemon zest, a sprinkle of dried oregano, sumac or za’atar, depending on my mood, and alternate between fork bites and potato chip bites. I’ve also skipped the potato chips and eaten with bread instead. It’s salty, creamy, zingy, acidic and crunchy. Sipping a chilled white wine with it is also ideal.”
—yasmin fahr (Cooking From a Fahr), author of Cook Simply, Live Fully

“I learned from my husband to boil Japanese somen noodles and then serve them over ice cubes when it’s terribly hot. I top them with dashi concentrate that’s in the fridge, and any thinly sliced vegetables. You do have the few minutes of a boiling pot on the stove, but it’s well worth the resulting ice cold bowl of relief on those very sticky days.

You can buy the dashi at a Japanese market: any liquid sauce labeled ‘menstuyu’ will work. It’s a concentrated mix of dashi, soy sauce and some other ingredients meant for being served with noodles. Currently we have one from Kamada that comes in a paper carton which is really good. I use it to flavor rice and vegetable dishes too. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make a mixture that yields a similar flavor profile: In a medium bowl, whisk together 1⁄3 cup soy sauce, 1⁄3 cup cane sugar, and 2 tablespoons fish sauce until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.”
—Trinity Mouzon Wofford (From Home), author of Eating at Home

“I love to make a salade Niçoise with tinned fish when it’s too hot to cook. I try to boil the waxy potatoes and eggs, and blanch the green beans a day or two ahead of time or in the cooler hours of the morning. You can also use store-bought hard-boiled eggs to save on cooking time. Before assembling the salad, I whisk together a simple vinaigrette with shallots, Dijon mustard, white or red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a little honey.

I like to place all of the components on a large platter, then each person can assemble what they want in their own bowls. I always include potatoes, green beans, jammy eggs, good quality canned tuna in olive oil (I like Ortiz and Fishwife), olives and/or capers, cherry tomatoes, and greens. (I grow arugula and romaine in pots on my deck.) It’s a mishmash of flavors and textures in the best way—briny, creamy, crisp, and acidic, and I make it once a week during the summer.”
—Maren Ellingboe King, author of Fresh Midwest

“Whether you eat fish or not, nothing beats knowing a bean-based ceviche is waiting for you in the corners of your pantry. Just a can of garbanzos can easily be transformed into a refreshing, fiber-rich, and hearty ceviche in a matter of minutes. Especially on those hot summer days where hovering over the kitchen in the heat feels impossible. For even more ease, think ahead and prep this at night when it’s cooler, letting it sit and absorb overnight is even more delicious anyway.

To make it, you treat the garbanzos as you would fish: cure them in lime juice and add the rest of the regular ceviche ingredients. For more depth, add soy sauce, Worcestershire, and tomato paste, then serve it with mayo and avocado on a tostada, or with Saltine crackers.”
—Andrea Aliseda, author of Make It Plant Based! Mexican

“One of our all-time faves is cold silken tofu served with rice, which gets cooked in my trusty Zojirushi rice cooker. The tofu gets drained, and topped with a ginger-scallion mixture and scorching hot oil, which frizzles the aromatics and makes them extra fragrant. Then I drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil over everything, and top with sesame seeds. We often eat it with steamed edamame. It’s cold, it’s filling, there’s protein and fiber, and it’s incredibly refreshing. We end the meal with cubes of chilled watermelon, and it’s a 10/10 meal for almost no effort.”
— Olga Massov (A Matter of Taste), author of Hot Sheet

“When it’s hot outside I want to cook outside, even if we slink back into the air-conditioned house to eat. I feel like it’s important to feel, and appreciate, the heat in all its melodramatic glory. Like letting yourself get good and hungry before settling into a big meal, a little group suffering in the outdoors only increases the feeling of relief when you sit down together inside.

Just last night, I grilled lamb (boneless leg of lamb and some lamb chops), and served it with two sauces: a cooling yogurt herb sauce (flush with herbs from the garden) and a savory plum sauce loosely based on the tkemali recipe in Darra Goldstein’s The Georgian Feast, which she calls ‘the universal condiment in Georgia.’ It really needs to be made from sour, tannic wild plums, or yard-tree plums—which I just so happen to grow. Made with plum purée, garlic, ground coriander seed, fennel seed, chiles, mint, and tons of cilantro, it’s a spicy, fruity, mysterious sauce that I immediately fell in love with and have been riffing on ever since. You can give the same treatment to other fresh fruit purées, just so long as they’re fresh and tart (rhubarb is also a fabulous base, in my experience). This sauce is an improv exercise, a glorious tangle of fruity/sour/spicy—the classic heat-busting trifecta. I like it best when the plums are a little underripe and tannic and make the pads of my jaw tingle; when the chile heat burns a little; when the garlic announces itself with confidence, and when the herbs are freshly picked, bold, and cooling.”
—Amy Thielen, author of Company and The New Midwestern Table

“It’s tabbouleh, and here’s why it’s at the top of my list for the days when I’d rather not even boil water in a tea kettle. Real tabbouleh is a parsley salad with a relatively small amount of bulgur, that incredible parboiled cracked wheat that just requires gentle rehydrating, making it a pantry essential especially this time of year. And even though I was a tabbouleh purist for so long, I’ve finally chilled out about it and now make versions with whatever greens and quick-soaking grains I have around, just keeping that general herb-dominant approach. One of my favorites: broccoli tabbouleh, where you run the raw brassica across a coarse grater (or pull out a food processor with a grating disk) while you soak about a third of a cup of fine bulgur in twice as much hot tap water. Chop a pint or so of cherry tomatoes, a couple shallots, and a handful each of mint and cilantro and dill (or, honestly, whatever soft herbs you like; parsley and/or basil are wonderful), and toss it all with olive oil, lemon juice, a little coriander, paprika, and a pinch of red pepper flakes for spark. Oh, and salt, please, lots of salt!

I’ve done it with cauliflower, spinach, and even Swiss chard instead of the broccoli or parsley base, and with white beans instead of or in addition to the bulgur. (I know what you’re thinking, but it actually makes sense since the beans are a carb!) Quinoa works, too, but that would require a bit of cooking, so save that for when the temperate at least gets back into the double digits. To take tabbouleh (or if it makes you purists feel better, “tabbouleh”) over the top, I highly recommend whisking tahini with more lemon juice, garlic, salt, and enough water to make it drizzle-able, and … drizzle at will. With all that fresh produce, it’s surely best when just made, wouldn’t you think? Maybe you would, but you’d be wrong. Put it in the fridge, and you’ll see: Tabbouleh waits patiently for you, getting better every minute.”
—Joe Yonan (Eat at Joe’s), author of Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking and Cool Beans

“Yum refers to a category of Thai salads that’s the most versatile. Most yum are protein-centric, which means they are substantial enough to be a meal, perfect for a hot night. The best part is, all yum use more or less the same dressing, so you only need to learn one formula!

It’s a salty-sour-sweet-spicy-umami dressing with a 3-2-1.5 formula: 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 1.5 tablespoons finely chopped palm sugar or brown sugar. Add minced Thai chilies to taste for a kick, and optionally grate in a big clove of garlic for complexity. Mix until the sugar is dissolved and toss it with bite-sized protein of your choice. Any leftover cooked meat lingering in the fridge works. Some of my go-to are shredded rotisserie chicken, sliced steak, hand-boiled eggs, cooked shrimp or fish…Glass noodles work, too. Add some sturdy veg like tomatoes, onions, and celery, and finish with cilantro or green onions.”
—Pailin Chongchitnant, author of Hot Thai Kitchen and Sabai

“This is for me the perfect no-cook summer dish and one of my all-time favourite salads. Insalata di tonno, cipolle, fagioli: a classic Italian combination of tuna, white beans, pickled red onions and tomatoes. Treat the beans as the star of the dish, not just an addition. You can use different varieties, like butter beans or borlotti, or you can also use chickpeas instead of the tinned fish for a vegetarian version. The beans bring a creamy, comforting texture that makes this salad feel like a proper meal, while the tomatoes and vinegar keep it fresh and bright, exactly what you want when it’s too hot to turn on the oven. You can also swap the tinned tuna for tinned mackerel or sardines.

I love making this because it comes together in minutes and tastes even better when the flavours have had time to set together, so it’s also a great one to prepare in advance or make extra on the day for the next meal. I use good preserved tuna in olive oil, cooked white beans, thinly sliced red onions softened with white wine vinegar, fresh parsley, plenty of extra virgin olive oil, and a mix of ripe tomatoes chopped into thick slices. Accompany it with a slice of a good quality sourdough bread and a chilled glass of Vermentino. You are going to love it.”
—Francesco Mattana, author of Eat Like a Sardinian

“Leaning into summer’s bounty, my favorite too-hot-to-cook meal is a barely cooked dish. There’s not much that’s surprising here, but for me, that’s the beauty of it. Gorgeous, juicy heirloom tomatoes, crisp Japanese cucumbers, and spicy slivers of red onion, tossed in a rich, sweet, and savory dressing punctuated with bright notes of fresh ginger and pungent garlic, could very well be my dinner. Possibly with a side of rice, because rice is life. However, when I want to dress it up, I serve it on torn balls of creamy burrata topped with a handful or two of arugula, a squeeze of lemon, and lots of crusty bread. It marries the flavors of local Hawai‘i food with California cuisine vibes for a quintessentially summer meal. Bonus points if enjoyed outdoors.”
—Alana Kysar, author of Aloha Veggies and Aloha Kitchen

“When it’s too hot to cook, summer rolls are my go-to dinner. They’re refreshing and surprisingly filling because you can pack so much goodness into each roll. But here’s my slightly unconventional shortcut, if I don’t have a dipping sauce prepped, I’ll use the last bit of almond or peanut butter left in a jar. I’ll add a few splashes of water, soy sauce, and sriracha, then shake it into a creamy dipping sauce right in the jar, no bowl required. And if the jar is almost scraped clean, I’ve been known to spread that last bit directly onto a summer roll. Summer rolls are endlessly customizable and can be made with just about any vegetable or plant protein you already have stocked in your fridge.”
—Carleigh Bodrug (Plant Cooking Club), author of PlantYou Quickies (out Sept. 29) and PlantYou Scrappy Cooking

“When it’s too hot to cook, I don’t cook. I assemble. My go-to is a bowl built almost entirely from things sitting in my fridge: hummus, olives, marinated artichoke hearts, feta, a jar of harissa for heat, all piled over a scoop of quinoa (or farro, barley, freekeh). I make my hummus and cook a big batch of grains once at the start of the week, which makes assembling these bowls super easy. A five-minute Mediterranean cucumber and tomato salad is the only “cooking” involved, and it’s the thing that makes the whole bowl taste alive: bright, crunchy. That’s it! —Suzy Karadsheh, author of The Mediterranean Dish: Simply Dinner

“I’m a big big fan of cold protein: a cold poached Shaoxing chicken, or a roast beef sandwich with chili oil mayo. Pre-poaching or roasting a large chunk of protein sets you up for this. You can roast protein unseasoned and then marinate it after. Say you have a piece of pork tenderloin and you don’t know/want to go through the trouble of seasoning. Simply roast it (with or without salt) until your desired doneness and put it in the fridge to cool down. After you have some inspiration for a marinade, just make it and dunk the pre-cooked protein into the marinade for a few hours—it’ll be just as delicious!”
—Eric Sze, author of Taiwanese? (out Oct. 13)