Side-Eyeing Your Stovetop? These Easy Dinners Are How I Stay Cool (Even If It's Hot As Hell Out)
You heard it here first: Our stove-tops (heck, any appliance that makes our kitchens any hotter) are canceled for the season. Why so harsh? Well, now that we've got these easy, refreshing, and satisfying cold dinner recipes in our back pocket, we're feeling, well, a little too cool to turn the oven on. Before you think it, no, these aren't all sandwich or salad recipes either. Far from it! In fact, these 22 cold dinner recipes (some of which are entirely no-cook) are equal parts weeknight-friendly and impressive, meaning you might not even need to turn your oven on 'til well into October. Turns out, dinner is a dish best served cold, after all!
If it's summer where you are (or just plain hot), there's a few classic cold dinners you should learn how to make: ceviche and gazpacho. Not only will they make you feel as if you're on a vacation to Peru or Italy, but they're also just plain good (and require no cooking at all.) Once you've tried our stand-by recipes for both, feel free to change things up a bit with our gazpacho with burrata or our salmon ceviche.
Okay, you got us: some of these cold dinners do require a bit of cooking (like many of our sushi and bowl recipes), but we promise it's worth it. Our ahi poke bowls and sushi bowls just need a bit of just-warm rice to help balance all those chilled toppings (though our avocado mango poke salad is 100% no-cook). The same is true of some of our salads (like our Chinese chicken salad and strawberry spinach salad), which we have a genius workaround for: leftover rotisserie chicken. Pro-tip: prepping and grabbing a few of those must-cook proteins (such as hard-boiled eggs for these Greek Salad cottage cheese bowls or stocking up on canned tuna for your Niçoise salad) at the beginning of the week will help you keep cool all week long.
What's cooler than being cool? Checking out our favorite cold lunch and cold breakfast ideas next.
Cobb Salad
In our book, the Cobb salad just might be the perfect dinner salad. It’s versatile, hearty, easy to make, and even easier to meal prep. This classic recipe creates the perfect balance of textures and flavors, all tied together by the star of the show: our homemade dressing. While you can use store-bought, this homemade vinaigrette is not only easy to make, but truly takes this salad from basic to incredible.
Get the Cobb Salad recipe.
Spicy Tuna Roll
In restaurants, spicy tuna sushi rolls usually involve raw, sushi-grade fish. But if raw fish is out of reach, this recipe uses humble canned tuna. That’s not to say you can’t use the basic skeleton of this recipe for raw tuna if you can find it—just substitute in sushi-grade fish, finely chopped, and proceed onward!
Get the Spicy Tuna Roll recipe.
Turkey Lavash Wrap
This particular wrap is loaded with bright flavors and satisfying ingredients, making it hearty enough to keep you full at lunch time or as an easy, chill dinner. Filled with a zingy arugula-dill salad, sliced turkey, roasted red peppers, and crunchy cucumbers, and sealed with a creamy goat cheese spread, it's exactly the kind of colorful lunch we crave to brighten up our weekdays.
Get the Turkey Lavash Wrap recipe.
Greek Salad Cottage Cheese Bowl
It wouldn’t be a Mediterranean menu without a Greek salad in some form or another—these cottage cheese bowls fit the bill. Packed with protein, nutrient-rich vegetables, and healthy fats (not to mention a whole lot of flavor), they’re the perfect breakfast, lunch, or satisfying snack.
Get the Greek Salad Cottage Cheese Bowl recipe.
Avocado Chicken Salad
We love this salad served on top of greens as much as we love it between two slices of sourdough bread. If you can't find a good ripe mango, pineapple would be delicious as well!
Get the Avocado Chicken Salad recipe.
Gazpacho With Burrata
Creamy burrata on top of a tomato and basil gazpacho is the most refreshing no-cook summer meal we can imagine. Some gazpacho has bread in it for added texture, but for this version, we liked the idea of serving toasted bread alongside to dip into the soup and spread the burrata on.
Get the Gazpacho With Burrata recipe.
Ceviche
While it may seem fancy, ceviche is actually a fairly simple dish at its core. All it involves is tossing raw seafood in lime juice, then letting the acid in the citrus “cook” the fish. Often bulked up with other mix-ins like tomatoes or cucumber, the result is a light and refreshing dish that’s a perfect summertime dinner or pre-dinner app.
Get the Ceviche recipe.
Gazpacho
When late summer rolls around and the tomatoes turn juicy and sweet, we can't get enough of them. When we're not busy scarfing them down in Caprese salad form, we love them in this classic summer soup. Our version also uses red bell peppers and cucumbers to really up that summer cornucopia flavor too.
Get the Gazpacho recipe.
CPK Italian Chopped Salad
An exuberant jumble of lettuce, chickpeas, chicken, salami, tomatoes, and cheese, all tossed in a Italian mustard-herb vinaigrette, this is one salad that might actually tempt us to put down the pizza in favor of the greens.
Get the CPK Italian Chopped Salad recipe.
Niçoise Salad
A classic French dish, Niçoise salad is a composed salad—similar to the American Cobb—that we can’t help but reach for in the summer months. It’s got everything: briny flavors, hits of umami, jammy eggs, hearty potatoes, and fresh veggies. Not only is it so easy to create (and even easier to devour), it’s a breeze to meal prep so you can enjoy throughout the week.
Get the Niçoise Salad recipe.
Rainbow Roll
Rainbow rolls include a lot of elements of traditional Japanese sushi—seasoned rice, raw fish, nori—but the composition is definitely Americanized. This inside-out roll (or uramaki) has rice on the outside, while the sheet of nori on the inside holds the avocado, cucumber, and crab in place. Top your rolls with sushi-grade fish, or get creative and try thinly sliced avocado, roasted red peppers, or smoked salmon.
Get the Rainbow Roll recipe.
Summer Roll Bowls
Love a Vietnamese summer roll but don’t want to fuss with the wrapper? Meet your new favorite summer dinner. Rice noodles, shrimp, avocado, thinly sliced veggies, and a plethora of greens are tossed together in a tangy nước chấm dressing for a refreshing dinner twist.
Get the Summer Roll Bowls recipe.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
With sweet strawberries, herby chicken, tangy feta, and crunchy pecans, this summer salad will make even so-called spinach haters fall in love after just one bite. This light and fresh salad lets sweet flavors shine, but is complemented by the sharp textures and flavors of our other ingredients. Leave out the chicken for a summer side dish, or add it in for a hearty main!
Get the Strawberry Spinach Salad recipe.
Poke Bowls
If your first choice on busy weeknights is to pick up your favorite poke bowl, good news! You can skip running out—these bowls are surprisingly easy to make at home. With marinated ahi tuna, a variety of colorful veggies and soft steamed rice, these healthy bowls are only limited to your imagination.
Get the Poke Bowls recipe.
Crispy Chili-Lime Chickpea Salad
Spicy, creamy, and crunchy—this satisfying chickpea salad is like if cowboy caviar took a trip to Baja California! Crispy baked chickpeas are the star, tossed with lime juice and chili powder for a spicy little bite of intrigue with the tomatoes and corn.Creamy avocado makes its way into a green goddess-style dressing with cilantro, lime, jalapeño, and Greek yogurt. The whole dish is rounded out with a flurry of herbs and a sprinkle of feta for a dynamic salad with tons of flavor and texture in each bite.
Get the Crispy Chili-Lime Chickpea Salad recipe.
Rainbow Collard Green Wrap
Just about every color of the rainbow can be found in these simple collard green wraps. They’re a quick and easy no-cook dinner or a nutritious and satisfying snack any time of day. Colorful bunches of shredded purple cabbage, carrots, yellow bell peppers, sliced avocado, alfalfa sprouts, and crimson red sauerkraut are rolled into big collard green leaves like a burrito.
Get the Rainbow Collard Green Wrap recipe.
Lobster Salad
Lobster rolls are a classic summer meal, but the truth is, you don't really need the split-top hot dog buns (or melted butter if you're eating it Connecticut-style). Lightly dressed with mayo and finished off with a big squeeze of lemon juice, lobster salad tastes incredible on its own, especially paired with slices of creamy avocado. 😉
Get the Lobster Salad recipe.
Chicken Pasta Salad
This super savory pasta salad is a certified hit at barbecues and potlucks, and hearty enough to qualify as a meal. (In fact, it's kind of meal prep gold!) Swapping in a tangy mustard vinaigrette for the usual mayo-based dressing lightens things up a bit, and a healthy serving of seared chicken and crispy bacon make it satisfying enough to be a meal all on its own.
Get the Chicken Pasta Salad recipe.
Sushi Bowls
Not ready to make your own California roll or shrimp tempura roll at home quite yet but craving all of the classic sushi flavors? Make a sushi bowl! You can practice making restaurant-worthy sushi rice, source best-quality fish, and discover what ingredients, flavors, and textures you like, without any rolling.
Get the Sushi Bowls recipe.
Avocado Mango Poke Salad
This poke salad is way better than anything you'll find on a restaurant menu. Like our ahi poke bowls, the best way to guarantee this salad is the best it can be is to prioritize high-quality fish. Ask your fishmonger for help!
Get the Avocado-Mango Poke Salad recipe.
Crunchy Mandarin Orange-Chicken Salad
This recipe was semi-inspired by the Chinese Chicken Salad at The Cheesecake Factory, where they use wonton strips and crispy rice noodles. Instead, we sub in a block of dried ramen—broken up, the crunchy, wavy noodles act as croutons just as well.
Get the Crunchy Mandarin Orange-Chicken Salad recipe.
Salmon Ceviche
For this rather unorthodox ceviche, we borrowed techniques and ingredients from all over the world, from Japan to Mexico. Fun fact: Before Japanese immigration, Peruvians were marinating their ceviche for hours. The Japanese immigrants taught Peruvians to appreciate fish in a more "lightly cooked" form, via marination that takes minutes (if not seconds) to complete. This flavorful, magical marinade is all Peruvian, though there may be an ingredient that surprises you: ginger!
Get the Salmon Ceviche recipe.
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