These look really delicious, especially in Phoenix where it Is currently 116. I fear I might need to go to the grocery store to get a few ingredients, which requires a mask (too hot) and driving. I hope I don’t sound like a whiner, but it’s also too hot in AZ to have a garden, so I can’t walk out and pick some herbs or vegetables like you lucky people. However, when it’s 20 and snowing, I will be able to fire up my BBQ. Best to everyone, Stay safe and heathy.
Thanks also to the commenters for some great ideas! a few of mine: 1. thaw leftovers from the freezer. (Am I the only one who still occasionally makes old family favorites that feed 8?) 2. fire up the outdoor grill, and put the veggies on there too (Grilled summer squash with oregano, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil is a favorite). 3. anything on toast 4. sometimes cold cereal with milk and berries seems about as appealing as anything else.
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I find the penchant of many of the readers to salads and vegetables, in general, amusing. This is certainly not a biological characteristics, inherited from our remote ancestors: people in hot countries do not live on vegetables alone.
I do not like most of the salads. My solution for hot weather food is sandwiches on thin white toast of duck liver pâté or Italian-like smoked sausage.
Five great recipies! How do I see the other 21?
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@SteveS, it's super confusing. This is just a "highlights" page. You have to click this link in the first paragraph: https://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-nyt-cooking/15946514-26-no-cook-dinners-for-a-heat-wave
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Tofu salad is a good hot weather meal. Take a block of tofu and press it out for an hour or so. Then put it in a large bowl and smash it up well. Add mayo and then anything else you'd put in a typical egg or potato salad (dill, garlic, capers, mustard etc.) to taste. We usually add a bit of curry powder as well. Usually tastes better after it gets to sit for a few hours in the fridge to get all the flavors to meld and is tastier at slightly below room temperature.
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@Eve
I love a tofu salad with crushed tofu, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, mayonaise,cayanne pepper, and sesame oil (all to taste). Great on crackers or with carrot or celery sticks.
Your article says "26 No-Cook Dinners for a Heat Wave." I can only access 5 of them. How do I get the rest of the recipes?
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@Jean Bay
Click on the 26 Dinners link in the opening paragraph to the article.
@Jean Bay the first paragraph of the article has a link to the collection of 26 recipes.
I have a simple solar cooker (here's a link: https://solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Solavore_Sport ) that I have been using for years. It does require someone being around to turn it a quarter of a turn every few hours, and a sunny spot (I move it around my driveway to avoid the shade). But I can prepare any slow cooker recipe in it, using no power and producing no excess heat. Yesterday, I used it to cook beets and potatoes, which we put in a salad with lettuce, tomato, onions and feta cheese. I often cook a couple of kinds of beans on weekends, to use for hummus, casseroles, refried beans, etc, during the week.
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‘Salads’ are so easy. I was driving to a class and saw a flat with a sign, ‘free’.
I had to stop on the way back home to see what was there. As I got closer, the small sign said ‘melons and cucumbers’, both of which I love, especially this fresh, right from the home’s garden! I took the last cucumber (a cooling veggie in the summer) and one of the large ‘melons’. The ‘melon’ turned out to be a sumner squash that I didn’t recognize. I didn’t know what to do with it but wanted to eat it anyway!
So I cut it all up in cubes (it was BIG) and added some red peppers, fresh parsley from my garden and some basil dressing left over from a Wegmans catered party. Delicious!
Today, after this column, I will add beans or chickpeas. No cooking and great eating!
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When my daughter was about 8 yrs old, she loved helping me construct what she called a "pick-apart"--a salade composee. This is a great thing to do with kids, and you can have fun three times: choosing the components at a local farmers market, putting it together, and eating it, they enjoy veggies even more when they have a hand in constructing the dish.
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We have been doing this for some years without any apparent ill effect: take corn on cob with leaves on, just remove ends. Pop into microwave for 3 minutes (or so). Hand, as is, to nearby kid to "shuck" and remove "silk". Eat. (without butter)
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@Boomer
This is how I cook corn on the cob, after the microwave time, just leave it alone to continue steaming in the husks for about 15 minutes. All the flavor in the corn stays on the cob. It's very easy to shuck and remove the silks. But I must disagree-add lots of butter, salt, and pepper!!!
Half-way through my preparation of a mixture of fresh sweet corn sliced off the cob, fresh shelled edamames, cherry tomatoes, small mozzarella cheese balls, fresh basil, garlic, and EVOO, we decided to eat internationally at a place in Washington DC.
Yes! It can be said that we ate internationally tonight on New York Avenue … Spanish, Netherlands, Australian, and Canadian delicacies! All in honor of the World Cup and the Tour de France!
We shared one item from each of these four countries!
We really liked everything, but we especially loved the Netherlands delight – the fabulously refreshing Stroopwafle McFlurry!
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Craig Claiborne's gazpacho still the best
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My mother used to put her toaster oven on the front step and cook chicken, fish or what-have-you to keep the heat out of the kitchen!
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I lived in a top floor apt for many years and it was hot all winter and unbearable in summer. My life was saved first with the rotisserie chicken and then later on with the microwave. Poaching salmon filet in the microwave Is my go to. Eat it hot
or cold or tepid. Always great.
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@Stace I’d love to try poaching in the microwave. Would you mind sharing how you do it?
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@Stac
How do you poach salmon in the microwave?
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Growing up in working class in a Queens New York City row house pre-air conditioning, everyone spent at least six weeks eating “cold supper” - tuna salad, bean salads, cottage cheese and fruit, potato and macaroni salads, cold ham - we looked forward to cold supper all year round. During hurricane season in coastal North Carolina (which often meant no electricity at all, let alone AC, and tropical temperatures, I would make Middle Eastern “cold” (more like room temperature) meze (appetizer) meals served with grilled pita. Missing here from the NYT article are the many cold or room temperature Asian noodle dishes - maybe next week, if the heat holds, we’ll see those too.
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@Anna Base
You brought back the memory of my mom who would serve a platter of cold items many a summer day and a loaf of crusty bread, like a fresh rye bread along with a tossed salad. That platter would have been Instagram worthy had it existed then. It would have Hard boiled egg halves, tuna salad, chicken salad, and canned sardines, coleslaw and potato salad. She would make whatever had to be cooked like the fresh potato salad and the eggs early in the morning and everything would chill all day. Of course dessert was ice cream or fruit. She also made green bean salad and other odd salads to change up the platter sometimes. Best eating there was in the summer. Sometimes she would make salmon croquettes early in the morning on salad days. What a treat. What a mother. She is 90 now and still living in the Bronx in the same apartment for the past 40 years. She still loves sardines.
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ooh! having lived in hot climates most of my life, I really like quick cold dinners like refreshing somen noodles, and gado-gado (made with leftovers for extra points). Go-to dessert in steamy weather is Es Kacang, a shave ice concoction which I fake at home by topping it with asian-grocer rose syrup, milk, crushed peanuts, canned grass jelly, lychees, cubed watermelon, and adzuki beans.
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My recipe for the heatwave to come tomorrow: Campari over ice with a splash of blood orange seltzer. Garnish with a seat on the back deck under the tree.
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@porcamiseria
That sounds like a good inside drink too.
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I've been challenging myself to make a main-plate salad every night this month. Last night was quinoa with sugar snap peas, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries, alongside greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. Last week was Spanish smoked paprika chicken with green olives and manchego cheese. And tuna with egg, red potatoes, and chopped veggies with oil and vinegar. Foil-cased salmon in a Caesar salad. Fresh corn and black bean on spring greens. Cannelini beans with sautéed carrots and garlic in vinaigrette. And so on...
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Funny, I was just thinking that I wanted more no/little cooking dinner options. Thanks NYT Cooking!
My fallbacks are Ed Gobbi’s cold tomato sauce
Tomato/basil/pine nuts/olive oil in cuisine art. Mind not over chopping over pasta.
Also
Pasta with white beans/torn basil/halves cherry tomatoes and halved cheligne mozzarella tossed with extra virgin olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.
I also cook in the morning when it is cooler and serve at room temp later.
I grill then too. It is still cooking but keeps the heat out of the house.
And for less heat - the microwave is your best friend!
And don’t forget supermarket rotisserie chicken - cooked but not by you.
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I make large batches of aioli [I often cheat and use a Hellman's Mayo base, rather than making it from scratch] and a garlicky pesto made from cilantro. I drizzle these [separately ;)] on spiralized squash; cooked shrimp [either frozen or from my fish market], or smoked salmon; or any fresh veggies and/or salad from my Farmers Mkt. I always have a big supply of canned beans and legumes in my pantry. Beans + rice = complete protein, no heat required. Frozen vegs cook fast and beautifully in the microwave and make great salads. And eggs! For a quick, light, filling, but almost no heat required, meal, eggs are great!
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