50 Easy Summer Recipes When It’s Too Hot to Cook

The salmon for these easy customizable bowls cooks in less than 10 minutes. Sriracha yogurt sauce adds a little something extra and is a nice finishing touch for the salmon. As an alternative, you could spoon chili crisp over the top.

Chicken lettuce wraps are super easy and a surprisingly quick weeknight meal. Bibb or butter lettuce are the best picks for these wraps.

A step-by-step guide to making the sandwich of summer, filled with juicy, ripe tomatoes, salty bacon, and crisp lettuce.

Simply mix creamy avocado with mayo to create a rich, flavorful dressing, then add some fresh cilantro and lime juice to really make the avocado sing for the ultimate chicken salad. All that's missing is tortilla chips.

A bright and fresh mix of sweet summer peaches, juicy cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese tossed in a tangy cilantro-lime vinaigrette.

The flavor-packed tomato-based sauce highlights the succulent, perfectly cooked shrimp. Serve it with Mexican hot sauce, diced avocados, crispy tostadas, or Saltine crackers.

A royal version of chicken salad with a tangy curry dressing, golden raisins, and mango chutney.

Gazpacho is the ultimate hot weather meal. Here's our most basic recipe to get you started — plus plenty of ideas for how to amp it up.

Plump shrimp with cubes of ripe avocado, creamy mayo, chopped celery, shallot, cilantro, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. It’s so good, you’ll be eating this straight from the bowl all summer long.

This salad is a bit reminiscent of Asian chicken salad, but instead of fried chow mein noodles or wonton strips, uncooked instant ramen provides the crunch. It's hearty enough to be a lunch, but you can always bulk it up with a side of flaky salmon or sautéed tofu, too.

There’s nothing a Costco rotisserie chicken can’t do. By shredding the chicken breast meat (here’s how to do it in less than a minute!) and picking up just two other ingredients while I’m at Costco, I can turn them into a super-quick and tasty meal that’s perfect on a busy weeknight.

It starts with marinating raw cherry tomatoes in vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes. A splash of reserved pasta water and a shower of Parmesan bring it together into a silky sauce that clings wonderfully to the noodles. The whole thing can be made in under 20 minutes, making this a true weeknight dinner. so good, you’ll be making it on repeat.

Skirt steak grills up quickly and is topped with juicy summer tomato salsa. Just a bit of canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce gives this salsa a smoky, spicy kick.

Summer rolls for dinner? Yes, please! Serve them with nước chấm (Vietnamese dipping fish sauce) or creamy peanut sauce for dipping.

The ultimate refreshing cold noodle dish of chewy noodles tossed in a tossed in a sesame-peanut sauce. Serve them with a Taiwanese cucumber salad or a Sichuan smashed cucumber salad.

The perfect tomato sandwich needs thick slices of juicy, ripe tomatoes, a schmear of mayonnaise, and white sandwich bread.

If you’re a fan of the deli staple, then this flavor-packed salad is for you. It’s the perfect side for summer barbecues, potlucks, and beach days, but it also works just as well as a main dish with a side of grilled sausages.

A spectacularly special French picnic sandwich full of everything that makes a classic Nicoise salad so great — tuna, eggs, herbs, olives, radishes and onion.

Mix store-bought pesto with pepperoncini pepper brine for a dressing that is well-rounded, tangy, and full of flavor without any of the fuss.

Tomatoes, avocado, mozzarella and basil are stuffed inside a toasted baguette and finished with a drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar in this perfect summer sandwich.

Is there a more quintessential warm-weather side dish than cold pasta salad? This easy pasta salad is one we think you should know by heart.

Loaded with colorful vegetables, this pasta salad is boosted with shredded, cooked chicken to make it a complete one-bowl meal.

Made with poached shrimp marinated in citrus juice, tomato, avocado, and cilantro, this is the perfect thing to make when it's too hot to cook. Serve the shrimp ceviche with homemade tostadas, crunchy plantain chips, or tortilla chips for scooping.

This salad has a whole lotta texture! Crunchy cucumbers and carrots, airy shredded Napa cabbage, and juicy mandarin oranges mean every bite is a little party. Use shredded rotisserie chicken to make it even easier.

This TikTok-famous salad with black beans, chopped vegetables, and a citrusy jalapeño dressing gets even better as it sits.

These jammy marinated eggs can make even my most lazy meals feel extra-special. Enjoy them on a bed of steaming white rice with a drizzle of the soy sauce marinade over the top.

Summer is for cool, refreshing dishes and fresh seafood, so it only makes sense to make a big batch of creamy seafood pasta salad full of shrimp and crab. Tossed in an Old Bay-spiced sauce, it’s essentially seafood salad with chilled pasta stirred right in.

A classic Caesar salad, with a streamlined, egg-less dressing, wrapped in a flour tortilla, perfect for a pack-and-go lunch.

While classic gazpacho is cool, watermelon gazpacho is a prime example of what you should be making right this second!

Tuna salad meets pasta salad in this light and creamy mash-up that's the perfect side for a picnic or cookout.

This classic, make ahead-friendly sandwich is piled with Italian cured meats, provolone cheese, tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce, and picked peppers.

It’s fast, flavorful, and easy to make — the trifecta of a staple recipe! What sets this apart from all other salads? A trick using rotisserie chicken that delivers the fastest shawarma.

Invented in New Orleans, the muffuletta sandwich features an olive salad, Italian deli meats and cheeses. One giant sandwich is known for feeding several people.

This showstopper salad has all the textures with creamy avocado, crunchy cucumbers, shredded chicken, and crispy crumbled prosciutto dressed in a creamy dressing full of fresh herbs and tangy Greek yogurt.

Classic, deli-style turkey sandwich made with sliced, roasted turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. Spread spicy or honey mustard over the mayonnaise before topping with turkey, or add strips of cooked bacon or slices of creamy avocado to this once simple sandwich.

Grapes shouldn’t work, but they really, really do. Serve this easy chicken salad on a flaky croissant or on top of greens for a quick 20-minute dinner in the summer.

This club sandwich-turned-salad is incredibly fun to make. Stack all of your ingredients on a cutting board and just chop, chop, chop until everything is bite-size. Then, toss it in a creamy vinaigrette with mayo and Dijon mustard (classic sandwich spreads) and you have dinner in about 10 minutes.

A cool, refreshing veggie sandwich inspired by ones sold in California natural foods grocery stores. You’ll smear creamy hummus on one half and an avocado mash on the other. To ensure the sandwich doesn’t get soggy, make sure to deeply toast the bread: the crispier it is, the better.

The creamy mayo and Greek yogurt dressing is lightened up with fresh chives, dill, and lemon juice for the perfect balance between tangy and rich. Then we toss in sliced cucumbers, poached shrimp, and a little chopped celery for extra crunch.

This egg salad is creamy and easy to make, and really lets the flavor of the eggs truly shine through. If you’re starting with hard-boiled eggs, it takes less than 10 minutes to make! Turn it into a sandwich, eat it with crackers, or wrap it up in lettuce leaves.

The homemade dressing and juicy strips of chicken are really what make this a hit. You can always swap in your favorite bottled Caesar dressing in place of homemade. If you have a brand of store-bought croutons you really, really love, go ahead and use those.

Nothing says summer like tendrils of pasta, fresh mozzarella pearls, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy cucumber dressed in a basil pesto sauce.

Low-carb shrimp lettuce wraps are crisp, crunchy and need just 5 ingredients.

This quick and easy tortellini dinner is filled with all the flavors of a classic antipasto spread: Roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, salami, and of course, cheese.

Gỏi gà (translated to “chicken salad”) couldn’t be simpler: shredded cabbage and chicken, mixed up with julienned veggies, all tossed in a vinegary dressing cut with sugar and fish sauce. The dish can actually be made with rotisserie chicken for an easy summer dinner without cooking.

If you’re a fan of restaurant-style lettuce wraps and are searching for a quick weeknight recipe, these are for you. They’re filled with a flavorful combination of ground turkey, cashews, ginger, and garlic, and are ready in less than 20 minutes.

Meet your new favorite summer dinner. Poke, a marinated seafood salad popularized in Hawaii, is super easy to put together at home. It's typically served over rice and your choice of toppings.

A few hints of sweetness take this classic curried chicken salad into a winner that you can stuff into bread or eat as lettuce wraps.

The spicy serrano-lime sauce is so good, you’ll want to drink it by the spoonful. Serve this classic Mexican shrimp with ripe avocados and crispy tostadas.

This hearty, easy-to-make Indonesian salad features different blanched vegetables like bean sprouts, spinach, and chayote, plus tofu and tempeh for heft. It’s served alongside a savory, spicy peanut sauce, sprinkles of fried shallots, and crispy shrimp chips.