When the temperatures start heading towards 80F, the idea of spending time near a hot stove gets a lot less appealing. Some hands-off hot methods of cooking are easy enough to walk away from—slow cookers and rice cookers don’t give offf any residual heat, and roasting everything from veggies to whole chickens only entails a single blast of hot air when you pull your dinner out of the oven—but there are lots of dinner options that don’t require any heat at all. Even better, lots of no-cook dinners are based on pantry-friendly ingredients that are easy to keep around. Here are some ideas for your next no-cook meal:
- Want a pasta dinner without any cooking time? Try spiralized zucchini noodles—they’re light, refreshing, and you can twirl them like spaghetti. You can find spiralizers at kitchen stores for under $20, or you might already have an attachment for your food processor that allows you to push a zucchini through a specialized blade to create long strands. Try this Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer
- If you’d like to go the exotic no-cook pasta route, look for kelp noodles and bean thread noodles—those just need to be soaked in cool water for a few minutes to soften them. Kelp noodles are usually sold in the refrigerated section of health-oriented grocery stores.
- For fans of whole-wheat fare, use bulgur as your base grain—it just needs about 15 minutes of soaking to rehydrate it, and then you can use it in place of cooked pasta for salads.
- Create quick tomato-based sauces with your blender: just process trimmed tomatoes (remove the stems) with fresh herbs, a clove of garlic, and a mild allium like chives or the green part of green onions. Instant no-cook marinara!
- Classic tomato-based gazpacho soup consists of chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, extra-virgin olive oil, and a dash of vinegar run through a food processor. Add fresh herbs if you like, and garnish with cucumbers and/or grated hard cheese. Some versions also blend bread into the gazpacho.
- Instead of turning on the stove to make roux, you can use your blender or food processor to make creamy sauces based on cashew butter, mashed avocado, and whole-milk plain Greek yogurt. No heat needed!
- For the main course, think of hearty salads like antipasto—cut a few slices of good-quality deli meat and cheese (like Applegate) into ribbons and toss with chopped veggies and homemade dressing.
- Other good additions to hearty salads include canned seafood—tuna, salmon, crab—and already-cooked items like jarred roasted peppers, brined artichoke hearts, vacuum-packaged cooked beets and lentils, and canned beans. Convenience foods can be healthy foods! Just be sure to let them come to room temperature if any of them are in the fridge.
- Rather than heating frozen veggies to thaw them, place them in a colander and run hot water over them, tossing with your fingers to make sure the water soaks all the way through. Let them drain and finish coming to room temp before using. (Which usually only takes about 10 minutes.)
- Repurpose leftovers! Bet you have some cooked meat in the fridge already, or perhaps you have leftover cooked brown rice from last night. Just let the grains come to room temperature before using—they’ll have a much nicer texture that way.
- Some veggies that normally taste a lot better cooked are fine to use raw when they’re shredded or shaved into wisps. Look for broccoli slaw and shredded Brussels sprouts at your local market, or make them yourself with a food processor.
- For desserts, rather than baked goods, opt for simple ideas like milkshakes or fresh fruit with whipped cream. You might want to invest in an ice cream maker, such as this Cuisinart one,
so that you can make top-of-the-line ice cream with grass-fed cream and organic berries. So good! And cookbooks featuring raw-food cuisine can give you plenty of ideas of how to make easy no-cook desserts.
