Food

Too hot to cook? Heatwave-friendly meals without turning the cooker on

Irish chefs on the quick and easy no-cook dishes you can make at home in minutes

Salad days are here ... but make them exciting – and filling. Photograph: iStock

Marie Claire Digby's face
Marie Claire Digby
Wed Jun 14 2023 - 05:30

When temperatures are rising, the thought of a pot boiling on the stove or a hot oven sending out blasts of burning air might just tip the barometer a few degrees too far. What we need during very warm days are simple, no-cook dishes that can be assembled in minutes.

Salads are an obvious choice, and we have some great ideas here for tasty dressings to bring variety and substance to a big bowl of garden- or farm-fresh leaves. Stone fruits are in season, and a few slices of peach or nectarine, with some soft goat’s cheese or feta added to the leaves, is a meal in a bowl. Melon, Parma or Serrano ham and some mozzarella or burrata, with a few mint leaves if you have them, are good with rocket leaves in particular.

As an alternative to a leaf salad, whip up a batch of hummus to dip chopped raw veggies in. Make a smooth and light version by adding one can of drained chickpeas, two tablespoons of tahini paste, a garlic clove, juice of a lemon, salt and a few ice cubes to a food processor or liquidiser. Give it a quick whizz, adding cold water until you get the consistency you like. Drizzle some really good olive oil over the top of the finished dip, for a lighter and less claggy version than those that incorporate the oil.

[ Summer salads: Five fantastic dressings to bring your dish to the next level ]

To bring a cheffy touch to your hummus, Kwanghi Chan suggests incorporating it in a salad with balsamic dressing-drizzled strawberries, chickpeas and baby mozzarella balls. Place a layer of hummus on the bottom of a platter and top with the strawberries and balsamic, chickpeas and mozzarella, and lots of fresh basil leaves.

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Chef and food writer Domini Kemp is also a fan of making dips, and keeps a jar of toasted pumpkin seeds to add texture to salads. “I love making dips and dressings that I can dunk raw vegetables, leaves or good bread into. Rich blue cheese dressings for bitter leaves or creamy chickpea dressings for root vegetables. Toasting pumpkin seeds with tamari turn them into a savoury style crunch which is great sprinkled over salads and dips to add umami texture.”

Given that I might be boiling the kettle for tea, I break the no-cook rule sometimes and use that steamy liquid to rehydrate some fine couscous and make a more substantial salad. You can use a cube to turn the water into stock, add enough to almost cover the couscous and top the bowl with clingfilm or a tight-fitting lid.

Once it has rehydrated, fluff it up, stir in some harissa paste or spice, chopped tomatoes, cucumber and red onion, a big handful of chopped soft leaf herbs, and some chopped olives and feta, for a filling Greekish salad. A drizzle of olive oil and a spritz of lemon juice are good additions.

Couscous makes a summer salad more filling.

Greek salad and couscous is also on the summer menu at the home of chef and restaurateur Paul Flynn and family. “Our new favourite is an amalgam of a Greek salad as the central dish, then perhaps accompanied by cold roast chicken and perhaps some couscous.”

Smoked or tinned fish is a really useful store cupboard and fridge staple in a hot spell. Chef and Irish Times columnist Gráinne O’Keefe suggests making hot smoked Goatsbridge trout and kale caesar wraps, subbing in some sturdy lettuce leaves if raw kale is a step too far. TV chef and soon-to-be cookbook author Mark Moriarty also goes down the Caesar salad route for a hot night no-cook dinner. “I like to make it classic, with Ortiz anchovies. Sometimes I add cooked prawns from the fridge and serve it with toasted sourdough to make sandwiches.”

A classic Caesar salad with anchovies.

You’ll have to visit a fishmonger who can supply you with cooked lobster or crabmeat to make chef and restaurateur Jess Murphy’s favourite summer treat. “For me it’s lobster or crab nachos every time, with a lovely light Marie Rose sauce.” The mention of Marie Rose brings to mind a classic prawn cocktail. A bag of cooked prawns, some shredded lettuce, and a sauce made from a mixture of mayo with a dab of tomato ketchup, lemon juice and maybe Worcestershire or horseradish, and you’re good to go.

Chef Jordan Bailey has a more lightweight option for an evening meal in the garden: “A jug of sangria, and eat the fruit.” In the belief that a little bit of light barbecuing is not really cooking, Bailey offers up what his family will be feasting on this evening: “There’s a small bit of cooking but what we are having tonight for dinner is lamb koftas – just mince shaped into fat sausage shapes and cooked in the pan or barbecue – with tzatziki and a watermelon, strawberry, feta, watercress and mint salad – salt, pepper and olive oil to dress – and flat breads.”

Three no-cook salads

Three salads (from top right): Waldorf salad; Heirloom tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella; and orange, olive and mint salad. Photographs: Lilly Higgins, Harry Weir

If you are tempted to break out the barbecue...

A selection of recipes to try: