Need meal inspiration for hot weather!

We're in the middle of a heatwave here, and I cannot face cooking much, if anything at the moment.

What are your go-to hot weather recipes? So far I have feta and watermelon salad, and Nigella's mushroom, lemon and thyme spaghetti (the only thing that needs cooking is the spaghetti for 10 mins).

What are your favourites in hot weather?
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Replies

  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Ice cream!! ;)
    Yeh, probably not the help you were looking for. My downfall is that I'm not much of a cook so am always eating simple to put together foods such as yogurt and veggie salads with chicken. When it's really hot I don't want anything hot. :( Not even pizza. So for me, it'd be sandwiches, yogurt and salads.
  • futuresylph
    futuresylph Posts: 2,178 Member
    The trinity for me these days: green salad, fruit salad, and tuna salad.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    I pre-cook chicken (like in the mornings when it's cooler, or in the crockpot) - then it goes on salads and sandwiches or I just eat it cold with vegetables.
    I also really like pasta salad with smoked salmon.
    Hard boiled eggs are good to have around, it takes two minutes to make some egg salad for a sandwich and then a side of julienned vegetables.
    Tuna salad
    Pre-cooking potatoes comes in handy for potato salad or just cold potatoes
    Pre-cooked rice has a lot of "salad" possibilities too. I get up at o'dark thirty so I do my cooking then.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    Gazpacho, though there are high calorie versions, but tasty low-cal ones are out there (I wing it).

    Cold yogurt-based soups, including fruit soups as well as vegetable ones.

    Cold soups can include pureed soft tofu or white beans for extra protein.

    Bean salads from canned beans. I don't recipe, and many variations work, but one I do is something like red or black beans with some combo of sweet peppers, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, sweet or green onions, and calorie-affordable amounts of sweet corn (frozen cooks quickly) or avocado, and bits of smoked provolone or mozzarella (slicing string cheese is quick). Dress with salsa, or vinegar + herbs of choice. (I like malt vinegar, especially, with beans.) Eat on its own, or atop a heap of leafy greens.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    There are a couple of basic pasta's where the sauce is made in the 10 minues it takes the pasta to cook:
    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/20/the-only-4-spaghetti-recipes-you-will-ever-need-giorgio-locatelli
    Also a couple of other no cook pasta sauces are pesto alla genovese (freezes well so make a lot while basil is cheap in summer and enjoy a whif of summer all winter long) and pesto alla trapanese (needs to be made fresh).
    https://www.food.com/recipe/pesto-marcella-hazan-448339
    https://www.greatitalianchefs.com/recipes/pesto-trapanese-recipe

    Pair your pasta with a salad. My favourite salad resource is this:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/22mlist.html
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Shrimp Cocktail (try 10 Jumbo Shrimp). A whole more protein per calorie than beef or pork. Lightly sauteed in a few Tbs of water and Old Bay or Better than Bouillon Lobster Base then cooled in the frig.

  • TheRobotsAreComing
    TheRobotsAreComing Posts: 26 Member
    Thank you for the suggestions! I like the sound of the bean salad, definitely going to add that one to the list this week.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    I'm on the email list for allrecipes and received this recently. Have not checked out any of them yet.

    15 No-Cook Meals You Can Make from Rotisserie Chicken
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    Cabbage, broccoli and mango slaw. Other veggies that go in it are jalapeno peppers, red bell pepper, onion, cilantro, scallions, canned black beans, cucumber. Dressing is a vinegar (i use apple cider), lemon or lime juice, touch of olive oil if you like ( I don't add that anymore, i find it's great without extra calories), soy sauce, black pepper, cayenne, you can add sesame seeds too.
    Salads are great, i eat bid salad for dinner few times a week topped with chopped up rotisserie chicken.
  • Antiopelle
    Antiopelle Posts: 1,184 Member
    If even boiling pasta is too hot, you can replace it by taboule. Put one cup in a bowl, add a cup of boiling water and a tablespoon of olive oil or a small cube of butter. Cover and let it soak for 5 minutes and then fluff up with a fork.
    Top with veggies and protein as you like.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    Salade nicoise using the Alistair Little recipe. Potatoes and eggs boiled and tuna seared in the morning. Beans blanched by putting them in a salad spinner and pouring a kettle full of boiling water over them.
    y431vg8z1w70.jpg
  • vanmep
    vanmep Posts: 406 Member
    Soft tacos, Greek salad, sandwiches and soup (I know people think soup is a winter meal, but I make lots in a slow cooker and then heat up a bowl for dinner)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I live on gazpacho in the summer time, but I'm also a fan of just chopping up tons of fresh vegetables and tossing them with dressing.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    Caesar topped with salmon mi cuit and salmon skin crackling. Mi cuit cooked with the sous vide wand in the morning and served cold. Salmon skin removed after cooking and crisped up for 10 minutes in the air fryer in the morning.
    We had a freezer crisis today probably due to the heat wave. Freezer alarm went off because it is not at a safe temperature. Had to cook the kilo of salmon we had in there (mi cuit using the sous vide wand) and am now re-freezing what we didn't eat tonight. I have a kilo of beef shin in the sous vide being turned into unseasonal estouffade which I will re-freeze after cooking. I also put the kilo of chicken bones in the freezer into the stock pot.
    For cooking indoors in the heat my favourite gadgets are the air fryer, the sous vide wand, and the blow torch.
    xjajvvbnr434.jpg
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    It's always hot in the summer in my neck of the desert. I eat a lot more salads in the summer as well as things like gazpacho and other cold soups. We do very little cooking indoors in the summer and I'm on the grill almost every evening. Lots of fish and chicken thighs. We also received a sushi making kit as a gift and we've been working on our skills there.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    Taking a page from Sicilian breakfast that inclues granita, breakfast was peach sorbet and strawberries. Easiest tinned fruit sorbet can be made by blitzing a tin of fruit in the food processor. If packed in juice instead of syrup you will need to sweeten to taste with sugar, as otherwise it will freeze too solid. A tablespoon of vodka or fruit liqueur will also enhance scoopability. Freeze, giving it a stir with a fork every hour or so.
    8kaa5h6j2cwt.jpg

  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Caesar topped with salmon mi cuit and salmon skin crackling. Mi cuit cooked with the sous vide wand in the morning and served cold. Salmon skin removed after cooking and crisped up for 10 minutes in the air fryer in the morning.
    We had a freezer crisis today probably due to the heat wave. Freezer alarm went off because it is not at a safe temperature. Had to cook the kilo of salmon we had in there (mi cuit using the sous vide wand) and am now re-freezing what we didn't eat tonight. I have a kilo of beef shin in the sous vide being turned into unseasonal estouffade which I will re-freeze after cooking. I also put the kilo of chicken bones in the freezer into the stock pot.
    For cooking indoors in the heat my favourite gadgets are the air fryer, the sous vide wand, and the blow torch.
    xjajvvbnr434.jpg

    That looks just like my breakfast from yesterday. :) Except I used Rasp. Balsamic dressing and Minus the salmon skin. My dogs got that part of it. And it was such a good salad!!
  • IllustriousBee
    IllustriousBee Posts: 70 Member
    If you can pre-cook chicken or other lean protein you can just have that with some sort of salad. I made an awesome, huge fruit salad the other day for my whole family with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and granny smith apples with a "dressing" made with 1/4 cup of honey and a couple tablespoons of lime juice. I also make regular greens salads all the time with a mix of greens, tomatoes, carrots, green onions, and cucumber with a fat free or calorie free dressing. I don't usually mind cooking in the summer, but I know some days I just feel too hot and muggy to want to stand in a hot kitchen.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,553 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    Ice cream!! ;)
    Yeh, probably not the help you were looking for. My downfall is that I'm not much of a cook so am always eating simple to put together foods such as yogurt and veggie salads with chicken. When it's really hot I don't want anything hot. :( Not even pizza. So for me, it'd be sandwiches, yogurt and salads.

    I've been experimenting with this and the best result so far and not too unhealthy is any tinned fruit in light syrup blitzed with a banana in the food processor. Freeze in a tub, mashing the mixture with a fork every hour or so. If you are short on freezer space put the mixture into a zip lock bag and freeze flat. Give the bag a bit of a massage every hour so that it freezes less solid.

  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited July 2021
    I've been making Foil packets with corn, red potatoes, onions, green peppers and garlic (I leave the garlic in the skin, just cut off the bottom). Then another packet (later) with Shrimp, lots of seasoning (like Old Bay or Zatarins) and some orange or lemon slices and grilling them. It's just a take on a Shrimp boil, but it's quick, you don't have to spend time around a hot grill -- literally put it on and take it off, but the shrimp only take like 5 minutes, tops.

    First time I made it, tried to put it all together and it burned the shrimp a bit. Now, I put the shrimp in later (in shell still). You can even use frozen, deveined shrimp as long as they are pulled apart with cold water in advance. I think that helps them from burning.

    Chopped salads or quinoa/kale salads are also one of my go-to meals in hotter weather.