At six o'clock last Tuesday, the thermometer stuck to our kitchen wall read 86 degrees. The window unit in the living room was doing its best, but our galley kitchen sits at the far end of the apartment where the cold air gives up. Sam came home from the clinic, opened the fridge, stood in front of it for a long moment and said, "I am not turning on a single burner."
Fair. In August our rule is simple: if it's above 80 in the kitchen, dinner gets assembled, not cooked. It saves us from sweating over a pan, and it keeps the AC from fighting the stove, which matters when last August's electric bill hit $112.
Here's what we actually eat on those nights.
Our five rotating no-cook dinners
1. Big chopped bean salad
Rough cost for two: about $7
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed ($1.20)
- 1 can black beans, rinsed ($1.10)
- 1 cucumber and 1 bell pepper ($2)
- Half a red onion ($0.40)
- A handful of cherry tomatoes ($1.50)
- Olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, dried oregano (pantry)
- Chop everything into pieces roughly the size of a chickpea.
- Whisk 3 tablespoons oil with 1 tablespoon vinegar, a big pinch of salt and the oregano.
- Toss it all together and let it sit 15 minutes while you set the table.
2. Snack plate dinner
About $10
This is the one Sam requests most. Some cheese, a sleeve of crackers, sliced cucumber and carrots, a few slices of deli turkey, hummus, grapes, and whatever pickles are in the door of the fridge. We put it on our biggest cutting board and eat it on the couch, which Olive considers an open invitation.
- Slice the vegetables and cheese.
- Arrange everything on one board so there's only one thing to wash.
- Done. That's genuinely it.
3. Cold peanut noodle bowls (the one exception)
About $6
Technically rice noodles need hot water, but we use the electric kettle, not the stove, so I'm counting it.
- Thin rice noodles, half a package ($1.50)
- Shredded cabbage or bagged slaw mix ($1.75)
- 1 carrot, 1 cucumber ($1)
- Sauce: 3 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp honey, a splash of warm water
- Pour boiling kettle water over the noodles in a big bowl and let them soak per the package, usually 6 to 8 minutes.
- Drain and rinse under cold water until they're cool.
- Whisk the sauce until smooth, then toss with the noodles and vegetables.
4. Tuna and white bean lettuce cups
About $8
- 2 cans tuna ($3)
- 1 can white beans ($1.10)
- 1 head butter lettuce or romaine ($2.50)
- Lemon, a spoonful of mayo or olive oil, chopped celery or pickles
- Mash the tuna and half the beans with a fork, then fold in the rest of the beans.
- Add lemon juice, mayo or oil, and the crunchy chopped bits.
- Spoon into lettuce leaves and eat with your hands.
5. Tomato toast night
About $5
Peak August tomatoes from the farm stand, thick slices of good bread (toasted in the toaster, which barely heats the room), a smear of mayo or cream cheese, salt and pepper. Two each with a side of sliced peaches. Some of my favorite dinners of the whole year are this exact thing.
What makes no-cook nights actually work
The trick isn't the recipes. It's having the right stuff already cold.
- Chill the cans. I put beans and tuna in the fridge on Sunday. A room-temperature chickpea in a cold salad is a sad thing.
- Prep one vegetable a day. On mornings when I'm at my desk early, I'll chop a cucumber into a container before the heat builds up. Five minutes, and dinner is half done.
- Keep a "dressing jar." A jam jar with oil, vinegar, salt and herbs lives in the fridge door all summer. Shake and pour.
- Freeze some grapes. Not dinner, but the best dessert in a hot apartment.
Notes
- Costs are rough and based on our usual grocery store this month. Pantry items like oil, vinegar and spices aren't counted.
- Leftover bean salad keeps three days in the fridge and honestly gets better.
- If you need more protein, add a rotisserie chicken from the store on the way home. Someone else heated their kitchen for it.
- For the noodles, natural peanut butter works but needs more warm water to loosen up.
By the time we'd finished the lettuce cups last Tuesday, the sun had dropped behind the building across the street and the kitchen had cooled to a merciful 81. Sam declared it "practically fall." It was not. But it was a good dinner, and nobody had to stand over a stove to make it.
