There’s nothing quite like summer in the South, but there’s also nothing quite like it. When temperatures start to soar, the last thing you want to do during dinner is stand on a hot stove and heat up your entire kitchen.
These recipes utilize minimal effort, time-saving kitchen hacks, and taste like your family’s favorites. There are twists on old classics and new recipes packed with summer’s best ingredients. Here are some ideas for delicious hot or cold dinners on hot summer days.
Victor Protasio.Food Styling: Rishon Hannahs; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis
This twist on the classic Caesar salad is ready in 15 minutes. Add grilled steak, chicken, or salmon for the perfect weeknight dinner.
Antonis Achilles. Prop Stylist: Claire Spollen.Food stylist: Tori Cox
Packed with lemony, vibrant, fresh flavors, this pasta salad is reminiscent of marinated shrimp, a popular Southern delicacy. Not a fan of shrimp? Leave it alone and enjoy it on its own in a pasta salad or as a side dish to grilled meat or fish.
Victor Protasio. Food stylist: Ruth Blackburn.Prop Stylist: Christina Daly
Fire up the grill and get ready for some taco night fun! Topped with grilled steak and corn and piled high with other toppings like avocado, pickled onions, and shredded cheese, this is my new favorite way to eat taco salad.
This slow cooker chicken is perfect for when it’s too hot to even fire up the grill. You don’t have to heat up the oven or go outside to get delicious chicken to use in tacos, wraps, salads, sandwiches, or serve over rice.
With microwaveable rice and rotisserie chicken, you can make this beautiful appetizer salad without even turning on the stove. Loaded with fresh vegetables and herbs, this hearty and appetite-satisfying meal is the perfect option for a hot summer night.
Use your favorite pasta and combine it with an easy honey-lemon vinaigrette and fresh vegetables for a side dish that goes with anything. If you pick up a can of field peas, the only cooking required here is boiling the pasta. Alternatively, you can take the cooked pasta out of the fridge.
Cut rotisserie chicken down to the bone to create delicious sandwiches for lunch or dinner. It’s best to prepare the chicken salad mix a day in advance to make it much easier when assembling the sandwich. Meanwhile, make extra Caesar dressing to use on side salads.
These healthy lettuce wraps require no cooking and are delicious. A light chicken salad mixture is a 15-minute recipe that delivers both heat and sweetness and is never boring. Serve over crunchy butter lettuce leaves, wheat wraps, or vegetables.
I never knew a five-ingredient recipe could look and taste so elegant, but this cold soup proves otherwise. If watermelon is your favorite summer fruit, here’s a unique, fun and delicious way to prepare it. The only equipment that needs to be heated is a blender.
All you need to prepare for this salad is bacon, with boiled eggs in your fridge and cooked shrimp from the seafood aisle. Once you taste this dressing, you won’t care about the few minutes it took to fry it (you can always easily use the microwave). This light recipe feels much more indulgent than it actually is.
This isn’t your boring deli chicken sandwich at all, but it’s easy to make even on a busy day. Grilling chicken will keep your kitchen cool and cozy. Serve with chips and fresh fruit.
Stay cool with this recipe that goes from brunch to dinner. Cook the salmon first in the slow cooker with a fragrant blend of lemongrass, fennel, green onions, and dry white wine. Then assemble the best salmon bagel you’ve ever eaten.
A slow, low-temperature simmer will make the carnitas fork-tender. If desired, sear the meat in a frying pan until browned. Serve the pork with tortillas, shredded cabbage, diced avocado, queso fresco, and lime wedges.
We like two-step recipes: mix and chill. Transform leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken into an elegant and simple chicken salad. Juicy grapes and nutty pecans provide the perfect balance to the slightly sweet dressing.
This retro Southern recipe is perfect to have on hand when you don’t feel like cooking. Enjoy it on a buttery croissant (or between two slices of your own bread), with crackers, or with leafy greens for a quick and comforting meal. Bring the ingredients to room temperature to make mixing easier.
This easy pasta salad is bursting with flavor from sun-dried tomato pesto, feta, parsley, and basil. Bow-tie pasta will serve as a base that absorbs all the juices. According to our test kitchen, it can also be served at room temperature, making it perfect for sweltering days.
This salad does it all. Broccoli and pecans add crunch, and grapes add juicy sweetness. The recipe calls for cooked bacon, but you can omit it for a lighter version.
Caitlin Bensel.Food stylist: Tori Cox
Each forkful of this salad packs a wealth of flavor and texture, including tangy arugula, fragrant herbs, creamy burrata, and juicy, sweet strawberries. Prosciutto requires a few minutes of baking in the oven to get crispy, but the little sacrifice is well worth it.
There’s nothing more cooling than gazpacho, a traditional summer soup from southern Spain. I used green tomatoes because they not only give the soup a bright color, but also their sour and refreshing flavor. Refrigerate at least 24 hours before serving.
What better way to celebrate summer in the South than with a tomato sandwich? In this recipe, tomatoes are layered on toasted bread and topped with a mixture of cream cheese, cucumber, and fresh herbs. Choose the juiciest, most flavorful tomatoes you can find and cut them with a serrated knife to preserve their beautiful shape and color.
These cold cut sandwiches make great handheld mains for outdoor parties. Red or blue checked sandwich wrappers look especially festive. Finely chopped pickles and pimiento-stuffed olives add a tangy punch.
A chilled pasta salad made with plenty of summer ingredients. It doesn’t bother me one bit. Cajun seasoning provides all the heat we need.
These summery sandwiches are the ideal solution for leftover shrimp, but shellfish can also be steamed quickly. Toss the cooked and chopped shrimp in a mayonnaise dressing seasoned with dill, chives, and Old Bay. Take out a bag of potato chips, pour yourself a cold beer, and voila!
Antonis Achilles. Prop Stylist: Christina Daly.Food Stylist: Emily Neighbors Hall
Travel and Culture Editor Tara Masureh McKay shares her mom’s chicken salad recipe. “This beloved Southern dish encompasses many different cultures,” she writes.
This recipe combines grilled shrimp, cilantro, and simple pickled vegetables between lettuce leaves for a cooling, light lunch or appetizer. The shrimp are flavored with a marinade of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and rice vinegar, then lightly charred on the grill.
Caitlin Bensel.Food stylist: Tori Cox
This lunch favorite is always on rotation in our kitchen. Don’t miss the Test Kitchen’s tips for preventing soggy tea sandwiches.
Antonis Achilles. Prop Stylist: Christina Daly.Food Stylist: Emily Neighbors Hall
“Even though I wasn’t really interested in cooking growing up, I always jumped at the chance to help prepare Salad Olivier,” writes Travel Culture Editor Tara Masurre McKay. This delicious mash-up of chicken, eggs, and potato salad is traditionally served on the last day of Nowruz, which celebrates the Persian New Year.
