Healthy Quick & Easy Summer Dinner Recipes

Having a few specialty ingredients in your pantry, such as the spice blend ras el hanout and oil-cured olives, is the fastest way to a deluxe dinner that's easy enough for weeknights and special enough for Saturday's dinner party. Round out the meal with steamed potatoes, simply dressed salad greens and a glass of white Côtes du Rhône.

We love fresh summer corn when it's in season, but frozen corn makes a great year-round substitute in this quick and easy side dish.

Thinly sliced zucchini and summer squash bulk up this easy vegetarian pasta recipe. Saving a bit of the starchy pasta-cooking water to toss with grated cheese, herbs and bright lemon at the end is the secret to a fast, silky no-cook pasta sauce.

Yep, there's cauliflower in this potato salad. It cuts down on the carbs and calories, and is a perfect match for our tangy horseradish dressing.

Seek out several varieties of heirloom tomatoes for this simple salad. Sweeter and juicier than conventional tomatoes, they add the perfect pop of color.

This easy vegetable side dish shines alongside roasted or seared steak, chicken, shrimp or firm fish, such as cod or salmon. Sumac lends punchy, fruity, sour-lemon notes to this fast and simple recipe. Find ground sumac spice online, in specialty markets and in well-stocked grocery stores.

Toasting and grinding your own spices for a flavorful rub is the quickest, easiest way to build surefire flavor in this easy pork chop recipe. Serve with a simple tossed salad and some roasted sweet potatoes to round out the meal.

Thai peanut sauce is an addictive base for homemade grilled pizza. Purchase your preferred brand at any large supermarket or Asian grocery store for an easy, veggie-loaded pizza made right at home.

Healthy homemade sausage-and-mushroom pizza in the comfort of your backyard? Yes, please. All you need for a Naples-worthy pie is a hot grill, store-bought pizza dough and easy prepared ingredients. Serve with a glass of Chianti.

Spreading roasted red pepper hummus on this easy grilled pizza makes a fast and easy base for tender summer squash and salty chunks of feta. Best of all? This healthy pizza is ready in 20 minutes.

You can make healthy veggie-packed pizza in just 15 minutes with store-bought pizza dough, a few simple ingredients and a hot grill. Slice the fennel as thinly as possible--it'll caramelize and melt into the creamy, nutty fontina cheese.

Store-bought pizza dough and a hot grill make this garlicky, veggie-loaded grilled pizza super-fast from start to finish. Have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you start slinging pies--the dough cooks up fast on the grill.

Grilling is a simple and fast way to cook asparagus that yields a delicious result every time. Trimming off about one inch of the asparagus yields the best flavor--the ends are tough and hard to chew.

Creamy tzatziki and crisp sliced cucumber add a refreshing twist to this easy Greek-inspired burger recipe loaded with feta, spinach and Mediterranean spices. No tzatziki? No problem! Make your own at home by combining plain Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon, dill and finely chopped cucumber.

This foolproof way to cook zucchini is also the easiest and fastest. Just steam it on the stovetop for a few minutes and you have a healthy vegetable side dish to add to dinner. Toss with a little pesto for extra flavor.

This super-simple method for sautéed zucchini makes an easy and healthy vegetable side dish. Add garlic, pesto or even Parmesan cheese for extra flavor.

Looking for a new way to cook zucchini? Try grilling it.

You'll never guess this creamy sauce is completely vegan, and actually made from pureed cashews. To keep it gluten-free, use tamari.

Make a bun out of a tomato in this healthy low-carb tuna melt recipe that swaps bread for veggies. You save 23 grams of carbohydrate and get 1 veggie serving while you're at it!

This vegetarian nacho recipe is a fun combination of two favorites--nachos and Greek salad. It uses whole-grain pita chips instead of the tortilla chips used in traditional nacho recipes, and it's loaded with the classic fresh vegetables in Greek salad as well as creamy hummus and salty feta cheese. And it doesn't even need the oven! Easily doubled, this makes a great appetizer or light dinner.