17 No-Cook Summer Dinners in 20 Minutes or Less
When the temperature gets a little too warm, turn to these no-cook dinners. These 20-minute recipes use ingredients like leftover chicken and canned tuna to make a cool and delicious dinner—if you don't have leftover chicken, a rotisserie chicken is a great hack. Recipes like our White Bean & Veggie Salad and Salmon & Avocado Poke Bowl are tasty, healthy and don't require the stove or oven.
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White Bean & Veggie Salad
This meatless main-dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.
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Italian Pesto Chicken Salad
Prepared pesto is the secret ingredient in this lightened-up, healthy creamy chicken salad recipe. For the prettiest dressing, go for a bright-green colored pesto. Serve the salad open-face on toasted bread or scoop it on top of fresh salad greens.
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Salmon & Avocado Poke Bowl
Poke (pronounced poh-kay), the bite-size marinated fish salad famous in Hawaii, is so popular that it's sold by the pound in supermarkets. Now it has crossed the Pacific to become the meal-in-a-bowl du jour, served in eateries from Los Angeles to New York. But it's easy to make at home with this quick recipe. Sriracha and Chinese-style mustard add a touch of heat to the classic poke seasoning of soy sauce and sesame oil. Serving it over a brown rice salad makes it a meal.
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Italian Vegetable Hoagies
This delightfully easy, and somewhat messy, sandwich packs a punch with sweet balsamic vinegar, artichoke hearts, red onion, provolone cheese and zesty pepperoncini. We love it for dinner as well as lunch. If you're packing the hoagies to take along, keep the ingredients separate and assemble right before eating to avoid soggy bread. Serve with tomato and cucumber salad.
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Peanut Zucchini Noodle Salad with Chicken
You'll end up with more peanut sauce than you need in this zucchini noodle recipe, and that's a good thing! It makes a great dip or stir-fry sauce.
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Avocado, Tomato & Chicken Sandwich
In this healthy chicken sandwich recipe, the avocado is mashed to create a healthy creamy spread.
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Kale & Avocado Salad with Blueberries & Edamame
Bursting with nutrient-rich produce, this California-inspired salad is a delicious and satisfying way to get your vitamins. We love the unique combination of blueberries, edamame, and goat cheese.
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Tuna Salad Sandwich with Sweet Relish
This sweet twist on a classic tuna-salad sandwich is a healthy high-protein lunch that even your kids will love.
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Crab Roll
This healthier take on a lobster roll uses crab because it's usually easier (and less expensive) to buy. But by all means use lobster if you prefer. Serve with coleslaw and an ice-cold beer.
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Rainbow Veggie Wraps
There's definitely a sushi vibe to these kid-friendly wraps, which are stuffed with vegetables, cheese and hummus and then rolled and sliced. Serve them with store-bought green goddess, a creamy herb-filled dressing, to take it up a notch with ease. They look impressive but they're easy enough for kids to assemble themselves for an easy lunch or dinner.
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Mediterranean Tuna-Spinach Salad
This tuna salad recipe gets an upgrade with olives, feta and a tahini dressing. Served over baby spinach, this is the perfect easy and light lunch or dinner salad.
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White Bean & Avocado Sandwich
White beans mash seamlessly into a creamy protein-packed spread for a satisfying healthy sandwich that makes for an easy lunch or dinner. Mix it up by trying it with canned chickpeas or black beans. This vegetarian sandwich recipe is also a fiber superstar: avocado, beans, greens and whole-wheat bread team up to give it 15 grams of fiber, more than half of what most women should aim for in a day.
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Avocado Ranch Chicken Salad
Avocado makes an exceptionally creamy and healthful dressing for this chicken salad. A bit of ranch dressing with pickled jalapeño adds a tangy spin to the lunchtime classic. Serve it on a slice of whole-wheat toast for an open-face sandwich or in a lettuce cup for a low-carb lunch.
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Shrimp Poke
Not a fan of raw fish? No problem--this poke (pronounced poke-ay) recipe substitutes cooked peeled shrimp instead. This fast, veggie-loaded dish includes seasoned brown rice for a hearty boost of fiber.
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Greek Salad Nachos
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.
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Prosciutto, Mozzarella & Melon Plate
This perfect picnic for two is great for an outdoor date night or even just a quick, romantic dinner at home. The fresh fruit, vegetables and cheese pair perfectly with prosecco for sipping. Chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert make the meal extra-special.
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Thai Tuna Toss
Tuna, napa cabbage, and colorful vegetables get a sweet-and-spicy Asian-style dressing for a main-dish salad that's perfect for warm summer days.