100 Easy Summer Recipes for Right Now

Breezy and adaptable, most of these dishes can be on the table in 30 minutes or less.

More fun, less drudgery. That’s my goal for the summer — and specifically for my summer cooking. In my dreams, I’m whisking together a vinaigrette in a seaside cottage with a big breezy kitchen and a farm stand down the road (think Diane Keaton’s place in “Something’s Gotta Give”). While that’s not the reality for most of us — myself included — you can still welcome that relaxed sensibility in the recipes you cook and how you cook them (barefoot, good music playing, windows thrown open — or the A.C. on full blast).

We’ve rounded up 100 of our most delightful summer salads, desserts, easy dinners, grilling and no-cook recipes that will excite, not exhaust, you. The vast majority — with the exception of the desserts, most of which take about an hour — can be made in 30 minutes or less. (No kidding!) Quite a few travel well and taste great at practically any temperature, making them perfect for picnics. But since summer can look a lot like the rest of the year, with more sweat and sunblock, all are the kinds of dishes you can throw together on a busy weeknight when the kids are worn out from day camp and the traffic was hellish.

Pizza Salad. Get this — you can sizzle pepperoni strips, then toast bread crumbs in their fat. Sprinkle them over a crunchy-tangy mix of romaine lettuce, pepperoncini, black olives and red onion in a grated tomato vinaigrette, and you have this all-star salad.

Chicken and Herb Salad With Nuoc Cham. Sweet and tangy, a bright dressing of sugar, nuoc cham, lime juice and chile dresses a simple salad of rotisserie chicken, bell pepper and cabbage.

Citrusy Couscous Salad With Broccoli and Feta. This happy make-ahead salad can be served hot, cold or at room temperature. Orzo works great in place of pearl couscous.