What's Your Favorite Cool Summer Dinner?

It's hot and muggy outside, the last gasp of summer before cooler weather sets in. What do you cook for dinner, when it's this hot outside? What cool, quick dishes do you have on hand to nourish yourself despite the heat?

Yes, it's very tempting to eat out a lot more when the kitchen gets this hot. Sit in an air-conditioned dining room and have someone else cook? Yes please! But it's not good to eat out all the time, so what weeknight dinner for this time of year?

I love fresh, crunchy things, like these summer rolls:

• Vegetable and Mint Summer Rolls with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Also, cool noodles are wonderful:

• Cold Noodles For Hot Days: 10 Recipes

I also make lots of quick pasta dishes (grilled zucchini, a pound of pasta, Parmesan — done), and the grill is constantly in use.

What about you? What are your favorite fast, easy — and most importantly! — cool dishes for summer weeknights?

(Images: Emma Christensen; Elizabeth Passarella)

Comments (14)

My husband and I make quick fajitas on the grill a ton. Skirt steak, stripped of cut up bell peppers and red onion tossed in marinade and tossed on the grill. We just pile it on a plate with a spoonful of sour cream and a little serving of shredded cheese and eat it with our hands and bits of flour tortilla to sop everything up. Something gratifying about eating messier foods with your hands from time to time!

last night's dinner was the perfect summer weeknight meal. tomatoes, corn, mozzarella, cucumber, onion, garlic, basil, in some sherry vinegar- delish!

Favorite cool summertime dinner for a hot evening? Hummus, summer salad (tomatoes, cukes, parsely, white wine vinegar, olive oil, s&p), pita wedges, feta, and good olives. Heavenly, and no heating up the kitchen!

My favorite meal lately has been a simple salad of chopped heirloom tomato, mixed greens (spinach & arugula) and crumbled goat feta.

Serve with a piece of crusty french baguette and seasoned extra virgin olive oil.

It's such a lovely, simple and incredibly tasty meal. And, of course, all of these items I purchase weekly at my local Farmers Market.

*TIP for getting the most flavor from your tomatoes. In a small bowl toss chopped tomatoes with salt and pepper. Allow to sit for a few minutes while flavor builds. Pour the tomatoes, along with the liquid, onto your greens. You won't even need a dressing!

Salad with some grilled protein (steak/tri-tip, shrimp, salmon, or chicken thighs usually) on top. I also love a panzanella when the tomatoes and cukes are perfect.

shred up some zucchini, toss with cherry tomatoes and some beans with olive oil, lemon, and fresh herbs. eat with crusty bread.

These all sound like wonderful cool dinners but I just had to comment on the idea of early August being "the last gasp of summer before cooler weather sets in." Here in central Texas we'll be lucky to get our "last gasp" in late October, with highs probably in the 90s until at least the middle of that month. Then again it will be 60 here in February so maybe it's a fair trade?

it may be winter in Australia right now, but come summer, my new favourite is definitely going to be David Chang's red dragon sauce with cold noodles. Nothing beats spicy cold noodles in the scorching heat.

I like this crunchy Vietnamese-style salad made with cabbage and a bit of chicken, either leftover from another meal or quickly poached and left to cool.

On the menu these days:
*zucchini carpaccio (basically thinly sliced zucchini and onions, marinated in a bit of oil and vinegar, and topped with nuts and goat cheese)
*watermelon-feta salad with mint (can also add sweet onion and cucumber)
*tomato-cucumber-sweet onion salad, dressed with nothing but salt and pepper (SewTrashy's right that the tomatoes make their own dressing!)
*tuna and white bean salad with olive oil and fresh herbs, especially good tossed with some fresh kale torn in bite sized pieces
*any salad with arugula
*fruit and cheese platter (fresh apricots and queso fresco are amazing together)

Can you tell I'm enjoying the bounty of my farmers' market right now?

And in honor of my childhood: very ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped, tossed with a bit of Miracle Whip and some shredded cheese. Really. It's good.