5 Healthy Dinner Ideas For When It's Simply Too Hot To Cook

When a heat wave swings into town, it comes time for cooking-free dinners. The name of the game when it comes to heatless dinners is assembly, pairing perfect ingredients to make something that feels like a meal without turning on your oven or stove at all. It's also a great time to dive into your fridge in search of leftovers (that you've already cooked) to repurpose them.

Perhaps the most obvious choice for an assembled-without-heat dinner is a salad, but it's all about layering flavors, textures, and nutrients to make a salad that you're excited to eat for dinner. Picking an inspiration point, be it an ingredient or a culinary style, is a great way to develop a perfect salad.

Technically, a salad doesn't have to have a lettuce base. And sometimes, you don't want to eat lettuce, anyway—and that's where a lettuce-less salad comes into play.

While it may sound more like hors d'oeuvres (or a dessert, depending on where you are), a carefully planned cheeseboard can be a perfect dinner option for days when it's simply too warm. We'd recommend leaning as much on the fresh accompaniments (like fruit and veggies) as you do on the cheese for a lighter feeling after finishing your meal.

Just like we love to lean on smoothies and smoothie bowls for breakfast in the hotter months, we again turn to the blender for some dinner inspo. Originally an Andalusian recipe, it's traditionally a cold soup made by blending vegetables together and often includes tomato—but recipes can include a wide variety of ingredients including watermelon and more.

We can think of plenty of ways to eat hummus—it's so much more than just a dip, after all! It's a great base on sandwiches or added to salads and can even be flipped into a savory pasta sauce. But we still love having it on a platter with all of our favorite vegetables, and if you feel like doing a bit more "cooking" for your dinner there are tons of great homemade hummus recipes you can make.