Three recipes that require absolutely no cooking

Ali Slagle’s simple formula for colourful, satisfying dishes is perfect for times when you just don’t want to cook

Crunchy and creamy, sweet and tangy – you won’t miss the oven with this main dish (Getty/iStock)

For a meal as satisfying as one that you’ve spent all day cooking, focus on smart shopping and artful assembly. Here’s the formula to commit to memory: select at least one variety of ripe raw fruit or vegetable, a prepared protein, a starch and seasonings, then combine them into a big salad, a generously topped toast, a hearty dip or an abundant snack tray.

Choosing ingredients

By keeping just one or two ingredients from each of the categories below on hand, you have what you need to throw together a complete no-cook meal in minutes. You ultimately want to combine contrasting textures – such as soft tofu with thinly sliced sugar snap peas – so be sure to choose a mix of crunchy, creamy and juicy basics. On top of standard pantry seasonings, also pick up pre-flavoured options for an instant boost, such as herbed goat cheese.

Raw fruits and vegetables: Melons, berries, citrus and avocado; crunchy vegetables such as cucumbers, sugar snap peas and radishes; leafy greens such as pak choi, kale and soft herbs; and other staples such as sweetcorn, peppers and courgette.

Prepared proteins: Cooked or cured meat such as rotisserie chicken, prosciutto and jerky; tinned tuna or salmon; smoked salmon or trout; tinned beans; hummus; tofu; nuts, seeds and butters; soft or hard dairy products such as yoghurt, ricotta and creme fraiche or parmesan, manchego and cheddar.

Starches: Bread, crisps, crackers, rice cakes, pretzels, toasted corn and other snacks that make you smile.

Seasonings: Oil, vinegar, salt and pepper are essential, but consider ground spices and spice mixes (like ‘everything bagel’ seasoning or za’atar); savoury items such as pickles, olives and capers; sauces such as mustard, hot sauce, chilli oil, fish sauce and mayonnaise.

Putting them together

Arrange your ingredients into one of the formats below, following the no-cook recipes or creating your own. Cold food and raw produce require plenty of salt to bring out their flavour, so remember to taste and adjust seasonings before serving.

Big salads: Include a variety of fats, starches and proteins for heft. The dressing can be as simple as oil and vinegar or as elaborate as creamy blue cheese.

• Macerate shallots and nectarines in lemon juice, then toss with spinach, shredded chicken and pitta chips. Eat with buttermilk goat’s cheese cream dressing (see recipe below).
• Combine cooked lentils, smashed raw green beans, sliced apricots, fresh mint leaves and candied pecans with a blue cheese dressing. Top with crushed rosemary crackers.
• Mix up thinly sliced raw shishito peppers and spring onions with tinned tuna and tinned white beans. Dress with lemon juice and zest and toasted sesame oil. Top with nori rice crackers.

Topped toasts: Pile toppings onto bread, using something creamy like ricotta or hummus to help loose ingredients stick to the toast. Or fold, roll or sandwich toppings in a tortilla, pitta, lavash or flatbread.

• Mix fresh sweetcorn kernels with chopped melon, coriander, salami and almonds. Spoon onto split baguettes spread with ricotta (see recipe).
• Layer avocado, sprouts, hummus, sliced feta and pickled jalapenos between potato buns.
• Spread mayonnaise on a rye bagel, then top with tinned sardines, thinly sliced pak choi, grated parmesan and toasted sesame seeds.

Hearty dips: Make a protein-rich dip by using smashed beans, silken tofu, nut butter, or smoked fish or meat.

• Serve smoked salmon dip with cucumbers, tomatoes, bagel chips and pickled vegetables.
• Stir together fresh sweetcorn, ricotta and ’nduja. Use radishes and multigrain crackers to dip.
• Make seven-layer dip using drained tinned black beans, then serve with tortillas chips or spicy crisps.

Snack trays: Artfully arrange ingredients on a baking tray or platter and, look, you’ve made dinner.

• Assemble a main-course antipasti platter with celery, avocado, cured meats, mozzarella, focaccia, pickled peppers and mustard.
• Dress shaved raw beetroot with vinegar and serve alongside grapes, smoked salmon, pastrami, cheddar, pretzels and sauerkraut.
• Toss white beans with harissa and set out with tomatoes, watermelon, mint, almonds, goat’s cheese and olive bread.

Now that the question of dinner is answered, what will you do with your free time? Soak up the setting sun? Chase down the ice cream van? Think about what you’re not cooking for dinner tomorrow?

Chicken salad with nectarines and goat’s cheese cream

Pre-prepared protein like rotisserie chicken makes salads like these a breeze (Getty/iStock)

Crunchy and creamy, sweet and tangy, this main dish salad is a new take on the goat’s cheese, spinach and fruit salads of the 1980s. Lemon-kissed nectarines and shallots are tossed with chicken, pitta chips and greens. A mature green like spinach adds heft, but any salad green works. Goat’s cheese cream hidden beneath the salad is a delightful surprise; you get a bit of the tangy cream every few bites. Make it vegetarian by leaving out the chicken and adding white beans to the nectarines in step 1. Embellish freely with thinly sliced beetroot, sunflower seeds, sliced jalapenos or soft herbs, or swap in another stone fruit like apricots or cherries.

Makes: 4 to 6 servings

Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

680-900g ripe but firm nectarines, pitted and sliced (4 to 6)

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

6 tbsp lemon juice, plus more to taste (from 2 lemons)

Salt and black pepper

1 cup buttermilk, plus more as needed

225g goat’s cheese, preferably herbed, at room temperature

1 tbsp lemon zest

425-600g shredded cooked chicken (from about 1 rotisserie chicken)

60-120g lightly crushed pitta chips

60ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to taste

225-280g salad greens, such as mature spinach, rocket or watercress

Method:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the nectarines, shallot and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, mash together the buttermilk, goat’s cheese and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper and thin with more buttermilk until it’s the consistency of a dip (both mixtures can be made up to an hour ahead and refrigerated – but bring to room temperature before eating).

2. When you’re ready to eat, add the chicken, pitta chips and olive oil to the nectarines and stir to combine. Add the greens, season them with salt and pepper, and stir once more. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, lemon juice, and oil until flavours are bright and punchy.

3. Spread the goat’s cheese cream on plates, then top with the salad (or dot the salad with the goat’s cheese cream). Serve immediately.

‘Everything bagel’ smoked salmon dip

Enjoy this dip as part of a platter, in a sandwich or scooped into a salad (Getty/iStock)

Reminiscent of whitefish salad, smoked trout spread and ‘everything bagels’ with lox, this creamy dip combines hot smoked fish, yoghurt, ‘everything bagel’ seasoning, fresh dill and lemon. It can be eaten with crisp and fresh accompaniments, such as bagel chips, cucumbers and tomatoes. Or, enjoy it in a sandwich or as a salad scooped onto a bed of greens. Feel free to add capers, horseradish, chopped celery or red onion or anything you like in your tuna salad or on your bagel, but taste before adding: the fish and ‘everything bagel’ seasoning provide plenty of flavour on their own.

Makes: 4 servings

Total time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

340g full-fat plain Greek yoghurt

225g hot smoked trout or salmon fillets, skin and bones removed, fish flaked into small pieces (see tip)

10g thinly sliced dill fronds and stems, plus more for serving

2 tsp lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp ‘everything bagel ‘seasoning (shop-bought or homemade), plus more for serving

Black pepper

Raw or pickled vegetables, such as cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes; crisps or crackers; butter beans or hard-boiled eggs, for serving

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the yoghurt, fish, dill, lemon zest and juice and ‘everything bagel’ seasoning. Season with black pepper (the fish and bagel seasoning are both salty, so you likely won’t need additional salt).

2. Spoon into a serving bowl and top with more ‘everything bagel’ seasoning, black pepper and dill. Eat with any mix of dippers (it keeps in the fridge for up to four days, but season again with lemon, salt and pepper before eating).

Tips: Hot smoked fish, also labeled smoke roasted, is the fully-cooked, firm, vacuum-packed fish found near the cold smoked salmon. If using hot smoked mackerel, use 115g.

Ricotta toasts with melon, sweetcorn and salami

Add sweetcorn and chunks of salami to these melon and ricotta toasts (Getty)

Fresh melon and sweetcorn star in these meal-worthy toasts. They are mixed with spicy salami to complement their sweetness. You can use any cured meat with a kick, such as black pepper salami, cubed chorizo or torn soppressata. Whole-milk ricotta, made extra creamy with “milk” scraped from the sweetcorn cobs, is spread on crusty bread, then topped with the salad of melon, sweetcorn, salami, plus almonds and coriander. Play with the balance of sweet, spicy, juicy and crunchy by adding fresh chilli, thinly sliced cucumbers or sugar snap peas or swapping the melon for stone fruit.

Makes: 4 servings

Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ears of sweetcorn, kernels removed, cobs reserved

225g whole-milk ricotta

Salt and black pepper

160g chopped melon

1/2 cup or 70g chopped spicy or black pepper salami (if using pre-sliced salami, rip into smaller pieces)

30g coriander leaves and stems, finely chopped

6 tbsp roasted, salted or Marcona almonds, coarsely chopped

2 tsp sherry vinegar, plus more as needed

1 baguette or another sturdy bread, like ciabatta

Method:

1. Use the blunt edge of a knife to scrape any “milk” off the sweetcorn cobs into a medium bowl. Add the ricotta, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the sweetcorn kernels, melon, salami, coriander, almonds and vinegar. Season generously with salt and pepper, then taste and adjust salt, pepper and vinegar until the flavours pop (the salad will keep covered and refrigerated for up to five hours – but add the coriander and almonds just before serving).

3. When ready to eat, cut or rip the baguette into four pieces crosswise, then cut or rip in half lengthwise through the middle (as if you’re making a sandwich). Toast if you’d like. Spoon the ricotta onto the cut sides of the baguette, then top with the salad.

© The New York Times