25 Summer Salad Recipes for When It's Too Hot to Cook

Sometimes, summer is better in theory than in reality: The beach days and picnics are easily overshadowed by the annoyance of endless mosquito bites and feeling sweaty the instant you get out of the shower. It's the season when despite how beautiful it might look outside, you're still going to order food for delivery to avoid leaving the comfort of air conditioning (or at the very least, the fan blowing directly at your sad, overheated self).

But most of all, it's that time of year when turning on the stove—and pumping your home with even more heat—seems like the worst possible thing you could do. The urge to eat cool things and refresh your body from the inside out means salads are a go-to dinner option pretty much every night of the week. We've rounded up some of our favorite recipes for no-to-low-cook summer salads to get you through all the impending heat waves. Keep these bookmarked for the rest of this sweaty, sweaty summer.

The perfect mix of salty and sweet, melon and feta salad is one of our favorite no-cook summer dishes. Have a little fun with the melon baller, then leave a big bowl of this in the fridge to cool you down when the going gets tough.

The best thing about grilling is that it keeps all the heat outside so you can stay nice and chill inside. This grilled shrimp salad with avocado green goddess dressing is great in pita, on toast, or even scooped up with a crunchy green leaf.

Okay, fine, we'll hit the stove for a few minutes to make this easy escarole salad, because toasting your pine nuts is always worth it. Add some anchovy and currants, and you've got a nutty, salty, sweet vinaigrette that perfectly offsets the bitter greens.

If the idea of a rich, mayo-heavy salad on a hot day isn't your thing, then this slightly unconventional chicken salad is for you, getting its creaminess from a mixture of feta, Greek yogurt, and tahini.

A combination of quickly cooked stems and raw greens gives this spicy-salty-sweet bok choy salad some textural intrigue. Swap out the honey for a plant-based syrup, and this easy dish is vegan.

With a little kick of vinegar and lots of herbs and seeds, this simple, chilled lentil salad is a side dish that could very well steal the show.

A slaw is basically just another way to say "shredded salad," but no matter what we call it, we love this combo of spicy radish and crisp Asian pear in a sesame, honey, and lime dressing.

A classic Greek salad of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and feta is summer vegetable simplicity at its finest. You can serve this as a side, but it's filling enough on its own.

It should go without saying, but you don't have to follow this summer salad recipe to a T—mix and match with whatever looks good at the farmer's market, though we think cool, crunchy options like shaved fennel and cucumbers make the best base.

You could just eat pepperoni and mozzarella with your fingers as we've all done for a midnight snack, but throw 'em in a bowl with chickpeas and tasty marinated things (artichokes, olives, peppers…) and suddenly, you've got an antipasti salad.

This easy steak salad proves that ramen isn't just for soup, because as much as we love a hot bowl of noodles, a chilled salad is way more summer-appropriate.

If you want to make your life easier, a classic, loaded Cobb salad is the kind of weekday lunch you can meal prep—just reserve all that your egg-boiling for one of the cooler days of the week.

Matty Matheson's take on classic potato salad is the kind of no-nonsense summer food that'll be a crowd pleaser at any picnic or cookout.

Is it green? Chop it up, and throw it into this crunchy salad with tahini-miso dressing.

Stale pita can still be saved: toast it into pita chips, and you've got the perfect addition for an easy fattoush salad. Pomegranate molasses, which is sticky syrup made from cooked-down pomegranate juice, forms the base of this fruity and bright dressing.

There's no way we're braising collard greens on a hot day. But shred those collards and massage them in a tangy buttermilk vinaigrette—as you might with a kale salad—and you've got a no-cook collard green dish that makes it quick and easy to eat your greens.

As much as we love traditional chicken salad, we'll admit that it's not the most texturally exciting food. This take on chicken salad, however, is quite the opposite: cabbage, seeds, noodles, and cucumbers give it plenty of crunch.

Break from the idea of what a Caesar salad "should" be—this cabbage Caesar salad proves that any vegetable is improved with that savory, eggy dressing.

This dish is basically a pizza dressed up as a pasta salad, and it's perfect to pack up for a day at the beach.

Blanching—a technique that involves finishing boiled vegetables in an ice bath—ensures that your fresh peas stay nice and snappy in this refreshing potato, salami, and pea salad.

With bratwurst, potatoes, beer, and a homemade honey mustard dressing, this potato salad has all the flavors you love from your go-to beer hall. We recommend pairing this with your favorite golden beer—in a stein, of course.

Grilling your greens? Yes, you should. Big chunks of tahini dressing-soaked bread make this salad even better.

Halloumi, a dense and squeaky cheese that can be fried or grilled, adds heft to this chopped summer salad. If you're not already familiar with fennel, this salad is a great introduction to the crunchy, licorice-y bulb.

Lots of crunchy, bitter chicories are balanced perfectly with tangy red wine vinegar, lush Castelvetrano olives, and some salty parmesan cheese in this riff on the kale salad.

Keep it lighter this summer—this recipe has all the flavors you love in a good Caesar salad, but none of the dairy.

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