100 Easy Summer Recipes for Right Now

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.