Easy no cook dinners
With summer nights and longer afternoons on the horizon, sometimes you just wanna throw something amazing together, preferably something from nothing, and be totally amazed at your creativity and everyone’s enjoyment and satisfaction at that!
As long as I keep my fridge and pantry filled with a few essentials, a flavor-packed dinner can be on the table in about 20 minutes or less. Plus, I won’t have any pots and pans to wash at the end of the meal. Remember: don’t overcomplicate things. Quick and easy does the trick!
Here’s what I stock in my fridge and pantry for no-cook meals:
Leftover roast chicken. I normally cook two chickens at a time in a large roasting pan so I can have one leftover for no-cook meals.
Smoked, frozen and thawed or canned fish I keep cured or smoked salmon in my fridge, wild caught salmon my freezer and salmon and tuna tins in my pantry.
Mayo. Making mayo yourself is a 2min job!
Nori sheets and butter lettuce. Toasted seaweed and lettuce cups are my favorite tortilla alternative and they don’t need heating just eating!
Salad greens Toss with oil and vinegar and you’ve got an instant side dish!
Fresh herbs (e.g. chives, coriander, green onions, Italian parsley, mint). You can grow them so easy on your windowsill or they keep well in kitchen wipe in a ziplock in the fridge. Chop some up and sprinkle on everything!
Spice blends Dash some pep and exoticism onto your dishes!
Citrus and acv (e.g. lemon, lime, assorted vinegars) Squeeze on some citrus juice or drizzle your preferred vinegar to instantly brighten any dish.
Eggs. Boiled eggs in the fridge are a saviour. Roll them in Dukkah, top a salad, add to broth!
My Top 10 Fast and Easy No-Cook Dishes:
Satay chicken with Raw Pad Thai
Zucchini
Carrots
Onions
White cabbage
Radishes
Bean shoots
Chopped cashews
Pad Thai sauce
3 tbsp almond butter
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar unsweetened
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sriracha
1/4 tsp salt
Cut your zoodles with kitchen scissors so they’re easier to eat. Mix pad Thai sauce and pour over zoodles and toss. Serve with chicken and cashews on top with loads of coriander.
Temaki / hand rolls
Our family loves sushi, so I make sure to throw a roll-your-own temaki night on a regular basis. If you don’t like crab (as in California rolls), just substitute cooked chicken, salmon, or prawns
8 sheets nori
400g salmon, tuna or crab meet - wild caught, no weird seed oils to preserve
2 green onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp lime juice 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, optional
Pinch salt and pepper
1 large avo
2 small cucumbers, cut into matchsticks
Handful radishes, cut thin
Toasted sesame seeds
Cut every thing read for the table, pile up your rolls with each ingredients, douse in mayo and roll your nori to much, ice cream cone rolling works best to hold everything in!
Chicken lettuce wraps
Cos or butter lettuce - choose one with good ‘cups’
Leftover roast chicken
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1 beetroot, grated
2 tbsp mayo
Cut up everything, arrange on plate and pile up each lettuce cup and enjoy!
Instant salad
Pesto and Tomato salsa aka instant dip, bread or salad topper
While it involves cooking, mix these ingredients into an easy liquid to swivel into a pizza base circle and 15min and instant bread. Top with tomato salsa, pesto and charcuterie of ham, salami, even oysters, prawns.
Alternatively break up the cassava pizza into chips, top with guacamole, pesto and salsa and voila nachos!
Greek Salmon salad
(And why the seafood you choose matters)
Canadian way salmon
Cucumber
Lettuce
Tomato
Avocado
Sauerkraut
Sheeps feta
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice
Olives
Oodles of zoodles for Asian inspired noodles
(as salad with roasted pork belly (bought hot at our local butcher!))
Or try smoked or cured salmon, crab meat, prawns or even cook extra steak, slice and freeze then defrost in meal portions.
1 zucchini, zoodled or peeled
1 carrot, zoodled or peeled
Mirin
Tamari
Sesame seeds
Honey
Ginger
Garlic
Sauerkraut
Ploughmans lunch
with zucchini humus, tomato salsa, pesto , pate and cassava bread
Broth with Zoodles
With boiled egg (or poached in boiling broth) with Chinese greens.
I know not really no cook but warming up broth is like boiling the kettle!
You can have portions of broth in the freezer and don’t even need to unfreeze to defrost on cooktop.
Other broth recipes are great instant meals, even snacks, too.
Ahi cerviche with sesame mint poke bowl
400-500g sashimi grade wild caught salmon or tuna
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2tbsp mint
2tbsp sesame seeds
2tbsp tamari
2 tbsp orange zest
1tsp sesame oil
1/4tsp red boat fish sauce
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and stir through to coat and combine evenly.
Serve and eat immediately! (When the lime juice comes into contact with the tuna, it will begin to “cook” the fish.)
Caesar salad
Leftover chicken
Bacon (leftover from breaky you cooked extra, remember?!))
Cos lettuce
Boiled eggs from fridge stash
Capers
Cassava pizza croutons (keep leftovers in Tupperware in fridge)
With an amazing coming together of leftovers you’ll not just feel a creative genius but a satisfaction like no other - something from nothing, using up leftovers so fridge logistics at its best and sauces to send you on flavour journeys you’ve never thought possible from your last minute decisions!
