No-cook recipes
These no-cook recipes need no oven, hob or grill: everything is chopped, torn, crushed, whisked or blended. They are for hot days, small kitchens and evenings when turning anything on feels like too much.
Guacamole and chimichurri go with something else, caprese salad is a light meal with good bread when tomatoes are in season, and fig and honey yoghurt is dessert in ten minutes. Agua fresca turns a watermelon into a jug for six. Every recipe gives exact amounts, and the ingredients you still need go onto your shared list in one tap.
29 recipes
Guacamole🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Snack · 10 min
Caprese Salad🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Side dish · 1 h 10 min
Agua Fresca🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Drink · 10 min
Fig and Honey Yoghurt🌍 Mediterranean recipes · Dessert · 10 min
Chimichurri🌎 Latin American recipes · Side dish · 2 h 15 min
Frappé🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Drink · 3 min
Ayran🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Drink · 3 min
Cacık🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Side dish · 40 min
Horchata🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Drink · 10 h 15 min
Israeli Salad🌍 Middle Eastern recipes · Side dish · 15 min
Kachumbari🌍 African recipes · Side dish · 15 min
Limonana🌍 Middle Eastern recipes · Drink · 10 min
Mediterranean Tuna Salad🌍 Mediterranean recipes · Lunch · 15 min
Nước Chấm🇻🇳 Vietnamese recipes · Side dish · 10 min
Obatzda🇩🇪 German recipes · Snack · 1 h 45 min
Olive Tapenade🇫🇷 French recipes · Side dish · 10 min
Panzanella🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Lunch · 55 min
Pikliz🌎 Caribbean recipes · Side dish · 2 days
Preserved Lemons🌍 North African recipes · Side dish · 21 days 1 h
Radler🇩🇪 German recipes · Drink · 2 min
Sangría🇪🇸 Spanish recipes · Drink · 2 h 15 min
Shirazi Salad🌍 Middle Eastern recipes · Side dish · 15 min
Sinh Tố Bơ🇻🇳 Vietnamese recipes · Drink · 5 min
Somaek🇰🇷 Korean recipes · Drink · 1 min
Šopska Salad🌍 Eastern European recipes · Side dish · 15 min
Pico de Gallo🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Side dish · 25 min
Gazpacho🇪🇸 Spanish recipes · Lunch · 2 h 20 min
Horiatiki (Greek Salad)🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Side dish · 15 min
Tiramisù🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dessert · 4 h 30 min
No-cook does not always mean fast
Several of these are quick, but some ask you to wait. Caprese salad takes an hour and ten minutes because the mozzarella comes out of the fridge an hour ahead; straight from the fridge it is rubbery and tastes of very little. Cacık chills for half an hour before it is served.
Chimichurri sits for at least two hours so the raw garlic loses its edge, and the only heat involved is a little warm water to soften the dried oregano. At the other end, ayran and frappé take three minutes and guacamole ten.
Getting no-cook food right
With nothing cooked, the ingredients carry the whole dish. Caprese salad is only worth making when tomatoes are properly in season, fig and honey yoghurt needs ripe, soft figs, and ayran needs full-fat yoghurt, since low-fat versions come out thin and sour. Taste agua fresca before sweetening it, as ripe watermelon may need almost no sugar.
Technique is mostly about what you avoid. Avocado for guacamole is crushed rather than blended, chimichurri is chopped by hand because a blender bruises the parsley, and the mozzarella and basil for caprese are torn, not cut. A Greek frappé only foams with instant coffee; ground coffee will not.
Putting together a meal without cooking
Caprese salad with bread makes a light lunch, with fig and honey yoghurt afterwards and agua fresca or ayran to drink. When someone else is running the barbecue, bring chimichurri for the grilled meat and cacık to cool everything down. Cacık can also be thinned until it is somewhere between a dip and a cold soup, eaten with a spoon on the hottest days.
Every recipe on this page is vegetarian and gluten-free as written, and agua fresca, chimichurri, guacamole and frappé are vegan too, so a no-cook spread suits most tables without separate dishes for anyone.
Frequently asked questions
- What can I eat when it is too hot to cook?
- Caprese salad with good bread, guacamole or a bowl of cold cacık make a light meal without turning anything on, and fig and honey yoghurt covers dessert in ten minutes. To drink, agua fresca is ripe watermelon blended with water and lime, and ayran is yoghurt whisked with cold water and salt until frothy.
- Does authentic guacamole have garlic?
- No. The Mexican original is avocado crushed with lime, salt, white onion, coriander and green chilli, with no garlic, no cumin and no tomato pulp. Garlic and cumin are common additions abroad, but neither belongs in the Mexican version. The guacamole on this page follows the original.
- Should chimichurri be blended?
- No, chimichurri is chopped by hand, and Argentines are firm about it. Blended, the parsley is bruised into a green paste and the texture changes completely. Chop the parsley and garlic as finely as your patience allows, stir them into the vinegar, then the oil, and leave it for at least two hours; it keeps a week in the fridge.
- How do you stop guacamole going brown?
- Press cling film directly onto the surface so no air reaches it. Lime juice slows the browning but does not stop it, so guacamole is best made shortly before serving. If you do make it ahead, keep it covered this way in the fridge and stir it before it goes on the table.