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Summers feel all nice and good until the heatwaves start roasting the land up to a crisp. As the heat is in full swing throughout the nation, stepping out of your comfy AC room might be the last thing you want to do, let alone stand in front of the stove to cook your meals and consume piping hot meals hastily.
At times like these, no-cook recipes are here to rescue you. Without the need to turn on your stove or oven, you can prepare some refreshing, cooling and hydrating meals that not only fill the hunger but give you relief from heat too. Also, when you don't need cooking time at all, you can prepare them instantly within minutes.
No-cook meals go beyond the traditional salads, and you might be surprised to see how they work with Indian flavours. So, without further ado, know what recipes you can make for dinner tonight.
1) Paneer Sandwich
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Tender paneer doesn't need to be cooked, and you can easily scramble it or dice it to mix up with vegetables like carrots, sprouts, lettuce, capsicum and onion to create a sandwich filling. You can also include mayonnaise, salad dressing, and spices to add flavour. Using whole-grain bread instead of white bread adds to the wholesomeness.
2) Curd Rice
Nothing quite matches the freshness and comfort of chilling curd rice in the soaring heat. All you need to make this recipe is to beat curd with a whisk to make it smooth and add leftover rice to it. Optionally, you can include spices like coriander powder, cumin powder and amchur powder to bring the flavours. Traditionally, it is tempered with hot oil, dried chillies, mustard seeds, and curry leaves, but it still tastes good without them.
3) Broccoli Salad
The less you cook broccoli, the better it tastes. Broccoli is one of those vegetables that you can eat raw without the need to cook. The addition of apples, pumpkin seeds, cucumber, onions, almonds, sunflower seeds, scallions, and mayo dressing completes the recipe. You can alter the ingredients and include carrots and lettuce, too.
4) Chickpea Salad Sandwich
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Canned chickpeas are a lifesaver when you need that protein without the need to cook. You can use chickpeas to make a flavourful salad, or you can take it up a notch and use it as a filling for your sandwich. To make chickpea salad, you need to combine chickpeas with vegetables of your choice along with some scallions, seeds, olive oil, spices if you like, and salt pepper seasoning. Add some mayo to get that creaminess, and combine it well.
5) Cabbage Rolls
Cooked cabbage has that pungency to it, which makes it less interesting. Raw cabbage, on the other hand, is refreshing and crisp and has comparatively less pungency. The leaves of cabbage are perfect to use as a wrap for salad rolls. You can use any salad of choice, like Caprese salad, Caesar salad, or Indian-style salsa, with fruits and vegetables as filling. You can also go creative by adding crumbled paneer and chickpeas to the filling to make it wholesome. Just fill it up in the leaves, wrap it and enjoy the healthy snack.
6) Mango-Avocado Lettuce Wraps
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Just like cabbage, lettuce leaves are also a great counterpart to use for wrap. Unlike cabbage, lettuce doesn't have that sharp taste, and it's well suited to sweet ingredients. One of the best fillings for lettuce wraps is the mango and avocado filling. Mango gives that refreshment, whereas avocado adds to the creaminess. You can use mild spices like cumin and black pepper, or you can keep it chilled with no spices. Either way, it tastes delicious.
