No-Oven Summer Suppers for the Hottest Weeks

By the middle of August, our oven has gone into a kind of summer retirement. I still open it, but only to pull out the cast iron skillet I store in there. The kitchen in our ranch faces west, and by five o'clock the light comes through the window over the sink like it has somewhere to be. Turning on a 400-degree oven at that hour feels like inviting the afternoon to stay for supper.

So for the hottest weeks of the year, roughly late July through early September here in Orangeburg, we eat what I call no-oven suppers. Some use the stovetop for ten minutes. Some use nothing but a knife and a bowl. All of them are cheap, and most of them came together because the farmers market tomatoes and corn were too good to waste.

Why it matters more than you'd think

An oven running for an hour heats the kitchen, and the heat pump then has to work to pull that heat back out. I can't tell you exactly what it costs on our bill. I can tell you the kitchen stays bearable, Ben doesn't sweat through supper, and I'm not standing over a hot door at the time of day I most want to sit on the porch. That's reason enough.

Our steady rotation

1. Tomato, cucumber and white bean salad with toast

The one we eat most. Roughly $9 for the three of us, more if you buy the fancy bread.

• 3 large tomatoes, chunked ($3 at the market)
• 1 cucumber, half-moons ($0.80)
• 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed ($1.10)
• Half a red onion, sliced thin ($0.50)
• Olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, a pinch of dried oregano
• A handful of basil from the porch pot
• Bread for toasting ($3)

1. Soak the onion in cold water for ten minutes to soften the bite.
2. Toss tomatoes, cucumber, beans and drained onion with a big pinch of salt. Let it sit for fifteen minutes so the tomatoes make their own juice.
3. Add 3 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, oregano and pepper. Tear in basil.
4. Toast bread in a dry skillet on the stovetop, about two minutes a side.

2. Cold peanut noodles with whatever's crunchy

About $7. The stovetop runs for exactly as long as spaghetti takes to boil.

• 8 oz spaghetti ($1)
• ⅓ cup peanut butter, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp vinegar, a little hot water
• Shredded cabbage or carrots, sliced cucumber, green onion ($3)
• Optional: leftover chicken or a fried egg ($2)

1. Cook noodles, then rinse in cold water until they're cool to the touch.
2. Whisk the sauce until it pours like heavy cream.
3. Toss everything together. Chill twenty minutes if you can wait.

3. Corn and black bean bowls

Around $8. Lila builds her own, which means she eats it.

• 4 ears corn, cut off the cob raw ($2 at the market in August)
• 1 can black beans ($1)
• Rice, made in the morning before the heat ($0.60)
• Avocado, lime, cheese, salsa ($4)

1. Make the rice in the cool of the morning and refrigerate it.
2. Toss raw corn with lime juice and salt. Sweet August corn doesn't need cooking.
3. Set everything out in bowls and let people assemble.

4. The Saturday "snack plate" supper

Not a recipe so much as permission. Pimento cheese, crackers, boiled eggs from the morning, sliced peaches, pickles, a few slices of ham, raw vegetables. Ben calls it "a picnic that didn't leave the house." It costs whatever is already in the fridge, which is the point.

Notes from a few summers of doing this

• Cook in the morning. If something needs heat, like rice, eggs or a pot of beans, do it before nine while the house is still cool.
• Salt your tomatoes early. Fifteen minutes of salt does more for a tomato salad than any dressing.
• Keep one cold thing ready. A jar of quick-pickled onions or a container of cooked rice in the fridge turns "nothing for supper" into supper.
• Use the porch. We eat out there most of August, fan going, citronella burning. Food tastes better when nobody's rushing.
• Don't be precious. Some nights it's peanut butter toast and cut-up melon. That counts.

Last night was the bean salad again, eaten on the porch while a storm built somewhere off toward Columbia and never quite arrived. Lila fished out every cucumber and lined them up on the edge of her plate. Pepper waited for anything that fell. The oven sat cool and dark in the kitchen, holding its skillet, and nobody missed it.