Our absolute favorite easy summer recipes. From the best burgers to fresh, ready-to-eat salads and simple desserts, everything you need for a low-stress summer.
It’s the middle of summer, and if you’re anything like us, you want to spend as much time as possible outside enjoying the beautiful weather with family and friends. We know exactly what it’s like to make a great summer meal, only to feel overwhelmed figuring out the menu and hoping it all goes just right. Not to mention using up all that summer produce!
That’s why we put together our absolute favorite collection summer recipes. We’ve done the testing for you, so you can focus on the fun. From the juiciest burgers (that don’t require any complicated toppings) to fresh, ready-to-eat salads and: reckless pieswe have collected everything you need in one place.
Find all the recipes below. More: join our free newsletter to get our best recipes straight to your inbox. Happy cooking!
Our favorite summer recipes
The secret to the best burger patty is keeping it simple. You don’t need any complicated mixes or extra ingredients for juicy hamburgers. Trust us on this. We make them in regular rotation all summer long. Tips are provided for cooking them indoors and on the grill.
If you love burgers with crispy, brown edges, this is the recipe for you. This has been a huge reader favorite and remains a staple in our kitchen. Because they’re thin, they cook incredibly quickly, which means less time at the stove and more time to spend. They are also perfect for outdoor grills.
Our family fell hard for these and we think yours will too. We take the crispy perfection of a crisp burger and press the meat right into a flour tortilla before cooking. They’re quick, so much fun to make, and absolutely gorgeous sprinkled with ours homemade burger sauce.
If you want to take a break from beef, these burgers are the best option. This is another recipe that our readers repeat. Thanks to the many vegetables sneaked in, they turn out to be incredibly juicy and delicious every time.
Grilling a great steak doesn’t have to be stressful. We keep things incredibly simple and use our own Homemade Steak Seasoning before it hits the grill. It does a great job of bringing out the meaty, savory flavor of the beef and adds a really nice crust. Just sear the steak to your liking, let it rest, and you’re good to go.
Grilled chicken is summer chicken, but no one wants dry chicken. We’ve figured out the best tricks for grilling super lean chicken breasts so they’re tender and juicy every time.
One of our favorites. This shrimp marinade is perfect for grilling. Ginger, garlic, fish sauce, sesame oil and honey add so much flavor and turn into a delicious, sweet, sticky glaze. Shrimp cooks up incredibly quickly on the grill, making it an easy, low-stress option for summer.
This is the best ribs recipe we’ve ever made (and many of our readers agree). The secret to incredibly tender pork ribs is low and slow cooking. For a classic summer cookout feel, we just throw them on the grill at the end for a few minutes to finish. For beef see our Grilled beef ribsinstead.
Summer sides and salads
We can’t get enough of this coleslaw recipe. It’s officially our all-time favorite and the cream sauce is incredible. Perfect for serving burgers, pulled porkor ribs.
One of our favorite summer salads on the blog, this orzo salad is loaded with fresh vegetables, olives, and herbs.
This creamy shrimp salad is a definite reader favorite. It is quick to prepare (thanks! boiled shrimp) and keeps well in the fridge for several days, meaning you’ll be ready without lunch or dinner.
We love a side dish that actually gets better as it sits. This classic bean salad holds up perfectly in the summer heat and requires zero stress to throw together. If you like corn, you may also enjoy ours Black Bean and Corn Salad.
You can’t cook a summer meal without potato salad. Ours is simple, creamy, totally classic and always a crowd pleaser. For more plant-based options, see our Red potato salad instead.
This salad is actually best served warm, making it more versatile year-round. However, it is absolutely amazing with grilled dishes (eg marinated steak) so we just had to include it.
Zucchini salad with lemon grass
If you grow zucchini or live near a farmers market, you will be inundated with zucchini. This is the absolute best way to use it (well, this and our zucchini bread) This salad is fresh and bright and takes just minutes to throw together with lemon and herbs, no cooking required.
Sweet summer corn taken to the next level. We slather the corn on the cob with a quick, sweet Cajun-spiced butter that adds a fun twist to the summer staple.
If you don’t want to deal with eating bread, this fresh corn salad is the answer. It’s in regular rotation in our house throughout the season.
Nothing says summer like watermelon. The combination of sweet melon, salty feta and fresh mint is incredibly refreshing.
A fantastic makeup option that’s light, satisfying and packed with crunch. The simple sauce won’t weigh you down and it’s perfect to keep in the fridge for easy lunches too. For a different flavor profile, try ours Quinoa Black Bean Salad.
Cool, crunchy and ridiculously easy. This cucumber salad is the perfect refreshing bite next to something hot off the grill.
When summer tomatoes are at their peak, this is what we cook. Just tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s the definition of letting incredible summer products do all the work. We love this salad so much that we’ve also turned it into a side salad Chicken Caprese Salad.
Easy summer dessert
Our Strawberry Shortcake combines soft and creamy shortbread cookies (made from scratch), fresh strawberries, whipped cream and irresistible strawberry syrup.
This blueberry pie recipe has a golden, flaky crust filled with the most delicious blueberry filling, topped with our easy lattice crust. Many of our readers make this pie every summer.
This easy key lime pie has a dreamy, creamy filling. homemade graham cracker crustand a cloud of whipped cream on top. It is a keeper.
We can safely say that this is the best brownie recipe we’ve ever made. These are easy to make, incredibly crunchy and so much better than boxed mixes. Perfect for summer fun!
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