Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, I'm Bridget Bergen, a politics reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian who is off today. Have you been outside yet this morning at a chilly 72, 73 degrees? It's the coolest it will be all week. Then it's back to temperatures in the 80s and 90s through the weekend and beyond. When it's hot outside, the last thing you want to do is open your oven. The good news is that you don't have to. The New York times cooking section has put together a list of no cook recipes for all three meals. Let's hear about a few of them.

My guest is Vaughn Vreeland, a senior video journalist for the New York Times cooking. Vaughn, welcome to WNYC.

Vaughn Vreeland: Hi, Bridget. How are you?

Brigid Bergin: I am thrilled to be talking to you because I literally said to my husband last night, "How can we make dinner without turning on the stove?" I didn't have a good answer, so we got takeout, but now I feel like I'm going to be much more prepared for that conversation for the rest of the week. It strikes me that like your reporting colleagues at the New York Times, the cooking section has had to respond to the cataclysmic events of this past year in just a different way.

First, you guys had to come up with a zillion pantry item recipes for when people were in quarantine and now with record heat waves across the country, you're coming up with cooling easy recipes. Sure, maybe it's less hard hitting than investigative reporting, arguably but you've been charged with helping people meet new scary moments in creative and really comforting ways. Can you talk a little bit about what that challenge has been like for you this year? Are there any particular moments or recipes that really stick out to you?

Vaughn Vreeland: Definitely. When we were hit with the so-called work from home order last year, my job as a video producer was a little perilous at first, to be honest with you. I didn't really know how I was going to produce from home because a big part of our job is interacting in person with other human beings. When we were all isolated, it was honestly just as scary for us and we had to really figure out quickly how to comfort people and connect with people in ways that made it feel as if they had a friend with them in the kitchen.

We quickly had to suspend all aesthetic notions that we had being with the New York Times, we like to use iPhones rather than big fancy cameras. I was home in North Carolina with my family for a lot of the pandemic. I just went downstairs with my phone and cooked in my kitchen using very low tech, Lo-Fi type equipment and very easy recipes that were comforting. I think that the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of people were baking. I joked that we have this like pivot to bread in April and May of last year.

We really wanted to harp on that with a lot of our viewers, a lot of our readers. I think that baking is something that really it's comforting year round. Then beyond that, how do people navigate after the beginning of the pandemic, we have the holiday season, we have second waves, third waves and had to figure out how people were going to navigate their holiday celebrations.

I think that video played a really big part in that, along with the rest of our report on the food desk in making sure that people felt very comforted and people really turned to food last year, because I think it's one of, if not the most humanizing element we have.

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely. It shared a lot of joy at moments where it was hard to find it anywhere else. We thank you for that.

Vaughn Vreeland: Exactly.

Brigid Bergin: Onto the topic at hand, no cook recipes. More than 10% of new Yorkers don't have air conditioning and though that means most do, turning on your oven can make a hot day even worse for everyone. You might not have air conditioning in your kitchen, so what's something for dinner you can make without turning on your stove even once? I think you have a great gazpacho recipe.

Vaughn Vreeland: Oh yes. The "best gazpacho". I believe that's a Julia Moskin's Recipe, the inimitable Julia Moskin. She did some research on where gazpacho originated and what makes the best gazpacho and it has over 7,000 five star ratings. That's definitely one of my favorites and I think that it's so popular because it is just so simple. The best thing about summertime is that though it's really hot, that heat yields a lot of beautiful produce. If you can make the produce the star of your dinner, the star of your particular recipe, then that is when that no heat cooking really shines.

I think that using a lot of fresh tomatoes, fresh stone fruit, herbs always. Actually today we have this new package on sauces that just came out. I think that sauces are really, a lot of them don't require any heat and they're things that just really take your recipe to the next level. If you were thinking about what do I make beyond just your basic soup, you could go with a sandwich, you could go with a five minute hummus, you could go with tacos, you could use beans, you could use avocados. Just really the possibilities are endless once you get out of the mindset of, "I have to use my stove in order to cook a meal."

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we want to know what do you cook when it's hot outside? Do you eat hot soup or hot tea because it's supposed to cool you down? Does that actually work? Or do you have a favorite pasta salad, gazpacho or a no cook dessert recipe? Do you eat popsicles over the sink for all three meals? That's okay too, no judgment. Call us at 646-435-7280. What are your heat wave go-to recipes or do you have questions for my guest Vaughn Vreeland, senior video journalist for the New York Times cooking section? Again, that number is 646-435-7280. How do you make produce the star of your meals?

Vaughn, you recently made a barbecue recipe video and you said something which some people might find contentious or controversial, but I agree. Which is that the best part of a cookout are the side dishes often served cold.

Vaughn Vreeland: Aboslutely.

Brigid Bergin: Can you give us a few examples and I understand you called your grandmother for a pasta salad recipe.

Vaughn Vreeland: Yes. I called my mom for my grandmother's pasta salad recipe and I was able to use some leftover pasta that I hadn't dressed in any sauce that I had in my refrigerator. I will stand by that fact. I will go to my grave saying that the best part of any cookout is the sides. I made a nice tahini slaw, I made a smacked cucumber salad, which was a riff on one of my favorite things to get from any restaurant in New York city. Xi'an Famous Foods, they have a delicious smacked cucumber salad.

I used watermelon because, I can't stop eating watermelon in the summertime. I made a watermelon salad with some cases of fresco and some mint and sometimes tajin.

I think that the nice thing about this, no recipe, recipe cooking in the summertime, which is a lot of what my show hinges upon, is just how I stocked my pantry with flavor enhancers. I use a lot of fish sauce, a lot of soy sauce, I use za'atar, I use chili crisp, tahini, I use a lot of alliums, like garlic and onion. I use a lot of spice. I love spice, so that to me really creates the bright well-roundedness in a cookout. You have your hamburger and your hot dog, they're obviously the staples, but you can get really creative with the sides. To me when that fresh produce can shine, that's the best part of a meal.

Brigid Bergin: Quick question, you said a smacked cucumber salad, is that correct?

Vaughn Vreeland: Yes.

Brigid Bergin: Tell me, for those of us who are not familiar, what is that? What does that mean?

Vaughn Vreeland: I cut the cucumbers and then you take the blunt side of your knife and you just smack the cucumbers. It cracks the inside, the flesh of the cucumber and then you mix it with some black vinegar, some soy sauce, a little bit of sugar for sweetness, some chili crisp, it's delicious.

We have a couple of cucumber salad recipes on NYT cooking as well. One that comes to mind is this delicious recipe by developer Sue Lee that has roasted peanuts and chili. It's just something that's really refreshing, especially when-- My apartment is railroad style and there is absolutely no flow from my air conditioning unit into my kitchen. Anytime that I can stay in the kitchen for the shortest amount of time and get the most amount of flavor, that's going to be a good time for me.

Brigid Bergin: Yes. We have a caller. Saul from Staten Island with a question for you. Saul, welcome to WNYC.

Saul: Hi. Good afternoon, both of you. My question is in regards to canned tuna for lunch since I usually make that for my wife because she's eating protein and she's [unintelligible 00:10:48] herself. I'm running out to work or something. I want to just know how can I just take canned tuna, and do something with it other than mayonnaise, basic pickles, and crackers, which is pretty boring?

Vaughn Vreeland: Yes. I love canned tuna, first of all. I know that that might be contentious with a lot of people, but especially if it's packed in olive oil, maybe a nicer quality canned tuna, I really like to take that and mix it with some pesto, maybe some fresh cherry tomatoes, some sliced shallots.

Sometimes I'll put that with pasta and make a nice little pasta salad out of that, or just eat that as is as a tuna salad. I'm a big sandwich guy, so I do love tuna salad sandwiches. If you can find ways to enhance your basic tuna and mayonnaise equation with pickles and celery, and onion, and dill, and parsley, and lots of fresh herbs, and lemon, and get some good bread, and maybe some nice heirloom tomatoes, that's going to be a winner for it.

Brigid Bergin: That sounds very good, Saul. I hope that helped you out. What it did for me is made me very hungry. Jason in Astoria. Jason, you have some no cook recipes to share with us?

Jason: Yes, absolutely. Of course, I'm like most New Yorkers, and I have a hut. My house is a hut. I will make chili any time of the year just because I can put in a crockpot and I don't have to use a stove that heats up the kitchen and the whole house.

Brigid Bergin: Good trick.

Jason: Yes, I will make a chili and then we'll eat that. Another one of my favorite dishes that I make during the summer is a taco salad. I'll buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco, and then I'll cut that up, and mix it with taco seasonings, and then, I'll throw that on whatever vegetables I have in the refrigerator, like a lot of lettuce, and then whatever other vegetables I can toss on top.

Brigid Bergin: Jason, great suggestions. Anything you want to add to that, Vaughn?

Vaughn Vreeland: No, I just wanted to say that rotisserie chickens are a godsend. I love, love rotisserie chickens. I'm a big fan. Those are all great ideas.

Brigid Bergin: Well, speaking of proteins, you've talked about a cucumber salad and a watermelon salad, rotisserie chicken might be a good protein to pair up with it? Any other good protein suggestions that won't heat up your kitchen too much?

Vaughn Vreeland: Yes. I think that using canned beans, I love a canned bean. That is a nice way to pack a lot of protein into something. Also tofu. If you can get firm tofu or even silken tofu, and mix it with some sesame oils and soy sauce, maybe some scallions, that is a great way to try out different types of protein as well beyond your basic, your chicken, your salmon. That's a nice way to explore other ways of using tofu.

I love summer rolls as well. If you deign to turn on your stove, you can boil some shrimp or some other types of fish and make some nice Vietnamese summer rolls with that. I think that there are lots of ways of getting that protein factor in there.

Brigid Bergin: With that, we're going to take a couple more rapid callers just to get their suggestions. Zach on the Upper West Side, real quick, what is your go-to hot weather meal?

Zach: My go-to hot weather meal is an Asian cabbage slaw/salad. One of the greatest perks of this whole thing is you need to let it marinate in a lime ginger dressing, and that juice from the lime helps break down that cabbage a little bit, create a little bit more approachable, crispy but yet not a raw cabbage, but you have to let it sit in the fridge for 10 minutes or 10 to 15 minutes as it marinates, so when you take-

Brigid Bergin: Great.

Zach: - it out, it's just amazingly crisp and refreshing.

Brigid Bergin: Zach, thank you so much. I know we have lots of callers with more suggestions, and we appreciate them. Tweet them at us @BrianLehrer, and we can find some of the great things that folks have offered. Vaughn, before you go, don't the recipe testers work on some of these recipes months in advance? Are you guys already working on Christmas and Thanksgiving recipes?

Vaughn Vreeland: Yes. Well, we have a Thanksgiving brainstorm next week, actually.

Brigid Bergin: Wow.

Vaughn Vreeland: That is true, we do work pretty far in advance. We try to keep the video operation close to publishing so we can be pretty relevant but we got to work ahead.

Brigid Bergin: That's a real head spin and something we will look forward to. We're going to have to leave it there with Vaughn Vreeland, senior video journalist for the New York Times Cooking. I'm Bridget Bergen from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. Brian is out this week. Tomorrow, my colleague host and producer for WNYC's to Consider This, Rebecca Ibarra will fill in. See you next time.

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