Quick & Easy Summer Dinner Ideas for Any Night

It’s time to usher in the season of sun-kissed summer dining, when cooking on the barbecue and preparing fresh, fast and vibrant salads are custom. It’s also the season where the art of entertaining most comes into play, from regular summer evening soirées and easy summer dinners to Christmas Day feasts and New Year’s Eve celebrations. Even midweek cooking is a joy, thanks to the bounty of seasonal summer produce.

To celebrate the season, we’ve collated our favorite summer dinner recipes to bring you the best summer dinner ideas, ranging from speedy salads to quick and easy barbecue dishes.

You’ll find many quick and easy dinner ideas here, as well as our most popular summer recipes and recipes that hero summer fruit and vegetables. We have fast summer recipes that seamlessly fuse efficiency with opulence – think quick, tangy salads and barbecued meat recipes alongside fast and fresh seafood recipes. Because summertime dining can be sophisticated, too – even on a weeknight. Whether you’re throwing a big blow-out dinner party, a more casual alfresco feast or simply just looking for a new dinner idea for a summery meal, these are the summer recipes to turn to.

Here are our best summer dinner ideas.

Easy summer dinner ideas in 2024

Aunty Three's Saigon chicken and cabbage salad with quail eggs *(Credits: William Meppem)*

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Barbecue prawns *(Credits: Prue Ruscoe)*

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Barbecued prawns with honey, sesame and lemon — *(Credits: Ben Dearnley)*

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There’s prawns on the barbie, and then some.

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Fast fish in a flash.

Kingfish poke bowl with pickled ginger *(Credits: William Meppem)*

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Sesame-crusted bonito noodle salad with edamame and green tea soba noodles *(Credits: William Meppem)*

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Salted ricotta with zucchini and black garlic tart *(Credits: Ben Dearnley)*

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Tony Tan's recipe for stir-fried beef with chilli bean paste, dried chilli and capsicums *(Credits: Chris Chen)*

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Capsicum or pepper? Whatever you call it, this sweet, summer fruit-masquerading-as-vegetable always pleases.

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The Gourmet Traveller Team

Gourmet Traveller is Australia’s trusted authority on food, travel and luxury lifestyle, bringing the latest news and trends to life through quality journalism, enticing recipes and evocative photography. For more than 55 years, it has been inspiring and informing Australians with the best in cooking, dining, travelling and shopping. Our critics bring the expertise of years of critical eating, drinking and writing to the table. Plus, as the country’s leading title in the luxury sector, Gourmet Traveller works closely with Australia’s leaders in the travel and hospitality industries to give our readers exclusive access. The Gourmet Traveller legacy is one of trust, prestige and relevance.

Easy summer dinner ideas in 2024

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