You don't need an oven to produce delicious meals with dynamic flavours.

STEP away from the stove, please ma'am. I recently had to live without an oven and cooktop (it must be me, I go through them like other people go through socks) and didn't mind a bit. It was liberating. As long as you have a kettle and toaster, I found, you can go for days without cooking much at all and still eat beautifully.

When you are surrounded by extraordinarily good smoked, cured and processed fish and meat, fresh fruit and vegetables and intriguing oils and vinegars, a no-cook meal is almost too easy.

The only good reason for cooking, after all, is to make something taste better than it would if it were not cooked. So if you don't feel like cooking - or your stove has blown up again - all you need to do is choose things that taste beautiful just as they are and benefit from being teamed with other naturally beautiful flavours.

In summer that means reaching for avocados, celery, cucumber, loads of herbs, goat cheese, lemons and limes, ripe tomatoes, radishes, mushrooms, olives, salad greens and microcresses. Finely sliced raw asparagus is a revelation; even frozen peas need only be doused in a kettleful of boiling water and drained before being added to salads. From the deli, choose pesto, pita bread, ricotta, rye bread, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Then add whatever you feel like: canned tuna, canned white beans, cooked prawns or crab, smoked salmon, salmon roe, cured meats such as prosciutto or Spanish jamon, and Chinatown staples such as roast duck and barbecued pork.

Famously uncooked dishes include France's steak tartare, Italy's beef carpaccio, Japan's sashimi, Spain's chilled gazpacho soup, and Tahitian and Mexican ceviche - fish and shellfish marinated in citrus juices for a "cooked" effect. Local restaurant menus currently abound with this sort of thing (hmm, now, we are paying them not to cook?) so there is inspiration everywhere.

If in doubt, put a modern twist on an old favourite, as shown here. Take the creamy Italian tuna sauce traditionally teamed with veal and use it to jazz up rare roast beef or ready-roast chicken from the deli. Pick up some freshly cooked prawns for a Mediterranean feast with a gently spiced white bean puree and a tomato, mint and olive salad.

Or toss flaked smoked trout or hot-smoked salmon with a hot, sweet and sour pineapple salad for an instant no-cook, no-fuss dinner.

Smoked trout with sweet and sour pineapple salad

A crisp and crunchy, fresh-tasting salad using one of the most versatile store-bought ingredients around: smoked trout. This recipe allows enough pineapple to serve the salad on four pineapple plates as well.

ingredients
100g snow peas, trimmed
1 red capsicum, deseeded
250g smoked trout fillets
1 small fresh pineapple
1 red chilli, finely sliced
half cup coriander leaves
2 tbsp salted peanuts, roughly crushed

Dressing:
3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice

method

Pour a kettle of boiling water over the snow peas, then drain, refresh in cold water, and finely slice lengthwise. Finely slice the red capsicum into long matchsticks. Flake the trout flesh with your fingers.

To make four pineapple "plates", cut four slices across the pineapple at an angle and arrange on dinner plates. Peel the remaining pineapple and dice the flesh, discarding core, the top and the base. You will need around one cup of pineapple pieces.

Whisk the dressing ingredients in a bowl, and adjust the flavours to be hot, sweet and sour (lighten with a little water or pineapple juice if you like). Add the trout, snow peas, capsicum, chilli and coriander and lightly toss. Pile onto the pineapple plates and scatter with crushed peanuts.

Serves 4

Tip: Store-bought smoked trout fillets are the most convenient, but you'll get more moisture and flavour from whole smoked trout. Just peel off the skin and flake the smoky, pink flesh from the bones, trying not to eat it all on the spot.

Prawns with white beans and mint

Cooked prawns combine beautifully with a velvety, softly spicy white bean puree and a cherry tomato and mint salad for an instant lunch or light supper.

ingredients
3 prawns per person, cooked and peeled
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp black olives, halved
1 small red onion, halved and finely sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
sea salt and black pepper
2 small pita breads
cracked black pepper to serve
extra virgin olive oil to serve

White bean puree:
400g canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
sea salt and black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

method

To make the white bean puree, whiz the beans, garlic, cumin, coriander, sea salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil in a food processor until smooth, then add water by the spoonful until lightened to your liking. Spoon onto four serving plates and smooth out with the back of the spoon. Toss the prawns, cherry tomatoes, olives, onion and mint leaves in olive oil and vinegar, sea salt and pepper and pile on top. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil, scatter with cracked black pepper and serve with pita bread, hot from the toaster.

Serves 4

Rare beef tonnato with capers

Pick up some rare roast beef (or roast chicken) from the deli and whiz up Italy's creamy tuna and anchovy dressing to serve with a shaved asparagus and pecorino salad for easy do-ahead entertaining.

ingredients
12 spears thick asparagus
2 tbsp shaved pecorino or parmigiano
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
sea salt and pepper
2 or 3 slices rare roast beef per person
1 tbsp tiny salted capers, rinsed
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley leaves or mustard cress

Tonnato sauce:
185g tuna in oil
3 anchovy fillets
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 tbsp horseradish cream
1 tbsp tiny salted capers, rinsed
100 ml light chicken stock

method

To make the sauce, whiz the tuna, anchovies, lemon juice, mayonnaise, horseradish and capers in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add the stock gradually until it feels pourable. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Shave or finely slice the asparagus, discarding the woody stems, and toss with olive oil, vinegar, pecorino, sea salt and pepper.

Arrange the roast beef in folds on four dinner plates and use a spoon to stripe the sauce over the top. Scatter with capers and parsley, and serve with the salad and a jug of the remaining sauce.

Serves 4