17 Easy Make-Ahead Dishes for Stress-Free Summer Picnics

Now all you have to do is load up the cooler and pack a blanket (and some sunscreen, of course).

By
Mimi Young
Mimi Young
Mimi Young
Editor
Mimi Young is an editor and pastry chef. She has also curated and written numerous recipe roundups for Serious Eats.
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Published June 23, 2025
Overhead view of assembling pan bagnat sandwiches

Serious Eats / Jordan Provost

Although I spent well over two decades cooking and catering large parties professionally, in private, I've always been a low-key picnic kind of gal. I mean, everyday life is stressful enough—why would I want to sweat over complicated, time-consuming recipes when I could be relaxing with friends outdoors?

Picnic recipes with minimal prep are totally my speed. Given that it's summer, I'm sure there are plenty of people who share that sentiment, so we've rounded up several easy make ahead recipes we'll be cooking this summer, including a versatile, crowd-pleasing lemony orzo pasta salad, bright and herby green goddess potato salad, perfectly portable Niçoise tuna sandwiches, luscious strawberry cupcakes, and vibrant grilled vegetable boards. Wherever you're laying down your picnic blanket, there's a make-ahead recipe for every setting.

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  • Classic Panzanella Salad (Tuscan-Style Tomato and Bread Salad)

    classic Panzanella salad served inside a dish

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    Summertime is prime season for panzanella, that classic Tuscan bread salad flavored with the season's juiciest, brightest vegetables. This time of year, it's sweet, plump tomatoes of all varieties, shapes, and sizes. The key to a great panzanella begins with oven-dried fresh bread, which strikes the balance of crisp exteriors and tender interiors. Draining the juices from the salted tomatoes makes for a more flavor-packed vinaigrette.

  • Lemony Couscous Salad

    Bowls of couscous garnished with dried fruits and nuts on a table near a drink and a yellow napkin with spoon

    Serious Eats/ Shri Repp

    Couscous salad is the ideal prep-ahead picnic fare. The base recipe—a well-balanced mix of citrus, herbs, nuts, and dried fruits with sweet, savory, and tangy flavors plus satisfying textures—is flexible enough to accommodate an array of substitutions and additions. Swap out the thyme for parsley, mint, or oregano, pistachios for almonds, or dried cherries for dried apricots. Add cooked chickpeas and feta for some protein. The flavors only deepen the longer it sits (up to 24 hours).

  • Lemony Orzo Pasta Salad

    A bowl of orzo pasta salad with chickpeas, garnished with fresh herbs, served with utensils

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    Here, our senior culinary editor, Leah, has created a beautifully balanced pasta salad using a few pantry staples and a handful of fresh ingredients. Canned chickpeas, jarred banana peppers, radicchio, basil, lemon, and Parmigiano-Reggiano bring contrast and complexity to a simple base of well-cooked orzo. Taking the pasta two minutes beyond "al dente"—don't worry, it'll firm up nicely once cooled—then tossing it in some of the vinaigrette while still hot delivers a deeply flavorful finished salad with no clumps whatsoever.

  • Grilled Vegetable Board

    An assortment of grilled vegetables including zucchini, eggplant, onions, and tomatoes, served with bread and dips on a platter

    Serious Eats/ Greg Dupree

    The beauty of this grilled vegetable board lies in its endless variations. We provide guidelines on managing the grill and a game plan for how and when to cook each type of vegetable. So go ahead, feel free to play with the vegetable and cheese selections, and throw in some labneh or romesco sauce if you're feeling fancy.

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  • Grape Salad

    Grape Salad with fresh mint leaves on a purple surface, with a purple striped towel.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze

    While fruit salads are a seemingly ubiquitous component at the picnic table, they are, more often than not, merely a jumble of colorful fruits with indeterminable ripeness. Our test kitchen colleague, Giovanna Vazquez, came up with a creamy grape salad that sidesteps these common pitfalls by sticking to plump whole grapes and tossing them in a tangy cream cheese and yogurt dressing. Finishing it off with sliced almonds, fresh mint, and a sprinkle of brown sugar adds crunch and enhances the flavor.

  • Kookoo-Sabzi (Persian Eggs With Green Herbs)

    Platter of sliced kookoo, flatbread, and rice on a floral tablecloth

    Serious Eats / Nader Mehravari

    Packed with fistfuls of fresh green herbs like parsley, cilantro, and dill, this popular Persian egg dish can be eaten as a main course, appetizer, snack, or even as a sandwich at any temperature level. To ensure a delicate crust on both sides, it's flipped halfway during cooking in a fashion similar to a tortilla española.

  • Strawberry Cupcakes

    overhead shot of strawberry cupcakes on a pink tray and pink surface. with 2 on trays on the corners

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    These gorgeous cupcakes are a sweet declaration of summer. With their rosy-hued buttercream toppings and soft, vanilla-scented cake, the key to a successful batch lies in the strawberries. Choose not-quite-fully-ripened fresh strawberries for the batter and freeze-dried strawberries for the toppings to double down on the intense strawberry flavor and offset any lingering sweetness.

  • Chilled Beet and Cherry Summer Soup

    A bowl of beet and cherry soup with a swirl of sour cream

    Serious Eats / Hannah Hufham

    Beets and cherries are a natural pairing for chilled soup, since both reach their peak flavors during the heat of summer. Sweet cherries are an ideal foil for the earthy savoriness of fresh beets, plus adding a few whole cherries provides ample pops of sweetness. Top with sour cream and a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten up the soup even more.

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  • Green Goddess Potato Salad

    A bowl of potato salad garnished with herbs and sliced boiled eggs

    Serious Eats/ Stacy Allen

    The secret to any great potato salad rests on its three main components: tender yet sturdily cooked potatoes, perfectly boiled eggs, and a zippy dressing. Julia Levy ups the ante by adding crisp-tender haricots verts and a bright and creamy green goddess dressing for a standout French twist on the classic picnic fare. Note: Use a sufficient amount of salt in the cooking water to thoroughly season the potatoes.

  • Bibim Guksu (Korean Cold Mixed Noodles)

    Overhead view of Bibim Guksu

    Serious Eats / Matt Hunziker

    Bibim guksu is the quintessential cold noodle dish of summer—quick to make and incredibly easy to slurp. Most of the components, such as the vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, can be prepped ahead and kept chilled until ready to assemble. The spicy-sweet gochujang-based sauce will last up to two weeks in the fridge. To preserve their chewy, bouncy texture, cook the noodles as close to serving as possible.

  • Kimbap (Korean Seaweed Rice Rolls)

    Closeup of slices of kimbap, shingled on a rectangular plate.

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    One of Korea's most popular snacks, kimbap has become a sensation in the US—now appearing in the frozen ready-made food sections at Trader Joe's and Costco. However, nothing compares to this handmade version from home. Here, we outline the classic version filled with pickled radish, fish cake, omelet, carrots, cucumber, ham, braised burdock root, and imitation crab, all wrapped in seasoned rice and toasted seaweed.

  • Pan Bagnat (Niçoise Tuna and Tomato Sandwich)

    Side view of pan bagnat

    Serious Eats / Jordan Provost

    I would argue that the best way to eat a Niçoise salad on the go is to turn it into a sandwich. Scoop out a little crumb from a bread roll, then layer on your classic Niçoise ingredients: oil-packed tuna, juicy ripe tomatoes, olives, anchovies, hard-boiled egg, etc. It's the kind of sandwich, much like the muffaletta below, that benefits from a brief rest to allow the juices to soak into the bread and mingle with all the flavors.

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  • Classic New Orleans Muffuletta Sandwich

    Sliced muffuletta sandwich in an enameled metal tray.

    Serious Eats / Mateja Zvirotic Andrijanic

    Our version of the classic New Orleans–style muffaletta is a layered masterpiece of thin-sliced Italian cold cuts, cheese, and homemade olive salad. The key is choosing a soft yet sturdy bread that will cradle the ingredients so the assembled loaf won't fall apart when you cut into it. More importantly, compress the sandwich and wrap it tightly, then wait. Trust us, your patience will be rewarded.

  • Lemon Pound Cake

    Lemon pound cake with glaze on a wooden board, surrounded by lemons, a knife, and a bowl of fresh berries.

    Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

    This lemon pound cake is guaranteed to be tart and zippy enough to make your eyes spring wide open and your mouth pucker at first bite—in a very good way. To make the citrus pop, we incorporate the lemon three ways: rubbing the zest in the sugar to release the essential oils, brushing the warm cake with a lemon syrup, and drizzling the cake with a lemon-sugar glaze. A touch of baking powder helps the dense batter rise more evenly.

  • Scotch Eggs

    Overhead view of Scotch Eggs

    Serious Eats / Kevin White

    I'm a big fan of British pub fare in general, but Scotch eggs are one of my particular favorites, especially when the pork sausage is wrapped around a jammy egg. For this recipe, we use coarse-ground pork (around 20% fat), seasoned with fresh parsley, chives, and thyme to create a flavorful crust. Japanese panko delivers a lighter, crispier texture than the traditional breadcrumb coating.

  • Muhammara (Syrian Red Bell Pepper and Walnut Dip)

    A bowl of muhammara garnished with walnuts, pomegranate arils, and a mint leaf, next to pita bread on a green tile surface

    Serious Eats / Melati Citrawireja

    No one who’s ever tried this captivating Syrian bell pepper dip hasn’t fallen in love with it. It's layered with rich and assertive flavors from toasted walnuts, pomegranate molasses, and olive oil, along with warm spices. Unlike other versions of muhammara made with roasted peppers, this one uses raw fruity red bell peppers and onions for extra freshness and its thickened with panko breadcrumbs. Making it ahead gives the flavors time to meld and deepen. 

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  • Butterscotch-Pecan Cookies

    A plate of cookies with visible nuts, with a glass of milk in the background

    Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine

    No picnic is complete without at least one cookie in the mix, especially an unapologetically maximalist one. These butterscotch-pecan cookies, in particular, are loaded with big flavors. Umami-packed white miso paste is the star ingredient, tempering the intense sweetness of the butterscotch chips and giving the cookie a fudgy texture. Brown butter and a little spelt flour impart their signature nutty flavors.

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