Dinner that gets better cold

Makes one full side in about 35 minutes, 25 of it hands off in the oven: dinner tonight and cold pieces for the rest of the week. The whole side holds roughly 135g of protein, before the yogurt goes anywhere near it.

Heat the oven to 275°F. Put the salmon skin side down on a sheet pan, rub two tablespoons of the olive oil over the top, and salt it properly. Roast 22 to 28 minutes. It is ready when the thick end flakes under light pressure from a fork and the very center still looks a shade translucent.

While it roasts, grate the cucumber and squeeze it hard in your fist over the sink until the water is gone. Stir it into the yogurt with the dill, the garlic, the last tablespoon of oil, the juice of half the lemon, salt and a lot of pepper.

Why this works: a hot oven squeezes the fish so hard that white curd comes up through the surface and the flesh dries out on its way to the fridge. At 275 it sets slowly and stays moist, which is what you want when most of it is going to be eaten cold.

It keeps 4 days. Do not reheat it. Cold flakes over greens, or on toast with a spoonful of the cucumber yogurt, is better than anything a microwave will do to it.

No recipe, just an order of operations. Put a cup of frozen dark sweet cherries in a bowl. Pour a cup of plain kefir over them. Three tablespoons of hemp hearts on top, a pinch of salt, cinnamon if you want it.

Then leave it alone for five minutes. The cherries thaw partway and the kefir thickens around them into something closer to soft serve than a drink. The hemp hearts are what make it hold you, so keep them at three tablespoons rather than a sprinkle. Roughly 20g of protein.

A wedge of real parmesan broken into rough chunks with a handful of roasted almonds is what I keep in the fridge for the back half of the afternoon. Break it with the tip of a knife instead of slicing it, so you get shards that eat slowly.

Stir two tablespoons of nonfat dry milk powder into mashed potatoes, into oatmeal, or into any cream soup. It dissolves and disappears, it thickens instead of thinning, and a box of it keeps in the pantry for months.

In the produce section, near the bagged salads, look for the vacuum-packed steamed lentils. Already cooked, firm rather than mushy, no can to drain. A spoonful goes straight into a salad or a bowl of soup out of the pouch.

Protein does not weaken in the fridge. Cooking and chilling change the shape of the protein, which is why cold salmon flakes differently than it did coming out of the oven, but the amino acids your body is actually after are all still sitting there. Cold chicken, cold eggs, cold beans and cold fish count the same as they did hot. Worth knowing in August, and worth knowing on any day when a hot plate does not sound like something you want to face.

For the day this week when the stove feels like a lot: a small flour tortilla, a handful of shredded cheese, a spoonful of black beans out of the can, folded over and pressed in a dry pan for two minutes a side. Cut it into four pieces. Warm, soft, salty, and easy to eat one piece at a time.