How can I specify the path to Ninja in VS Code CMake configuration without modifying my system's PATH environment variable?

As you can see I've tried a few approaches and none work:

CMakeSettings.json

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "riscv32",
            "generator": "Ninja"
        }
    ]
}

cmake-kits.json

[
  {
    "name": "riscv32-esp-elf-gcc",
    "isTrusted": true,
    "compilers": {
      "C": "/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/riscv32-esp-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/riscv32-esp-elf/bin/riscv32-esp-elf-gcc.exe",
      "CXX": "/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/riscv32-esp-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/riscv32-esp-elf/bin/riscv32-esp-elf-g++.exe"
    },
    "toolchainFile": "/ProgramData/esp-idf/tools/cmake/toolchain-esp32c3.cmake",
    "preferredGenerator": {
      "name": "Ninja"
    }
  }
]

settings.json

{

    "cmake.cmakePath": "/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/cmake/3.24.0/bin/cmake.exe",
    "cmake.configureArgs": [
        "-DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/ninja/1.10.2/ninja.exe"
    ],
    "cmake.buildArgs": [
        "-DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/ninja/1.10.2/ninja.exe"
    ],
    "cmake.additionalCompilerSearchDirs": [
        "/ProgramData/esp-idf-tools/tools/ninja/1.10.2"
    ]
}

On load I always get

[proc] The command: ninja --version failed with error: Error: spawn ninja ENOENT
[proc] The command: ninja-build --version failed with error: Error: spawn ninja-build ENOENT
[main] Unable to determine what CMake generator to use. Please install or configure a preferred generator, or update settings.json, your Kit configuration or PATH variable. Error: No usable generator found.

I want to avoid adding (yet another) entry to the operating system's PATH.

If you don't want to modify the system PATH environment variable, and you're not invoking CMake via commandline (in which case I'd suggest you wrap your commands with cmake -D env to prepend to the PATH), and what you're trying isn't already working (you might want to try resetting the extensions state, which you can do with the CMake: Reset CMake Tools Extension State in the command palette), then you can try using ${env:...} VS Code variables in CMake tools' cmake.environment setting. Ex. "cmake.environment": { "PATH": "<path-to-your-ninja>${pathSeparator}${env:PATH}" }.