Best 15 Minute Dinner Recipes

[CherryBlossom27]

Hi everyone,

Looking for some quick (and easy!) dinner recipes, I desperately need some inspiration and hoping you can share your best recipes!

DS is 7 months old and gets seriously grumpy around about the same time I start cooking, so if I can cut down on cooking time that would be great!

TIA

If you have ready made dough in the freezer- defreeze a bit and make little parcels of onion and cheese and then cook until the cheese starts escaping. Goat's cheese works v. nicely.

Fry some aubergine and tomato in butter, then spread on cheese on toast, add another layer of cheese and microwave for a bit until you have a sea of cheesy bread and veg.

When you have time you can make a big batch of pizza dough and freeze in individual portions wrapped in cling film, defrost as needed. Same with pastry, pasta sauces, gratins etc.

I make and freeze pesto in double portions using an ice cube tray, once frozen I transfer to a zip lock bag and defrost one cube for two people.

I used to like roasted veg & couscous too.
Chop the veg in the morning and add some garlic & a bit of olive.
Put in the oven at about 180c for 40-50 mins. You can leave it in there until you are ready and it will stay warm.
When you are ready, make up the couscous as normal and stir through the veg.
I add chilli oil at this stage too but you may want to avoid that if bf!

Tuna pasta. Mix together cooked pasta, tin of tuna, sweetcorn and a tin of tomatoes. Then either warm it through in a saucepan and serve or put it in an ovenproof dish, top with grated cheese and bung in the oven for 5 mins until cheese has melted. If you cook up a big batch, it can go in the freezer and then only takes a minute to heat up in the microwave once defrosted.

french bread pizza.

sliced french stick, cover with pizza topping sauce, then use whatever topping ypu like

10mins
15 at the most

or chicken, pesto and pine nuts with any thing else, salad, pasta,bread

trampy but good. lol
ham egg and chips

my go to cant be arsed to cook meal is, diced chicken fried off and then a sauce stirred in, our favourites BBQ, tons of salad all chucked in a wrap. done.

I make pizza dough in the bread maker but have been known to make toast pizza and dd is none the wiser!

Two very easy chicken thigh recipes. Take 5-10 mins to prepare and taste great.

Chicken rosemary with butternut squash.

Put chicken legs in an oiled roasting tin. Pour over 1 glass white wine and same of chicken stock (made from stock cube.)
Add sprigs of rosemary or sprinkling of dried rosemary, slightly crushed garlic cloves still in their skins, and chunky wedges of butternut squash. (You need to wash and deseed the squash but don't need to peel it.
Add black pepper, cover with foil and cook at 200 for 30 mins then take off foil and cook for a further 15 mins.

Serve with microwaved rice - much easier than pan boiled and easier to wash up. Boil a kettle when you take the foil off the chicken. Measure out one mug of rice and two mugs of boiled water, stir together in a microwaveable bowl. Full power for 5 mins, stir, full power for another 5 mins and you're done.

Chinese chicken thighs.
Put 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 of soy sauce, 2 of orange juice in a bowl with a squirt of garlic paste and some grated fresh or 1/2 teaspoon of dry ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon of 5spice if you have it. Stir ingredients together. Put chicken in and stir it till well coated. leave to marinade for up to 24 hours, or not at all, if you're in a hurry. Bake in oven for 35 mins. Serve with those 4 minute egg noodles and steamed broccoli.

Meant to say, with first recipe, once the food is cooked, you just squeeze the garlic pulp out of their skins easily and stir into the wine for garlicky gravy, and eat the squash down to the peel but leave the peel (you can eat it according to Jamie Oliver.)

Smoked salmon pasta

Ingredients

• shallots
• olive oil
• smoked salmon
• white wine
• dill
• creme fraiche
• dried tagliatelle

Detail

• put water for pasta on to boil
• chop shallots finely, fry in olive oil until softened but dont brown
• chop smoked salmon finely and add to shallots
• put pasta into boiling water and set timer
• stir white wine, creme fraiche, dill into smoked salmon & shallots. Aim is to achieve a light creamy sauce for pasta so adjust wine & creme fraiche accordingly. Add dill to taste.
• drain pasta & serve, pour sauce over pasta
• enjoy with the rest of the white wine (adults only!)

We have just had this for dinner tonight. DCs all love it, even the one who doesnt like fish. It is wonderfully digestible (dill is one of the main ingredients of gripe water!)

Salmon fillet in the oven takes 15 mins, meanwhile zap a jacket spud & boil or steam sum broccoli or green beans. Add sum butter to veg & soy sauce to the salmon...yum! If you get chance to oven cook the spud the day or 2 before they are much nicer & can be reheated with the salmon.

My quick dinners include tuna pasta,

fry mushrooms, garlic and pepper

cook pasta

add tuna into mix and spoonful of pesto (green or red) grate a bit of cheese on top and very yum (have been living on this since I was a student!!!)

Also I do things like a spag bol or casserole that will last 2 nights and can be made in the afternoon or when you have time.

just remembered another one which always make me feel mega healthy as well

put salmon fillet on tin foil on baking tray, spread with pesto (are you seeing a common theme yet!) breadcrumbs and grated cheese, fold tin foil over into little parcel and put in oven (approx gas mark 7 20mins) cook rice and broccoli - I find the salmon roughly takes the same amount of time as the rice to cook. Hey presto!!!

Tuna pesto pasta.

You can guess the ingredients and method

Also works nicely with tinned red/pink salmon.

It's nice hot or cold and freezes well too, just add a little olive oil once defrosted to loosen it up a bit.

Chicken breast in the oven takes 20 mins and no effort really. I've just spread mine with pesto and had risotto pronto with it.

I don't do 15 mins as such, but I do do easy!

This week:
Mon - subway cos went to Olympics

Tues - salmon fillet baked in oven in foil packet with salt, pepper and drizzle of oil, roasted cherry toms on vine in oven as salmon but not in foil, lemon couscous (poured water over as per packet), microwaved frozen butternut squash. Took 20 mins

Weds - chicken strips and stir fry veg in teriyaki sauce, microwave egg fried rice, prawn crackers - 15 mins

Thurs - sun dried tomato chicken breasts (could just rub a bit of red pesto on plain but these were on offer), baby new potatoes halved and roasted in olive oil and salt, new green veg salad (out of packet) - 30 mins

Fri - pulled pork thing (takes 2 hours but I don't have to do anything) with oven chips, salad and coleslaw.

Other quick meals I do are burgers and salad (caramelised onion, ketchup and cheese and gherkins in burger buns), quesadillas and salad (I do tomato and chilli chutney, Parma ham and cheese), beans and cheese on toast or jacket spud, Thai green curry and microwave rice.

I really like Nigella Express for ideas for quick meals.

Spaghetti Pesto-
Boil spaghetti- the fresh egg pasta takes even less time to cook.
Drain and put back in pan, 2 or 3 teaspoons of green pesto and 2 table spoons of creme fraiche and mix into spaghetti. Lightly dry fry some pine nuts until very light golden and stir into pasta. serve in bowls with cheese grated on top. If you use fresh pasta takes 5-6 mins tops.

Asparagus and Rocket* Lemony Pasta:

1. Cook pasta of choice according to packet directions
2. Slice asparagus into 1 inch pieces and steam for 5ish mins above boiling pasta
3. When pasta cooked stir in creme fraiche, grated parmesan, lemon zest, snipped chives, salt and papper
4. Toss through some rocket until wilted, add cooked asparagus and serve.

*Sometimes instead of the cooked asparagus and wilted rocket, I grate raw courgette in.

This is shamelessly ripped from a Waitrose Kitchen but it is seriously good and takes less than 15 mins.

Ready made meatballs - lamb are nice - fried (no oil needed). Add some chopped peppers/courgette/whatever and fry briefly. Add carton of passata (jars are full of salt) and any herbs you happen to have and leave to bubble for 10 mins. Serve with pasta.

Thought I'd invented a dish but Gnome has one very similar....
With mine I use spring onions fried briefly then add spinach and wilt. Add lemon juice and creme fraiche and simmer for a minute to thicken. Tip cooked pasta into the sauce pan and stir to coat. Just before serving add chopped smoked salmon.

I also like to cook casserole type things earlier in the day when baby's asleep. Tangines are good as all you need to make is couscous at tea time.

TANgines?? Tagine

tonight we had that filled pasta stuff that takes 1 min to boil
with 1/2 jar ragu plus a chopped red onion mixed in,
plus 2 pieces grilled bacon on top, 1/2 a garlic bread and grated cheese on top.
not super healthy, but v nice

I did spag carbonara this week. Was lovely.
Put spag on to boil - add peas in last few minutes of cooking
Fry cubed pancetta (can def get this from ocado or tesco so i am guessing most supermarkets) whilst spag cooking
Add frozen leeks - when I am slicing leeks, I do a load of finely sliced leeks in the food proc and then freeze some
Whisk some eggs - one per person is about right, and then blend with some half fat creme fraiche - most of a small tub for four people
When spag and peas cooked, combine with pancetta and leeks. Take off heat and add creamy egg mixture. Stir quickly to just cook egg and then serve with parmesan and fresh parsley if you have it.
Bookmarking this - some great recipes here.
I do mince in the slow cooker without browing first. Comes out lovely and soft!

I have pinched lots of lovely recipes from this thread!!! Here are some of my cheat type things.
Cheats paella- 1/2 packets uncle bens Mexican rice( I know Mexican but hey it works!!) or 1pk and some steamed white rice cooked earlier. Pork fillet or loin steaks sliced thinly and stir fried with a bit of smoked paprika hot or sweet from the little red tins and olive oil. Cook mex rice in micro 2 mins, add to pork in pan, one tin of sweet corn and chargrilled or roasted peppers from a jar, however many you like. Chorizo if you have it ( or in my case occasionally dd's pepperami at a push!) and I always keep frozen raw prawns or cooked in the freezer and chuck them in( get out of freezer in morning) we sometimes have salad or garlic bread with it.
Thai red curry- chicken/ beef/ prawns whatever you have, tin coconut milk, Thai red curry paste( Thai taste in a plastic pot from tesco is really nice) lime, coriander, Pkt of babycorn& mange tout. Fry meat in paste for couple of mins,miss this if using prawns, add coconut milk, add veg& lime juice cook until veg still crunchy, add prawns if using and snip in coriander.Serve with pan steamed rice. I use gok wans rice cooking method, 10 mins never fails.
Stir fry A La tesco bits- chicken/ prawn/pork/ beef, finest red pepper stir fry veg mix, tamarind sauce & cooked noodles or rice, fry meat add veg add rice/ noodles& sauce, or plonk on rice( we all love this sauce, ready made but it's so good!)
Fajitas are quick too, also stir fried in very little oil so healthy as above. I use chicken generally, fajita mix or the little paprika pot again,any veg you like, fresh peppers and onion, stir fried cabbage, I make nigellas guacamole a bit earlier on and buy a salsa&tortilla wraps. We have a 4 month old and 2 older dd's so always cook fast! I have a few more ideas for time saving, do message me if you have time!

cous cous that just needs hot water and a bit of oil on it and left to soak for a few minutes, plus some sort of grilled meat/fish, plus a bit of salad. Is healthy, quick and looks quite posh if you balance the meat on top of the cous cous pile it's all in the presentation.

If you have freezer space if you make a load of tomato sauce with veggies in and decant into pots, it can become pasta sauce, base for chilli, base for curry, pouring sauce over top of grilled meat - really useful when time and ideas are short!

Just marking my place to read tomorrow, I too need inspiring, thanks in advance for this thread