Favourite meals you can make in the time it takes to cook pasta

[Etherealhedgehog]

I'm talking actual recipes (and doesn't have to involve actual pasta, though that is welcome). I love cooking but DD is nearly a year, we're both back at work - already or soon - and we really don't have the energy to cook at the end of the day. But after spending the first four months living off pasta pesto/oven pizza/fish finger butties on rotation, I feel in need of more varied fare, and something to make me feel like I haven't completely abandoned my love for making a tasty meal.

I feel like there should be a great food blog out there covering just this, but yet to find it.

So, what's your favourite super quick recipe? I'll start, mine is: jillianleiboff.blogspot.com/2013/07/wholewheat-spaghetti-with-green-olives.html?m=1

Thai green curry kit (or any type of curry kit) and microwave rice.

Stir fry of any variation

Cheese on toast but made posh with a dollop of good quality chutney and salad. Call it bruschetta or rarebit if it makes you feel better.

Jacket potatoes on a timer in the oven - set the oven to start cooking an hour before you want to eat and add fillings of choice.

Steak sandwich using those thin frying steaks and chips

Burgers - put the burger in the oven on high and it cooks better than on the grill/frying pan

Cook a whole chicken the night before while you are watching tv. Put it in the fridge and reheat slices in gravy and add some microwave mash and veggies.

Ditto sausages - cook the night before in the oven with sliced onion reheat in a pan of gravy and serve with pre-made mash the next day

So many good ideas here, I am actually drooling. I was thinking about an instant pot earlier in the year, might have to revisit that. But in the meantime, I'm going to make a list and work my way through these!

I tend to find roasting a chicken on a Sunday gives some good quick leftover options for the following few days to take care of dinners - chicken, salad and potato wedges, chicken stir fries or curries. My time saving go to's are microwave rice (I love the Vee Tee ones), frozen chopped onions, garlic, ginger, peppers and a selection of filled pastas always in the freezer which I just have with butter, Parmesan and seasoning. Ham, egg and oven chips is also a popular quick dinner in our house. Or some oven cooked sausages in a baguette.

@Etherealhedgehog

So many good ideas here, I am actually drooling. I was thinking about an instant pot earlier in the year, might have to revisit that. But in the meantime, I'm going to make a list and work my way through these!

Just be warned that they aren't actually quick. Most recipes take as long while it gets to pressure and then releases pressure! It gives you hands off time but isn't for quick meals

On my 8th week of Hello Fresh here. Mostly stir fries with interesting sauces and spices, I've chosen the "quick" filter. It is luxury not having to think at all just dump the things into the pan in the order it tells me. There's always heavy discounts if you click through on an advert somewhere.

• chicken wrapped in prosciutto, asparagus & new potatoes
• omelette & salad
• halloumi & roasted veg
• salmon baked in foil, roast tomatoes & potatoes
• steak & salad

Nigella's marmite spaghetti for the ultimate quick meal.

Or a Gordon Ramsey recipe for spaghetti - while the pasta is cooking, fry off so.e breadcrumbs with some crushed garlic (takes about 1 min), then set that aside. In tbe same pan, fry a chopped chilli, crushed clove of garlic and a tin of sardines (break them up, not whole). Add some oregano. Mix with the cooked spag and a glug of olive oil. Serve it with the toasted breadcrumbs over the top. Delicious.

Get an air fryer, it isn't all unhealthy stuff (although chips are amazing from it). My current fave quick meal is Greek flatbread, loads of hummus slathered on, frozen Mediterranean veg straight into the air fryer which takes about 7mins tops along with some halloumi for the last minute or so. Bang it in the wrap and voilà, tasty meal!

Nadiya Hussain also has some great quick recipes which has opened my eyes to the major benefits of tinned potato!

Left over frozen Bolognese from the back of the freezer!

Ooh

Tortilla if you cook the potatoes the night before

The Spanish in me died a little bit reading this. Please don't.

@Mintjulia

Make a sauce of sweated chopped onions, with chopped up sundried tomatoes, a little red wine vinegar, some pitted black olives and some chopped fresh thyme. I add extra flavour by using the oil from the sun dried tomatoes jar. Then drop some potato gnocchi into fast boiling water for three minutes. Drain the gnocchi, add to the sauce and stir. Good for a light supper or a lunch to take to work. Delicious.

You can fry gnocchi. So much nicer than boiled

This has been a great thread - my menu planning for the week has taken minutes and I’ve got some fab new ideas to try. Thanks for starting it

@thisplaceisweird

Tortilla if you cook the potatoes the night before

The Spanish in me died a little bit reading this. Please don't.

Don't be silly. The OP wants quick and easy ideas. There's a place for doing things slowly and authentically, but it's really not the end of the world if people take some short cuts sometimes.

@Ozanj

Try upgrading your pasta game first. Good pasta takes 45-90 minutes to cook (at least) if you use good quality natural ingredients.

Jesus wept.

This requires very little prep (basically wash some herbs and blitz with a stick blender, slice a couple of cloves of garlic) and comes together in about 10mins. You can use parsley or any soft herb, it's good for using up strays where I have some left over from a different dish.

Last winter I made it at least a couple of times a week, as a side with almost anything, as a main with salad or green veg, and you can add some pasta/quinoa/rice, a few rashers of bacon and/or a tomato to bulk it up. Often I don't bother with the herb oil or throw some thyme and rosemary in the pot with the beans instead, they're delicious on their own.

I keep this stuff in the fridge so no faffing with chicken stock and it's delicious drizzled on top.

@thisplaceisweird
I heard the Spanish use tinned potatoes these days for tortillas.

Using the Timer for baked potatoes is a great idea. I love cold chicken, baked potato and Waldorf salad (just apple, celery and walnuts with mayonnaise). I also like baked potatoes the next day either fried or with mayonnaise. Some exciting ideas here!

Oh, my mum used to make Waldorf salad in the 80s. I loved it!

Yes, I’ve always liked Waldorf salad. it seems easier than a lettuce salad as well because you use a smaller bowl, ready made mayonnaise as the dressing, and don’t use a salad spinner. Obviously, there is a bit of chopping, but that’s quite satisfying.

HOW can you all say 'Waldorf salad' without mentioning Basil Fawlty?

Well, I did think of him, but wasn’t sure how to work it in to the comment. I suppose it did show it was quick!

My quick meal is crab and sweetcorn soup.

Stock cube in water with frozen sweetcorn, bring to boil and cook for 5 minutes then blend in a food processor. Return to pan and add more sweetcorn and cook for 5 minutes then add a tin of crabmeat but you can also add frozen prawns etc. If you like it spicy you can add chilli sauce at this stage and if you need it to be a bulky meal, add a tin of butter beans.

Any sort of stir-fry.

We add bacon, spinach, kale to pasta & pesto to make it more of a meal.

Pasta & a quick sauce - onion, tinned tomatoes, mushroom, spinach.

Tuna pasta bake.

I second The Roasting Tin cookbooks by Rukmini Iyer (The Quick Roasting Tin is just that). Love them all and they have changed the way I cook in how often I use the oven and adding little extras that lift the flavour but isn't a huge effort.

Raymond Blancs salmon omelette

Coddled eggs - I have tiny bags of bacon lardons in the freezer cooking in the microwave till crispy before chucking in the egg coddlers.

We buy thin sour dough pizza bases with tomato sauce on already and have a few in the freezer. When I'm feeling the need to order on Just Eat we get one of those out and chuck a few toppings on, done in 8 minutes. Much nicer than take out too.

It's more of a prep the night before or morning ahead thing but I find my instant pot really useful for making double so I can freeze the extra.

@Mintjulia

Make a sauce of sweated chopped onions, with chopped up sundried tomatoes, a little red wine vinegar, some pitted black olives and some chopped fresh thyme. I add extra flavour by using the oil from the sun dried tomatoes jar. Then drop some potato gnocchi into fast boiling water for three minutes. Drain the gnocchi, add to the sauce and stir. Good for a light supper or a lunch to take to work. Delicious.

Ahhh yes gnocchi are excellent! Versatile, quick and tasty.

I use them sometimes instead of pasta in an oven bake. Cook in boiling water for 2 mins and drain then mix with your sauce cover in cheese and bake. Yum.

Also you can toss them in oil snd bake at 180 for 20 mins and they're like mini roasties. Watch like a hawk though as if they over cooked they'll break your teeth

Or pan fry with chopped sun blush tomatoes, olives and chorizo or pancetta. So quick and v tasty