Quick Recipes

Quick Dinners

Kitchen Stories turns 10! To celebrate our birthday, we&#x27;re launching a series of articles to bring you our Kitchen Stories Top 10: <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/kitchen-stories-top-10-our-most-loved-recipes-of-all-time">the most popular recipes</a>, <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/our-10-most-loved-cooking-techniques-tips-tricks">the best cooking tips</a>, the quickest dinners for after work, the team&#x27;s personal favorites, and the most controversial recipes. Are you ready for the best of the best? Let&#x27;s go! At the end of a hectic day, it can be a struggle to put in the time in the kitchen afterwards. And the cruelty is, often it’s a hot home-cooked meal we crave the most! So here are our top 10 recipes for the end of a long day, which can be cooked with <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/categories/quick-recipes">little time (under 30 minutes!)</a> and effort. Read on and treat yourself to a delicious, comforting meal on the days you need it most.  By the way… in our new Kitchen Stories cookbook Everyday Cooking, we’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the topic of express cooking. You&#x27;ll find some of these recipe favorites and many more delicacies there starting October 2. <a href="https://shop.kitchenstories.com/products/kitchen-stories-kochbuch-everyday-cooking?selling_plan=6189875468&amp;variant=44540624175372" rel="nofollow">Pre-order now in our shop</a> (available in German language only, shipping to Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

The 10 best recipes, for maximum enjoyment with little effort

Here are our 10 best after-work recipes for a delicious, quick and easy dinner, guaranteed to have you sitting down to eat in no time.

Quick, creamy tortellini alla panna

Having a pack of ready-made filled pasta in your cupboard is always a safe bet. Paired with this classic ham and cream sauce, it becomes an ultra quick after-work dinner! The sauce, made incredibly creamy by the egg yolk, is guaranteed to make this meal the highlight of your day.

Buttery kimchi fried rice

Got some rice leftover from the day before? This recipe transforms it into an exciting new dish in no time: Using pantry ingredients like kimchi, gochujang paste, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, together with butter and served with a fried egg, it becomes a spicy, umami-rich dream. All the more reason to always cook a little too much rice!

Tomato and egg noodle soup

This quick, rich noodle soup, inspired by the popular (especially in China) combo of <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/recipes/tomatoes-and-egg">tomato and egg</a>, is the perfect comfort after a stressful day. Simple ingredients that you almost always have at home, and a wonderfully variable recipe (you might like to add extra vegetables, or substitute in rice or noodles of your choice) make it a reliable, rescue dinner (or lunch!).

Devan makes fatteh (Crispy flatbread with chickpeas and yogurt)

Although fatteh is actually a Levantine breakfast dish, it also makes a fabulous dinner. Quick and easy to prepare, it’s a winner with an abundance of different textures: crispy fried pita bread, creamy yogurt, and - in this version - buttery roasted cashews.

Yaki udon (Japanese stir-fried udon noodles with chicken and vegetables)

Stir-fried udon noodles are a quick and easy Japanese-inspired dinner to remember! Not only is it delicious, it’s great for clearing out odds and ends in your fridge. Add veggies and protein to the noodles to suit your taste depending on what&#x27;s at home. Versatile, adaptable, and always a hit!

One-pot creamy Cajun chicken pasta

Pasta is a go-to for quick dinners. This easy, creamy one-pot pasta proves that it doesn&#x27;t always have to be pasta with ready-made pesto. It’s spiced up with mildly hot <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/deep-dive-into-the-world-of-spices-cajun-edition">Cajun spice</a> from Louisiana. As a general express dinner tip, <a href="https://shop.kitchenstories.com/collections/gewuerzmischungen?utm_source=kitchenstories+app&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=KS-10-years&amp;utm_content=article&amp;utm_term=A1497" rel="nofollow">spice blends</a> are a great trick to give your dishes more flavor in seconds and without much effort.

Classic chicken piccata

Feeling &quot;lazy&quot; but still craving a meal that feels a little &quot;fancy&quot;? Treat yourself to a piccata. A simple and delicious Italian meat dish served in an intense, acidic and creamy caper sauce. The trick to a short preparation time: Use minute steaks or extra thinly sliced meat.

Burst cherry tomato and miso pasta with sesame crunch

Who would have thought this incredibly tasty looking pasta could be made in just 25 minutes? Miso and anchovies take this bursting tomato sauce to a new level. The crunchy sesame panko topping only adds a modest 2 minutes to the preparation time – so don&#x27;t pass it up.

Easy one-pot halloumi curry

Rich and creamy meets crunchy and salty. Inspired by Indian paneer masala, fried halloumi cubes are added to the vegetable curry here instead of paneer cheese. This dish makes great use of frozen peas and canned tomatoes – two handy ingredients that you should always have at home for quick dinners.

Classic spaghetti carbonara

An absolute classic that no Italian restaurant should be without. But did you know that you only need 20 minutes and just 4 or 5 ingredients to make creamy, flavorful spaghetti carbonara? That&#x27;s right! With this pasta, you can bring the restaurant feeling and dolce vita home in no time at all.  We hope our top 10 recipe favorites for quick dinners have you feeling well prepared and motivated to treat yourself to a home-cooked dinner even after intense days! You see, your well-deserved evening treat is less than 30 minutes away. Which of our top 10 recipes are already part of your after-work dinner routine? And what&#x27;s your absolute go-to recipe for quick dinner? Drop us a line in the comments!

VON KITCHEN STORIES

Kochbuch: Everyday Cooking

Our favorites for serving up top-notch after-work dinners in no time at all

The 10 Best Quick Recipes for Fuss-free Mid-week Dinners

This article is an excerpt from our upcoming cookbook, Anyone Can Cook, which is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3791387510/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative[%E2%80%A6]as2&amp;tag=kitchstori-20&amp;linkId=29b3c368b80dfc41da7edf3acb4dac8f" rel="nofollow">available for purchase here</a>.

Curry? You can indeed make it in a hurry. In only 30 minutes, you can create a filling and delicious curry that’ll taste even better the next day. The following ideas are inspired by taste combinations with origins from across the Indian subcontinent through to Southeast Asia. Here are the key pillars to work with when improvising.

You can of course use a pre-mixed curry powder of your liking to create the base flavor. To this, I like to add extra enhancements to dial up certain notes, such as a cinnamon stick or a couple of crushed cardamom pods. For convenience, you can keep ground spices, but make sure not to keep them too long as their flavors will dull over time. If you have a mortar and pestle, purchase whole spices, which tend to be more flavorful, and use them whole when a recipe calls for it, or grind them yourself. To always be curry-ready, keep the following on hand: cumin, coriander (whole seeds or ground), garam masala, smoked paprika, cinnamon sticks, chili powder, cardamom pods, all-purpose curry powder, and ground turmeric. Keep spice pastes like green or red curry paste in the fridge, or make your own by blending dried spices with an immersion blender.

Whether the base of your curry is dry (comprised of dry spices, plus alliums like onion, garlic, and ginger) or made with a wetter spice paste (made from scratch or store-bought), it’s important to sauté these mixtures over medium-low heat until fragrant, which will help to release the flavors—a process called “blooming.”

Dried beans like black beans and chickpeas, or hearty lentils with a shell such as brown lentils and urad dal, are best soaked overnight. This will not only lead to a faster cooking time, but makes them easier to digest. Bring the soaked pulses to a boil in a large pot of salted water and cook for approx. 15 min., or until softened, then drain and use in your recipe. Red and yellow lentils can be used straight away, as can many canned pulses.

Almost any vegetable will work in a veg-forward weeknight curry—think sweet potato, potato, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, eggplant, pumpkin, and spinach. Just make sure to add heartier vegetables to your pot first, and softer, leafy greens or veg later, to make sure your textures are intact.

There are many ways to add even more flavors and textures to your curries. To make a creamy curry, add coconut milk, heavy cream, or yogurt when the curry is almost done cooking. For sweetness and acidity, add a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste just after you fry your onions, ginger, and garlic—cook until the paste begins to darken and caramelize, which will add richer color and flavor. For something fresher, grate in a green apple as we do in our chickpea dal. If you’re aiming for a Southeast Asian-inspired curry, add fish sauce for umami or lime juice for tanginess.

You can’t deny that a curry intensifies with time, and the trick with speedy curries is to not serve them piping hot. Let them rest for 5 minutes before serving, which will allow you to taste all the intricate flavors better.

Your guide to making curry a weeknight staple

For Quick, Veg-Forward Curries—Look to the Pantry!

<a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/were-releasing-a-cookbook-and-you-can-be-a-part-of-it">As you know</a>, we’ve been working on something exciting: our very first cookbook! Anyone Can Cook will be published with Prestel in Spring 2021—<a href="https://amzn.to/3gO9wS6" rel="nofollow">you can preorder it here</a>. The cookbook is for brand new or seasoned home cooks looking to infuse fresh ideas into their weeknight cooking routine, which is why this month, to celebrate its release, we’ll focus on all the different ways to tackle dinner throughout the week, and share tips and tricks from our chefs and editors. <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/letter-from-the-editor-the-best-of-weeknight-cooking">All month long</a>, you’ll get exclusive sneak peeks into <a href="https://amzn.to/3gO9wS6" rel="nofollow">Anyone Can Cook</a>, plus plenty of new, satisfying, and versatile recipe ideas to rely on the whole week through.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Because I sure am. It’s 2020 and although this year has brought me a lot of mystery (I am seeing 20s everywhere!) nothing is as mysterious as the noises my stomach makes the second I come home from work. If you have felt this way before, you will agree with me that sometimes the thought of standing in the kitchen and cooking for two hours just isn’t that appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love cooking and the concept of developing intense flavors through slow and long processes, like stewing or roasting. But sometimes I just really want to whip up something easy, fast, and super delicious.

Time can play an essential role in cooking, but it doesn’t have to: Here are 20 recipes that bring a lot of flavor to the table in just a little time.

Tuna steak with cucumber guacamole

5-ingredient pasta with red pepper pesto

Shakshuka bowl

Palak paneer

Zoodle salad with tahini dressing

Spicy cheese-stuffed naan

Chinese eggplant with spicy garlic sauce

Chicken tikka sandwich

Vegetarian tacos with lime-yogurt dip

Gnocchi with peas and Parmesan

Marinated shrimp with mango salsa

Refined chickpea salad

Endive, burrata, and beet salad with candied walnuts

5-ingredient classic BLT (Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich)

Orecchiette with green beans and pistachio pesto

5-ingredient kimchi grilled cheese and simple salad

Chinese cold noodles

5-ingredient stir-fried udon noodles with spinach and beef

Herby French omelette

What is your favorite go-to quick recipe for a weeknight dinner? Let us know in the comments, or <a href="https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/faq-lets-talk-profiles-and-uploading-recipes">upload it to Kitchen Stories</a> for the whole community to enjoy.

Quick Dinners

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