We all know the situation: you've come home exhausted from a long day but you cannot rest because dinner needs to be on the table pronto. You (and your family) are hungry! It's tempting to throw a frozen pizza in the oven but you can whip up a healthier alternative in the same amount of time if your fridge and pantry are well-stocked. Read on for our 12 favorite things to have on hand for quick, healthy suppers.
A well-stocked pantry, refrigerator, and freezer is the way to stay on track for healthy eating. When you have good, simple basics on hand, there's no reason to reach for unhealthy processed convenience foods, or worse, take the drive-through route on the way home. Here are 12 of our favorite foods that cook up quick and easy, and more importantly, taste fresh and delicious.
VEGETABLES
- Frozen Peas: Toss them in just about anything when you feel a vegetable is needed. Frozen peas are fresh tasting, firm textured, and cook up in just a few minutes. A healthy convenience food!
- Prewashed spinach: A few handfuls of baby spinach will wilt almost immediately in a frying pan, adding a nice green element to stir fries or for the vegetable base for fritattas.
- Green Onions: Almost every savory dish begins with frying onions. Green onions are especially helpful because the chop up and cook quickly.
- Tomato Sauce: Whether it's your homemade version in the freezer or a favorite jarred brand, a premade tomato sauce is a terrific quick start to supper. And it's not just for pasta: use it to sauce a frittata or some leftover polenta or add it to a farro stir fry.
- Pre-cooked vegetables: Take a cue from Tamar Adler and blanch or roast your vegetables when you get home from the market. Having these pre-cooked veg on hand means you can quickly toss together a hearty salad or pasta dish.
GRAINS
- Leftover grain (rice, farro, bulgur): Always cook up extra grains and keep them in the refrigerator. They will reheat quickly and form the base for your supper. Farro is especially a nice choice as it reheats well and is a good-for-you whole grain.
- Couscous: Put the kettle on when you walk in the door. When it boils, add the water to some couscous, and cover. 10 minutes later, uncover and fluff and there you have it!
- Polenta: Make extra the next time you do polenta or buy one of those polenta-in-a-tube at the grocery store. Either way, creamy polenta is a great base for reheated vegetables and a little cheese.
PROTEIN
- Goat cheese or feta: Both cheeses last a while in the refrigerator and are very strong, so a little goes a long way for adding flavor to your dishes.
- Eggs: Frittatas, scrambled eggs, omelets! Fried, poached, or hard boiled! Eggs are a perfect quick supper protein.
- Sausages: Sausages are a good way to add a lot of flavor to a dish. A little goes a long way, especially if you slice them thinly or remove the casing and crumple them in. There are many delicious vegetarian 'sausages' these days as well.
- A rotisserie chicken: A store-bought rotisserie chicken can translate into several 2-person meals, not to mention leaving you with bones for stock. Better yet, roast your own on Sunday and enjoy the leftovers in the coming week.
What things do you like to have on hand for those evenings when supper needs to be on the table quick?
Related: Camino's Fried Farro with Dark Greens
(Image: Faith Durand | Whole Wheat Couscous with Cherries and Arugula)
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This is a great list. I like to take leftover grains and saute them in sesame oil with whatever veggies I have on hand then put a fried egg on top. Delicious, quick, and filling. My other must have? A block of Parmesan cheese. It lasts forever and adds that little extra oomph to quick weeknight meals.
Great list but I would add canned beans in the protein category and pasta in the grains category.
I agree, this is very useful. I would add cans of tuna fish as well. They've saved me many times when I haven't felt like putting much effort into dinner after a long day at work...
My last minute savers are avocados, pre-cooked and packaged lentils, and pre-cooked beets (usually from Trader Joes). I always try and have a chorizo around for a last minute protein/ flavor boost. Then I put a little fresh cilantro or parsley on top of whatever concoction will be dinner that night, and it suddenly looks like I spent hours making it.
Missing are:
Beans- quick hummus, black bean soup, bean salads,
Frozen Shrimp- seriously these cook up so fast and a few can make a blah dish seem special. Add to omlets, pasta, ect
Bacon in individual portions- pasta carbonara, blt, bacon wrapped shrimp, ect
Pasta- as noted in previous comments pasta is a great basic base
Success rice or minute rice- ok your purist can snob this comment but a minute rice or sucess rice that takes only a few minutes to cook allows you to say heat up random leftovers and put them to great use.
Ooh I'm going to try the sesame oil thing. Is it like fried rice and better once the cooked rice is cool/cold? I feel like this would be awesome with quinoa.
I'm never without tortillas—to make leftover chicken or meat more fun with rice, beans and whatever toppings. Plus a small package of corn tortillas are about the cheapest thing on the shelf at the market.
I would say any kind of cheese.
Boxed chicken broth - to make leftovers into a quick soup.
great list, I have lately been a big fan of green onions too, they seem to work on almost anything. Lately i buy 2 bunches every week.
I agree with a lot of other comments: cans of beans, canned tuna, sesame oil, parmesean cheese, frozen bacon, frozen shrimp, chorizo, - i usually have several of those on hand for quick dinners.
Frozen chopped onions. They're not as good as fresh, of course, and I would only use them cooked and not raw, but they're great when you don't have time for a lot of chopping (or don't want to cry while chopping).
I've become a big fan of turkey breast cutlets -- they're a quarter to half an inch thick, freeze beautifully, and can go from freezer to plate in twenty minutes. Zap in microwave for a minute to defrost, then saute. Add sherry or lemon or other favorite liquid to make a quick sauce.
Lemons! Add butter or olive oil and you have an almost instant sauce.
lemon and lime juice in those little squirt bottles, canned beans, frozen cubes of garlic, cans of chopped tomatoes (I get cans with garlic and olive oil or roasted with jalapenos)
My recent go to quick and cheap meal = rice + can of black beans + can of roasted chopped tomatoes + avocado + dried cilantro + cumin + S&P
My quickest meal always involves a can of beans and a good can of diced tomatoes. Serve with rice (I always have a gigantic bag of basmati rice in the fridge), grated cheese (I always have a big block of sharp cheddar) and warm tortillas, and you're golden. I usually have some broccoli, spinach or tomatoes to add to the mix as well.
in addition to canned beans and red lentils -- which go from raw to cooked in about 15 minutes! -- canned vegetarian low or no fat refried beans: thinned out with water or stock for a flavorful, virtually instant soup; thinly spread on grilled tortilla or toasted pita and topped with pretty much any leftover protein or a poached, fried or scrambled egg and some raw veggies; same but with some cheese, melted in the micro, with the raw veggies; as a base for fish cakes instead of mashed potato ... such a versatile staple! I also always have large mild onions, fresh garlic and fresh citrus, especially lemons, for both the juice and the zest.
I agree with lots of other folks here. Frozen shrimp is a necessity for easy weeknight meals. Other helpers include chicken or vegetable broth/boullion and tomatoes.
I also make chicken stock glaze- super reduced chicken stock that I freeze in ice cube trays. It adds instant great flavor for a quick soup using leftover veggies, beans, rice, pasta, chicken, etc. Or I add it to make a great pasta sauce, with onions, bacon, peas, sundried tomatoes, etc. Yum.