Mood-Boosting Recipes

August 27, 2019
Feeling blue? Some foods can actually boost your mood by helping reduce stress, ease anxiety and fight depression. Try adding some more fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, fish, coconut, tea and saffron to your diet. Here are some of EatingWell’s healthiest recipes featuring these mood-boosting foods:Watch Video
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White Bean & Veggie Salad

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This meatless main-dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.

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Fig & Ricotta Toast

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This easy Mediterranean-inspired toast makes a quick breakfast for any day of the week.

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Plank-Grilled Miso Salmon

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Besides adding smoky flavor, cooking salmon on a plank eliminates the triple pitfalls of grilling fish--drying out, sticking to the grate or breaking when you attempt to turn it. For this healthy grilled salmon recipe, the sweet-salty flavor of the miso-maple glaze counterpoints the buttery richness of the fish.

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Purple Fruit Salad

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Serve this refreshing fruit salad featuring juicy plums, grapes and berries on its own or with other colorblock fruit salads (like red, green and orange) for a fun, crowd-pleasing rainbow side dish.

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Smoky Shrimp, Corn & Pea One-Pot Pasta

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Make your sauce and pasta all at once with this fast weeknight pasta dinner recipe. By using the exact amount of water you need to cook the pasta--no colanders here--the starch that cooks off into your pasta water, which you usually drain away, stays in the pot, giving you delectably creamy results.

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Rainbow Veggie Spring Roll Bowl

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With tons of colorful vegetables, sesame rice noodles and a healthy peanut sauce, this noodle bowl is a hit with adults and kids alike. Assemble the bowls before serving or let everyone make their own. Serve with Sriracha hot sauce, if desired.

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Healthy Dark Chocolate "Puppy Chow"

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Crunchy, sweet, salty ... healthy?! Yes, indeed. We gave this classic sweet treat, also called muddy buddies, a grown-up makeover using whole-grain cereal and dark chocolate. Dig in!

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Seafood Paella with Spring Vegetables

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This healthy paella recipe is inspired by the bounty of Provençal farmers' markets. Instead of sausage and chicken, fresh artichoke, green beans, fennel and onion are nestled with shellfish and white fish to create a light but delicious recipe. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

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Matcha Green Tea Latte

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A touch of honey balances the bitterness of matcha in this healthy latte recipe. For a nondairy latte, swap unsweetened almond, soy or coconut milk for the low-fat milk.

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Sautéed Shrimp with Mango Salsa & Coconut Cauliflower Rice

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Shrimp and rice get a tropical makeover in this healthy 400-calorie dinner. Instead of rice, we've combined riced cauliflower and coconut milk for light coconut "rice" topped with spicy shrimp and a juicy mango-avocado salsa to cool it all down. Squeeze on some fresh lime juice before digging in to take this easy meal to the next level.

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Persian Grilled Chicken

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This easy grilled chicken recipe owes its tenderness to an overnight soak in a yogurt-lemon juice marinade and its soulful flavor to saffron and onion. A healthy drizzle of saffron-infused butter before serving adds an extra layer of richness. Serve with aromatic rice with pistachios and torshi, Central Asian pickles available at Persian and Middle Eastern grocery stores.

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Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

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The batter for this healthy one-bowl brownie recipe is stirred together right in the saucepan used to melt the butter and chocolate--no mixing bowl needed and less cleanup for you. Using shredded zucchini in this healthy dessert recipe creates a tender, moist brownie with about half the amount of butter and sugar found in a classic recipe--and it's virtually undetectable in the baked brownies.

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Creamy Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms

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Sliced Brussels sprouts and mushrooms cook quickly and cling to the pasta in our fall version of pasta primavera. Look for presliced mushrooms to cut prep time. Serve with a tossed salad.

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Salmon & Avocado Poke Bowl

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Poke (pronounced poh-kay), the bite-size marinated fish salad famous in Hawaii, is so popular that it's sold by the pound in supermarkets. Now it has crossed the Pacific to become the meal-in-a-bowl du jour, served in eateries from Los Angeles to New York. But it's easy to make at home with this quick recipe. Sriracha and Chinese-style mustard add a touch of heat to the classic poke seasoning of soy sauce and sesame oil. Serving it over a brown rice salad makes it a meal.

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Mango Coconut Chia Pudding

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Switch up your morning oatmeal routine with this so-easy chia pudding recipe. Creamy mango and coconut combine in this healthy breakfast recipe for a taste of the tropics.

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Farro Salad with Cranberries & Persimmons

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When shopping for this healthy salad recipe, be sure to pick up the right type of persimmons. The flat-bottomed Fuyus called for here are bright orange and have texture of an almost-ripe peach when ready to eat--perfect for salsas and salads, with or without the peel. Oval-shaped, darker orange and larger Hachiyas are only edible when almost liquid on the inside. The flesh is best used in baking or can be scooped out of the skin and eaten like custard. Underripe, they are off-puttingly tart.

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Yeasted Waffles

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Once you taste the rich, tangy flavor that yeast adds to this whole-grain waffle recipe, you'll never want to go back to plain waffles. With leftover batter--if you have any--you can have make-ahead weekday waffles hot off the iron in about the same amount of time it takes to toast frozen ones.

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Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

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The ingredients in this vegan grain bowl recipe can be prepped ahead for an easy lunch to pack for work. The tangy citrus dressing is a refreshing flavor with the sweet caramel of the roasted sheet-pan veggies.

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Seared Arctic Char with Bacon-Leek Chard

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A cousin of salmon and trout with a milder flavor, Arctic char-both farmed and wild--is recommended as a "Best Choice" by Seafood Watch. It's low in mercury and has almost the same amount of omega-3s per serving as salmon. Try it in this healthy fish recipe with dark leafy greens.

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Green Tea-Peach Smoothie Bowl

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Sweet peaches and creamy avocado combine in this vegan smoothie bowl recipe for a delicious new way to try matcha green tea. Top it with sweet and crunchy toppings for a fun, easy breakfast.

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Chai Fudge Pops

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Honey and cream cheese team up to give this chai-spiced frozen pop recipe a creamy consistency: think chocolate Fudgsicles gone wild.

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Green Salad with Edamame & Beets

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This big salad is a feast for the eyes and an everyday way to incorporate nutrient-rich beets and plant-based protein from edamame (green soybeans). If you're not a fan of cilantro, mix in freshly chopped basil or dill instead.

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One-Skillet Salmon with Fennel & Sun-Dried Tomato Couscous

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Sun-dried tomato pesto and lemon do double duty to season both the salmon and the couscous in this healthy one-pan dinner recipe. Serve the salmon with extra lemon wedges and a dollop of plain yogurt, if desired.

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Coconut Grilled Corn

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Grilled corn turns up across the globe, from Japan's supernaturally sweet Hokkaido corn to Mexico's elote, grilled corn slathered with mayonnaise and grated Cotija cheese. In this healthy corn on the cob recipe, the corn takes its inspiration from Cambodia's pod oeng, corn grilled with pandan leaf–flavored coconut milk.

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