19 Diabetes-Friendly Fall Dinners That the Whole Family Will Love
These crowd-pleasing meals offer a little bit of everything: veggie-packed bowls, easy pasta dishes, simple burgers and even slow-simmered stews. Each recipe focuses on complex carbs, like whole grains, and sticks to heart-healthy amounts of sodium and saturated fat, so it will fit seamlessly into a diabetes-friendly routine. Recipes like our Slow-Cooker Chicken Marsala and Fall Vegetable & Sausage Stew are delicious ways to prepare for the week ahead.
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Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers
These vegan sweet potato-black bean burgers spiced with curry powder are easy to make. Blending the mixture with your hands gives you a soft, uniform texture then the outside gets crispy by cooking in a cast-iron pan. To make this recipe gluten-free too, use gluten-free oats and serve the patty in a lettuce wrap, omitting the bun.
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Slow-Cooker Chicken Marsala
This slow-cooker chicken Marsala recipe gets its full flavor from plenty of mushrooms and fragrant shallots. Whole-wheat pasta soaks up the rich sauce. Round it out with a simple green salad for a comforting healthy dinner.
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Sheet-Pan Chicken Fajita Bowls
Skip the tortillas in favor of this warm fajita salad, which features a nutritious medley of chicken with roasted kale, bell peppers and black beans. The chicken, beans and vegetables are all cooked on the same pan, so this healthy dinner is easy to make and the cleanup is easy too.
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Kale, Sausage & Pepper Pasta
This healthy sausage and kale pasta recipe cooks in one skillet, so there's only one pot to clean! Try it with any greens you have in the fridge, such as chard or spinach.
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Fall Vegetable & Sausage Stew
Hot Italian sausage complements the sweet potatoes and greens, providing just the right amount of heat in this comforting soup. Simmering with rosemary sprigs infuses the soup with aromatic flavor without the extra work required to mince the leaves before cooking them.
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Chipotle Cauliflower & Turkey Chili
Lean ground turkey and cauliflower soak up the bold flavors in this easy chili. Using cauliflower stems along with the florets adds a meatier texture—just be sure to leave off the tough bottom inch or so of the stem. Make a double batch and eat it for lunch the next day, or freeze the extras for another night. We love the smoky heat from the chipotle peppers, but use less if you prefer a milder chili.
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Baked Frittata with Butternut Squash, Kale & Sage
This easy frittata recipe is full of fall flavors, thanks to creamy butternut squash, plenty of fresh sage, and earthy lacinato kale.
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Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken & Vegetables
This one-pan dinner gets a hit of flavorful heat from harissa, the popular North African chile-and-garlic paste. We use harissa paste from a tube for this recipe. It's got a concentrated chile flavor that makes an excellent spice rub for chicken and adds a subtle punch of heat to a refreshing herbed yogurt sauce.
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Leftover Turkey Gumbo
This dish puts other healthy leftover turkey recipes to shame. Chef Hugh Acheson puts his unique spin on gumbo by mixing untraditional spices like allspice and coriander with must-have thyme and filé powder. Also called gumbo filé, filé powder is the finely ground leaves of the sassafras tree; look for it in well-stocked supermarkets or online. Serve the gumbo over rice and don't forget to pass the hot sauce.
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Irish Pork Roast with Roasted Root Vegetables
In this easy one-pan dinner, boneless pork loin roast is cooked over a bed of carrots and parsnips for an all-in-one dish that makes an impressive centerpiece for a holiday meal or Sunday dinner. Choose free-range heritage pork if you can--its flavor really shines with no more seasoning than a bit of thyme and a little sea salt. If you'd like, dress up the meal with a traditional Irish apple condiment--Ploughmans chutney or Bramley applesauce, which you can find in specialty stores and online.
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Kale & Roasted Sweet Potato Hash
This one-pan hash makes an easy fall dinner or a simple dish for a healthy brunch. You can even poach the eggs ahead of time--slip them into steaming-hot water to rewarm them just before serving.
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Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon
bourguignon recipe. If desired, serve this stew with whole-wheat egg noodles to soak up the delicious sauce.
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Baked Halibut with Brussels Sprouts & Quinoa
Fish plus two sides? It seems fancy but this healthy dinner comes together in just 30 minutes.
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California Turkey Burgers & Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Inspired by an option at the West Coast chain In-N-Out Burger, this turkey burger recipe keeps the carbs in check with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. The side of sweet potato fries bakes while you prep the burgers, so this entire healthy dinner is ready in under 30 minutes.
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Creamy Chicken, Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms One-Pot Pasta
You'll only have to dirty one pot in this easy pasta recipe that cooks chicken and vegetables right along with the noodles. Plus, by using the exact amount of water you need to cook the pasta, the starch that usually gets drained off with your pasta water stays in the pot, giving you delectably creamy results.
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Chicken Curry Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Use convenience ingredients, like cooked chicken (leftover or purchased) and store-bought curry sauce to whip up these easy loaded baked potatoes. We call for cauliflower in this recipe, but feel free to sub in whatever veggies you have on hand for a quick and easy dinner. You can also swap the sweet potatoes for russets.
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Skillet Chicken Potpie
A store-bought pie crust, frozen veggies and precooked chicken simplify the prep for this easy potpie. This healthy dinner recipe is comfort food at its best.
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Skillet Lemon Chicken & Potatoes with Kale
This easy one-pan skillet-roasted lemon chicken is perfect for weeknight dinners. Juicy chicken thighs are cooked in the same pan as baby potatoes and kale for a satisfying meal with the added bonus of minimal cleanup.
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Vegan Cauliflower Fettuccine Alfredo with Kale
In this date-night-worthy vegan fettuccine Alfredo recipe, cooked cauliflower transforms into a rich, luscious sauce when it's blended with softened cashews. A high-speed blender will give you the creamiest results. Opt for whole-wheat fettuccine to add fiber to this vegan pasta recipe.