23 Easy Low-Calorie Dinners You'll Want to Make This Winter
These light dinners are a great fit for any weeknight. Each recipe requires just 20 minutes of active time in the kitchen, so you can whip up a healthy, tasty meal without breaking a sweat. Plus, each simple dish has fewer than 575 calories per serving and includes lots of delicious wintry produce like sweet potatoes, kale and cauliflower. Recipes like our Creamy White Chili with Cream Cheese and Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes make it easy to shake up your winter dinner menu.
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Provençal Baked Fish with Roasted Potatoes & Mushrooms
This easy healthy meal—which requires just 15 minutes of active time—is typical of southern France. You can use halibut, grouper or cod for this simple Mediterranean baked fish recipe, so just choose what looks best at your market. Look for herbes de Provence, an aromatic spice blend, at most grocery stores.
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Beefless Vegan Tacos
Take taco night in a new direction with these healthy vegan tacos. We've swapped crumbled tofu for the ground beef, without sacrificing any of the savory seasonings you expect in a taco. You can also use the filling in burritos, bowls, taco salads and to top nachos.
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Creamy White Chili with Cream Cheese
This rich, yet healthy, white chicken chili comes together in a flash thanks to quick-cooking chicken thighs and canned white beans. Mashing some of the beans acts as a fast thickener when your soups don't have a long time to simmer. Cream cheese adds the final bit of richness and a hint of sweet tang.
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Taco Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie
Revamp traditional shepherd's pie with this Tex-Mex take on the classic comfort food with taco seasoning, black beans and a little jalapeño. The flavor- and veggie-packed filling gets topped with cilantro-lime sweet potatoes for a satisfying and healthy dinner recipe.
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Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes
Yukon Golds are great here because they get crispy on the outside but completely creamy on the inside. A brush stroke or two of balsamic glaze provides a rich color and a sweet finish to the roasted salmon.
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Korean BBQ Tempeh Grain Bowl
If you're a tempeh skeptic, you've probably never had the firm soy-based slabs slathered with a sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce. We give this easy BBQ tempeh combo a punch of umami with tamari and add a little heat courtesy of gochujang. It's easy to put your own spin on this recipe; see Variations (below) for some riffs.
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Winter Kale & Quinoa Salad with Avocado
Precooked quinoa helps keep this healthy salad recipe quick and simple. Loaded with black beans, kale, and avocado, this recipe is as filling as it is nutritious. You can also make the sweet potatoes and dressing ahead.
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Cauliflower Tikka Masala with Chickpeas
In this vegetarian riff on a popular Indian dish, we swap in cauliflower and chickpeas for the chicken in tikka masala. The cauliflower's nooks and crannies are particularly good at soaking up all the intense flavors of the sauce. Serve over rice for an easy healthy dinner that's ready in just 20 minutes.
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Jackfruit Barbacoa Burrito Bowls
Jackfruit, a tropical fruit with a dense, chewy texture, is a blank canvas that takes on flavors well. In these vegan burrito bowls, the jackfruit is simmered in a warm and spicy chile sauce that's so good you'll never know you're eating a plant-based protein instead of pork or beef.
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Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Enjoy the classic flavors of Buffalo chicken wings in a healthier way. Spooned into spaghetti squash boats and topped with blue cheese, this lighter version is just as tasty as the real deal but it will actually make you crave your veggies.
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Flank Steak Tostadas
Quick-pickled onions and a simple yogurt-lime cream sauce lend complex flavors to these crispy steak tostadas.
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Udon Noodle Bowl
This Asian-inspired Udon Noodle Bowl can be ready in just 30 minutes. It's a perfect weeknight meal, quick and incredibly satisfying.
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Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas & Spinach
Simmer eggs in a rich tomatoey cream sauce studded with chickpeas and silky spinach for a super-fast vegetarian dinner. Serve with a piece of crusty bread to soak up the sauce. Be sure to use heavy cream; a lower-fat option might curdle when mixed with acidic tomatoes.
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Rosemary Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
Chicken and sweet potatoes unite with the delicious taste of rosemary in this easy, one-skillet meal. Because we use parcooked and unseasoned sweet potatoes, the cooking time is much shorter--making this recipe perfect for weeknight cooking.
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Sheet-Pan Steak & Potatoes
One pan = less cleanup. To make this sheet-pan dinner work, the potatoes are roasted for 15 minutes before the asparagus and skirt steak are added. Finished with rosemary and blue cheese, it's our easy--and healthy--take on steak frites.
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Quinoa Power Salad
Make this satisfying salad in the evening and enjoy one portion for dinner, then pack the remaining portion for lunch the next day. Loaded with protein- and fiber-rich ingredients like chicken, sweet potato and quinoa plus power greens, this meal is nutrition-packed!
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Roasted Buffalo Chickpea Salad
Soak chickpeas in Buffalo seasoning before roasting in a hot oven for delicious tang and crunch. This crispy topping is the perfect way to add bite to a satisfying salad with celery, carrots and blue cheese.
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Crispy Smoked Tofu & Coleslaw Wraps
Tossing the smoked tofu in cornstarch then pan-frying makes it super-crispy. Drizzle with hot honey or your favorite hot sauce to spice it up a little.
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Old Bay Salmon with Lemony Mashed Peas
Cooking butter until it browns adds a toasty, nutty flavor to this easy skillet salmon recipe. Here it gives Old Bay-rubbed salmon a chef-worthy finish--not bad for 20 minutes!
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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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Italian Pork with Mashed Sweet Potatoes
This simple Italian-inspired recipe combines pork shoulder with aromatic fennel. As the pork cooks, its juices drip down to flavor the sweet potatoes that are nestled in the bottom of the slow cooker. Serve with steamed green beans for a complete meal.
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Grilled Fish Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
This easy fish taco recipe is ready in just 35 minutes. Rather than making the salsa from scratch, we save time by mixing store-bought salsa with juicy pineapple, crisp bell pepper, and fragrant cilantro. It all comes together quickly while the fish is grilling.
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BBQ Shrimp with Garlicky Kale & Parmesan-Herb Couscous
In the U.S., dry whole-wheat couscous has been partially cooked, making it a quick-cooking (5 minutes!) whole-grain weeknight dinner champ. And when you buy peeled shrimp, plus a bag of prechopped kale and bottled barbecue sauce, the savings in prep time helps to get this healthy dinner done in a jiff.