Everyone is on the lookout for easy recipes. Why? Well, because it comes to our rescue when we least expect it. Not everyday are you in the mood to or have the resources to cook up an elaborate meal for yourself and your family. This is perhaps more true than ever if you find yourself in the midst of a crisis or lockdown. We are currently in the middle of one and scavenging for simple recipes daily can be quite a cumbersome task. But worry not, as we are here with a compilation of easy recipes to make things run a little more smoothly for you and your loved ones, especially during a crisis. Come let us take a look at them below.
Soups
A bowl of delicious hot soup is not just comforting on a cold day but is the perfect wholesome meal to have at least once a day throughout the year. For an easy midweek dinner, bake a fresh batch of bread and enjoy your scrumptious bowl of soup. Not just healthy and wholesome, soups are also known for their immunity-boosting properties and work wonders if you have flu. We have the recipes for some delicious soups. Have a look.
Delicious and luscious cream of cauliflower soup is the perfect accompaniment to salads and sandwiches. Picture Courtesy: Shutterstock
Creamy Cauliflower Soup With Crispy Croutons Recipe
This bowl of soup is nothing short of magic, created only with red onions, cauliflower, and a handful of spices. This is the perfect recipe for a simple light supper. To make it into a full meal, add a bowl of green salad and some crusty garlic bread. Read the recipe here.
Miso Soup
Prepare this delicious savory broth cooked with lots of vegetables, green scallions, soft tofu, noodles, brown rice, and sometimes meat in the comforts of your home. The best part about making this immunity-booster is that you can make it the way you want. Check out the recipe!
Vegan Celery Soup
This thick, creamy and oh-so-comforting soup is an excellent source of vitamin, dietary fiber, minerals, and antioxidants. To retain its nutrients and not make it too calorie-dense, you can substitute the cream with potato puree. This recipe is the perfect vegan soup you can devour!
Tomato Basil Soup
Want a soup that is creamy and easily made with just a handful of ingredients? In that case, tomato basil soup is just the soup you are looking for. What’s awesome is that it can be had cold as well. If you have access to your garden, just pick up some fresh tomatoes and basil and get started! Read the full recipe here!
Chicken Soup
We all know that a bowl of chicken soup is not just good for the body but also for the soul. You can choose to make the broth thick, translucent, with lots of vegetables or sans them, but the end result will be the same – a bowl of delicious goodness. We have a simple and satisfying chicken soup recipe for you!
Salads
Salads can go from side dish to the star attraction of any meal. Not only is it a healthy and wholesome meal in itself, but it is also a great way to celebrate the delicious and fresh farm produce. Be it summer or winter, a good salad recipe comprising a big, colorful mix of vegetables, hearty greens, beans, and legumes, or, in some cases, fruits is all you need for a healthy and happy body. Take a look at our recipes below.
Fresh summer salad Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Kale and Quinoa Salad
Combine two superfoods -kale and quinoa- and what you get is this delicious, nourishing, and super easy-to-make food-to-go! You can add your favorite nuts to the salad to add to the crunchiness. Here is the recipe!
5-Bean Salad
A classic salad filled with proteins from different kinds of beans, the crunchiness of a variety of vegetables, and the deliciousness of the flavorful herbs is what makes the 5-bean salad a must-try! Check it out!
Watermelon and Cucumber Salad
This is a refreshing salad for the summers. The sweetness of the watermelons and the crunchiness of the cucumbers, combined with the creaminess of feta cheese and the minty flavor of peppermint, is what you need to feel hydrated and full during summers. Read the full recipe here.
Best Broccoli Salad
Crunchy broccolis doused in some delicious mayo dressing, coupled with sweet and tarty cranberries, make for the best broccoli salad you’ll ever get a chance to have. You can substitute the calorie-rich mayonnaise with a mix of honey, tahini, and mustard. Here is the detailed recipe!
Avocado Veg and Chicken Salad
It goes without saying that avocado is a delicious and naturally creamy addition to a salad that goes exceptionally well with the crunchiness of vegetables and the juiciness of chicken. Add it to a simple veg salad or chicken salad and you will automatically elevate the taste and wholesomeness of the dish. Check out our Delicious Avocado Chicken Salad Recipe and our Easy-To-Make Homemade Avocado Salad Recipe.
Sandwiches
Nothing works better than yummy sandwiches as emergency foods. They are tasty, quick-to-make, and also quite filling. They work perfectly well for lunch, breakfast, brunch or even as a snack. You can either grill them, toast them, pan-griddle or even have them as it is. Here is our list of tasty sandwiches.
English high tea sandwiches Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich or PB&J, as it is popularly known, is a simple and iconic snack that is prepared by spreading layers of peanut butter and jelly on bread slices. You can either use crunchy or creamy peanut butter, as per your preference. The jam that best compliments this butter is grape jelly, but you are free to experiment with it the way you want. Take a look at the recipe here.
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Grilled cheese sandwich comforts your soul like nothing else. Pair a hot and melting grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tangy tomato soup, and you have made yourself the perfect lunch on a day you are too lazy to cook up a lavish meal. Want to read the detailed recipe? Read on.
Cucumber Sandwich
While it is no mean feat to prepare cucumber sandwiches, small things like hard bread, solid butter, or bitter cucumber can spoil the overall taste. Read our recipe for some easy tips to make the perfect cucumber sandwiches.
Best Avocado Toast Recipe
Avocado toasts are tasty and a healthy breakfast option. They are easy to prepare and can be made in all of just 5 minutes. Read our recipe for the perfect dish, which is not only delicious but packed with nutrients, fiber, and unsaturated fats.
Dishes
Here’s an eclectic mix of dishes that you can make within no time on days when you are in no mood to spend hours cooking in the kitchen. This especially holds true when you find yourself in the midst of an extended lockdown. It is in moments like these that you will try to make do with the minimal ingredients available at home or simply refurbish the leftovers to make something new and delicious for yourself. Come let us look at the easy dinner ideas given below.
Paprika topped hummus with roasted vegetables Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Roasted vegetables and golden roasted potatoes
Both roasted vegetables and golden roasted potatoes make for wonderful accompaniments to a meat-dense meal, which is particularly the case during holiday dinners or lunches. This is an extremely simple way to eat your vegetables all-year-round, not to forget an easy-dinner idea. Here is our Roasted Vegetable Recipe and our Golden Roasted Potatoes Recipe.
Garlic Chicken
This is a simple Indian style garlic chicken recipe, which is a perfect easy weekday dinner option. You can either serve it as a starter or as a side dish to a meal of salad and crusty bread. Check out the recipe here!
Sweet Potato Fries and Kelewele
No one would consider these two as dinner options but these carbohydrate-rich snacks can be quite filling. While they come under the fried food category, you can make them healthy by either oven-baking them or air-frying them. Kelewele is a West African delicacy. They are deep-fried plantains. While our kelewele recipe doesn’t mention anything about air-frying the plantains, you can still try preparing them that way. Spud lovers, you can read our detailed recipe on sweet potato fries here.
Fried Rice
This is an extremely forgiving dish, which you can prepare using left-over rice and whatever ingredient you can easily lay your hands on. You can choose to add meat, prawns, fish or simply vegetables, and make your own version of the dish. You can experiment with sauces and herbs to enhance its taste. While there are many ways to prepare this dish, try out our recipe! [1]
Corn on the cob
Who doesn’t like a perfectly grilled corn on the cob served with melting butter on the top? Well, we have six different ways in which you can prepare your favorite corn on the cob. Read on.
Desserts
No meal is truly finished without dessert. And if you think preparing desserts is a lavish affair, you are sadly mistaken. Take a look at some of our simple, easy-to-make dessert recipes below.
Berry smoothies are the perfect example of easy-to-make desserts. Picture Credit: Shutterstock
Vanilla Chia Pudding
While many may prefer starting their day with this healthy breakfast meal, you can even have it as a dessert after your meals. The tapioca-like texture of the chia seeds goes perfectly well with the universally loved flavor of vanilla, and together they produce a sweet, delicious dessert with a woody after-taste. Check out the detailed recipe here.
Microwave Peanut Brittle
This crispy and caramel-flavored dessert can be made in all of just 20 minutes. And if that wasn’t enough, the recipe becomes furthermore undemanding and effortless when you use a microwave to make it. So come and take a look at the detailed ingredients and recipe here.
Keto Smoothie
If you are on a strict diet, particularly on a keto diet, you don’t have to worry about staying away from smoothies, courtesy their high carb and sugar content. But we have a recipe that includes low-carb ingredients to make the perfect and easy-to-make keto smoothie for you!
So, how did you find our recommendations? Did you try them out? If you did, do let us know how they turned out in the comments section below.
