Very Simple Recipes For Beginners

These 31 easy recipes for beginners are quick weeknight meals that I have relied on for years. I turn to these recipes when I need an easy weeknight dinner that the entire family will love.

I have categorized these recipes so you can find exactly what you are looking for. There are salad recipes that are great for an easy lunch, meal prep recipes, and easy dinners perfect for busy weeknights. You can use the table of contents to click through to what you want. I hope that these beginner recipes help to give you confidence in the kitchen.

One of my oldest friends recently admitted that she has trouble in the kitchen. She asked me if I had any simple recipes that she could make for her family. I thought that I would help her out by assembling a list of easy recipes for beginners – a collection of foolproof recipes that a beginner cook can successfully make.

Recipes Every Beginner Baker Should Practice

Inspired by a recipe created by Top Chef winner Joe Flamm of Rosemary in Chicago, this rustic pasta is bursting with fresh flavors and can be prepared in just 20 minutes! This delicious meal is made with just a few basic ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, parmesan cheese, pasta, black pepper, salt, and a sundried tomato. The tomatoes are pureed to create a simple homemade tomato sauce cooked with olive oil and basil. The final touches are grating fresh parmesan and a sundried tomato over the pasta for an extra burst of flavor.

My Mom made this all the time when I was a kid – we used to call it “sausage and bow ties.” Now, I make it for Charles. This is a great simple recipe because it takes just 20 minutes to make, and all the ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find in grocery stores. You can easily make this recipe your own by adding your favorite vegetables. Mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, and red pepper flakes are all wonderful optional additions.

This rich creamy beef pasta skillet is made with roasted tomatoes, ground beef, and mascarpone cheese to make an irresistible pasta dish. To prepare this meal, first you roast tomatoes on a sheet pan. After roasting, the tomatoes are pureed and mixed with cooked ground beef, sauteed mushrooms, and mascarpone to create a creamy beefy sauce. Fresh pasta gets cooked right in the sauce. This is one of the more involved meals on the list, but it is perfect for a dinner party.

Easy Recipes For Beginners: 12 Meals You'll Be Able To Make With Ease

Everyone loves macaroni and cheese, and this recipe for stovetop mac and cheese with a crispy panko topping is super simple and can be made in just 20 minutes. The secret to this easy weeknight meal is that crispy toasted panko breadcrumbs mimic the taste of baked macaroni and cheese. It is an easy hack that adds so much flavor to the meal. The most important thing to keep in mind when preparing this meal is that you want to use good ingredients. Get a flavorful sharp aged cheddar. You can definitely add in your favorite cheeses, but I think a sharp cheddar is the best way to add a rich taste to macaroni and cheese.

Jocelyn’s easy Shrimp Scampi can be made in 15 minutes or less! While shrimp is a special ingredient, you probably have the other ingredients in your pantry. The shrimp gets tossed in pasta with a lemon, butter, and white wine sauce seasoned with red pepper flakes, garlic, onion powder, and parsley.

This delicious vegetarian pasta recipe with simple, fresh ingredients comes together in 40 minutes. The sauce is a mixture of roasted garlic, melted goat cheese, and roasted tomatoes thinned out with a touch of pasta water. If you prefer feta cheese, I think it would work well in place of goat cheese.

Fast & Easy Dinner Ideas

When I was in grad school, I worked at a Manhattan restaurant that charged $18 for this meal. And in 2006, $18 for a vegetarian pasta dish was

. The restaurant has since closed, but I have the recipe for the Spaghetti alla Rustica. The ingredients for this meal cost just $10, and you will have enough for four servings. The best thing is that the meal can be made in just 20 minutes.

Please believe me: you can make ricotta gnocchi from scratch in just 10 minutes. This is an unexpectedly easy recipe for beginners. I learned this recipe at a cooking demo in Italy, and I was shocked to learn that this pillowy gnocchi is so simple to make. You only need ricotta, 00 flour (special flour for pasta that is available in most grocery stores), pecorino romano cheese, and salt. The dough is very easy to work with, and the gnocchi takes just a moment to cook. Serve with your favorite sauce.

Clean Eating For Beginners

This is the most popular recipe on this website – it has been shared on Pinterest over 230, 000 times! Chicken is stuffed with cream cheese, diced jalapeños, and Mexican cheese, wrapped in bacon, and then baked. The preparation time is less than 10 minutes!

A super flavorful chicken recipe that takes just 25 minutes of active preparation time. It is one of my favorite easy dinner recipes from childhood. Growing up, my whole family loved this meal, so we had it frequently. The best part of this recipe is that you can add different vegetables to make the recipe feel new if you are cooking it often. If you need a simple side dish, I love to serve this with rice pilaf since the sauce tastes so great over rice.

Amy’s balsamic glazed pork tenderloin can be made in less than 25 minutes, and it makes 8 servings. Using an instant pot to prepare this meal is a big time saver that results in fork tender meat.

Simple Baking Recipes For Beginners

New cooks can be intimidated by the idea of cooking a whole chicken, but roasting a chicken is one of those cooking skills that everyone should learn. This has become one of my go-to recipes; it requires minimal ingredients and yields a lot of food. The classic combination of roast chicken, gravy, andmashed potatoes is a comfort food meal that I crave.

This healthy soup can be made on the stovetop or in the instant pot. The recipe has tender shredded chicken, onion, carrot, celery, spinach, garlic, long grain rice, and herbs.

You can prepare this one pot meal loaded with healthy ingredients in just 20 minutes of prep. Inspired by one of my favorite take-out dishes, I wanted to turn it into a healthy meal that I could prepare in less time than it takes to get delivery. To prepare this sesame chicken, the chicken is cooked in sesame oil and then slathered in a quick homemade sauce made with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sriracha. You can add your favorite vegetables. I like to add shredded carrots, mushrooms, and snow peas, but you could opt to add broccoli, bell peppers, green onion, or bok choy.

Easy Air Fryer Recipes For Beginners

My Dad’s recipe for a classic pot roast only requires five ingredients and about 5 minutes of active preparation time! We ate this on repeat throughout my childhood because it is one of those simple meals made with very affordable ingredients. A chuck roast gets covered with mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, and dry onion soup mix and slow-roasted in a dutch oven. We always serve it over egg noodles. You can also opt to prepare this meal in a slow cooker.

If you want a quick and easy recipe that seems fancy, this is your best bet. Chicken breasts are quickled seared and then covered creamy mushroom and sherry sauce and put in the oven to finish cooking. The basic technique of searing meat to lock in the juices before letting it finish cooking in the oven at a lower temperature is something that home cooks should master. You can serve this chicken over pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes.

This spinach salad is topped with diced chicken breast, blue cheese, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, mushrooms, crispy prosciutto, and ahomemade blue cheese dressing. It’s fantastic. I use the meal prep chicken recipe listed below to cook the chicken in big batches since I like to meal prep our salads so that we can eat them for lunch throughout the week. If you want to save a little bit of time, you could use diced rotisserie chicken instead.

Easy Recipes For New Cooks

Inspired by the famous Brussel & Kale Salad, which Blue Door Farmstand sells for $17, I add gem lettuce since brussels sprouts and kale are so gaseous that they can give me a stomach ache. The salad is topped with crispy bacon, parmesan, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, and an easy homemade maple tahini dressing. This is a lunch that I get excited about.

This salad is an easy healthy recipe made with fresh asparagus, chicken, tomatoes, and mandarin oranges in a light yogurt dressing. It tastes like summer thanks to the fresh herbs in the dressing!. While I like to add chicken, you could add salmon instead.

People get intimidated by cooking steak, but it is really easy. I break

Quick & Easy Dinner Ideas