If you fall in the camp of people who would cook more if you weren’t so busy, we feel you. It’s hard to carve out time for a trip to the grocery store, let alone spending time in your own kitchen prepping dinner when weeknights are already so busy. But with the right recipes, cooking dinner might just be the quickest task on your to-do list. To prove it, food and lifestyle expert Alejandra Ramos stopped by TODAY to share her tips and tricks for a delicious dish in — get this — 15 minutes flat.
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Ramos’ homemade falafel are so easy to whip up that the recipe even has “quick” in the name. The key is to embrace shortcuts that will save you time without sacrificing flavor, such as using canned chickpeas instead of dried ones. The method may not be traditional, but the flavor is strikingly similar — especially with tahini or tzatziki drizzled on top. Classic chicken dinners don’t need to take long either with Ramos’ mojo-style marinade. Just use thin-cut chicken breasts that’ll absorb the citrusy sauce while you assemble the avocado side salad. A simple three-minute sear on each side of the chicken and dinner is served.
To finish out the week, we have a pesto vinaigrette pasta and Waldorf tuna salad — both of which can be prepped ahead of time and stored in the fridge for when hunger strikes. For dessert, we recommend enjoying our three-ingredient peanut butter cookies fresh out of the oven while they’re still warm. But regardless of when you start making each recipe, they’ll all be ready to eat a quarter past the hour.
Alejandra Ramos' 15-minute meals
This isn't exactly a traditional falafel recipe, but it’s a wonderful vegetarian dish that works for a variety of meals. Pair falafel with tahini sauce or a store-bought yogurt dressing like tzatziki for a filling snack or party appetizer. Serve over greens or quinoa to make a healthy entrée, or tuck them into a warm pita with your favorite sandwich toppings for a quick lunch on the go.
This Latin mojo-style marinade made with plenty of garlic and citrus adds tons of flavor to an otherwise simple weeknight chicken dinner. Instead of making a separate marinade, the ingredients are added right into a mixing bowl along with the chicken, which sit for a few minutes while you assemble an easy avocado salad.
More recipes to make this week
Round out the week with these easy recipes from Ali Rosen, Carrie Parente and Checka Ciammaichelli.
Pesto without pine nuts? It’s possible! This recipe calls for almonds or walnuts, but you can easily omit them to accommodate any nut allergies. The result is still a bright and zesty sauce that pairs perfectly with al dente pasta for a fresh spring dish.
Tuna salad season is back but with a twist. Swapping out mayonnaise for Greek yogurt lightens things up, while offering a creamy base that complements the crunchy celery, grapes and walnuts. Give it a try and you may never go back to the traditional condiment.
Less is more when it comes to these peanut butter cookies. Smooth peanut butter, sugar and an egg are all you need to prepare a batch that will disappear before your eyes. Luckily, it’s easy to keep the cookie jar stocked since these have a bake time of only eight minutes.
