One Pot Spring Dishes to Get You Outdoors
It happens every spring. The warmer weather and longer days sing a siren song beckoning you to get outdoors instead of staying cooped up inside. You would love to answer that siren song, but dinner has to be cooked as soon as you get home from work. The best you can do is get out on the weekends. Or is it?
Actually, you can make the most of warmer weather during the spring by putting together one pot dishes for dinner. A one pot dish is easy to cook, convenient to serve and clean up, and still hearty enough to satisfy the entire family. Plus, they leave you plenty of time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather.
Below are six different recipes for you to experiment with. The first three come from the Pop Sugar website while the remaining three are from Epicurious.com. Feel free to look them up at your leisure.
Pasta with Fava Greens
This is a one pot meal because it’s pasta. Boil your water, cook your pasta, and quickly blanch the fava greens once the pasta is done (before you drain it). Put the pasta and greens on a plate and add a bit of olive oil and pepper to finish everything off. This will go great with a good piece of bread and your favorite wine.
Green Garlic Soup
Who says you can only eat soup during the winter months? Certainly not us, and a green garlic soup makes a great one pot meal that takes very little effort to prepare. All you need is some chicken stock, green garlic shoots, leeks, and a few spices. Cook it all in your pot and then pair it with a thinly sliced baguette for a great springtime meal.
Baked Lemon Parmesan Salmon
Fish lovers know how flavorful salmon can be when prepared with the right ingredients. Pop Sugar offers a great recipe that spices up salmon with Parmesan cheese, asparagus, butter, and some Italian seasonings. Best of all, it’s a snap to prepare. Just line a baking pan with foil, place your ingredients inside, and bake for 20 minutes.
Pork and Asparagus Frittata
This is technically a one pan meal, but close enough. It combines ground pork with onions, asparagus, heavy cream, and eggs for a tasty and filling dish perfect for spring dining. It also includes fennel seeds, by the way, which offer a first taste of spring that literally dances in your mouth. The best thing about frittata is that it is equally good whether served warm or cold.
Roast Chicken and Potatoes
Anybody who owns a crock pot has probably roasted chicken in it. And why not? The Epicurious recipe combines the roast chicken with fingerling potatoes and Kalamata olives. A little bit of lemon zest and some fennel seeds wake things up nicely.
Tilapia Piccata with Snap Peas
Last on our list is yet another recipe that actually doesn’t require a pot. You just need some aluminum foil and a grill. This is a great recipe for enjoying the outdoors even while you’re cooking. Just combine tilapia fillets with snap peas, capers, red potatoes and your favorite herbs and spices, wrap it all in foil and put it on the grill. It will cook while you play.
You don’t have to spend all your time in the kitchen creating meals that will please your family. Instead, try your hand at a couple of one pot meals that will get you out of the house and into the warm temperatures and sunshine. That’s what spring is all about.