Easy Dinners
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Filipino dinners for two, written so they are hard to get wrong. Tap a dish for the method. Filter by cuisine, meat, or what you cook it in.
Rules that make every dish work
- Hob dial (1-6): 1 = keep warm / lowest simmer · 2 = gentle simmer (a few lazy bubbles) · 3-4 = medium, everyday frying and steady simmer · 4-5 = medium-high, browning meat · 6 = boiling water and first searing. Every step below gives the dial number. Start a shade lower if your rings run hot.
- Oven: 180°C fan is the default for roasting and finishing, 200-220°C for crisping skin or chips. Only go to 250°C when a recipe says so, it is rarely needed.
- Tap any time in a step (like "8 min") to start a timer; it rings and buzzes when done, and several can run at once. ▶ Start cooking opens one recipe full screen with tick-off steps. ★ and ✓ save favourites and a cooked count on this phone only.
- Slow cooker (Swan 3.5 l): HIGH, LOW or AUTO. AUTO starts on high for about an hour then drops to low, handy if you are leaving the house. Don't lift the lid, each peek adds 20 min. Salt at the end.
- Air fryer: one layer, don't crowd, preheat 3 min, flip halfway.
- Chicken 75°C, pork 70°C, salmon and fish 63°C, mince 71°C.
- Pasta: salt the water well, save a mug of pasta water before draining, and finish the pasta in the sauce. Carbonara and cacio e pepe: pan off the heat before the cheese and egg go in.
- Written for 2 people. Slow-cooker dishes make 2 dinners plus lunch or freezer portions. Double the air-fryer dishes for guests, cooking in two batches.
- Whole chicken legs (thigh and drumstick attached) take longer than thighs alone: allow 30-35 min pan-roasted, 5-6 h slow cooker, or 25-30 min pot-braised.
Using your chicken bones for stock
- Put the bones in your big pot with any onion ends, carrot peel and a bay leaf.
- Cover with water. Bring to a bare simmer, small bubbles not a rolling boil, on the lowest ring that holds it.
- Simmer uncovered 2-3 hours, topping up water if it drops below the bones.
- Strain, cool, and use within 3 days or freeze in portions (an ice cube tray works for small amounts).
- Cheap energy tip: simmer it while another ring is already on for something else, or do it overnight on the slow cooker\u2019s low setting (8+ hours) instead of the hob.
Cheap-energy cooking notes
- One covered pan or pot on the smallest ring that fits it uses far less energy than an oven for the same result.
- Slow cooker on low draws less power over several hours than most other methods, and is often cheaper if you are out all day.
- One pot for rice and protein together (as in the pot-braised chicken legs) uses one ring instead of running the hob and microwave separately.
- Your usual microwave rice works fine as a side for any dish here: 12 min at 60%, pierce the lid, remove it, then 6 min at 100%.
UK shopping and easy swaps
- Smoked paprika: Schwartz or own-brand spice aisle. Plain paprika works too.
- Cooking chorizo: chorizo ring or "cooking chorizo" in the deli or meat aisle. Swap: any smoked sausage or bacon.
- Roasted red peppers: jar or tin in the world foods aisle. Swap: 2 fresh peppers, sliced.
- Piri-piri sauce: Nando's bottle, or mix chilli flakes, garlic, lemon and oil.
- Chopped tomatoes: standard tin, works everywhere here.
- Stock: chicken stock cubes or pots.
- Vinegar: red wine vinegar. Omit if you have none, use lemon juice.
- Lentils: dried green or brown, or 2 tins ready-cooked (add for the last hour only).
- Beans and chickpeas: tinned is fine everywhere, no soaking.
- Pork shoulder: shoulder joint or diced pork shoulder. Swap: pork leg.
- Lamb shoulder: shoulder joint, or diced lamb.
- Kale: or spring greens or savoy cabbage.
- White wine: omit, use stock plus a squeeze of lemon.
- Guanciale: deli aisle in bigger supermarkets. Swap: pancetta or smoked streaky bacon.
- Pecorino: swap parmesan or Grana Padano. Grate it yourself, pre-grated does not melt well.
- Risotto rice: arborio or carnaroli. Swap: pudding rice at a push.