Cooking for you and your soul mate may not be an easy task but if you choose right recipes then you will save a lot time in the kitchen and satisfy not just one but two empty stomachs.
Let me show you my list of
20 Healthy And Easy Dinner Recipes For Two
All recipes have few things in common. They are all:
- Healthy – minimum of processed foods
- Simple – just few steps to cook a meal
- Diet friendly – almost all recipes are low carb, full of proteins and healthy fats
- Delicious – I can’t guarantee you that but we (me & my girlfriend) love these recipes
- Scalable – it really doesn’t matter if you are cooking for two, for family or just for yourself, use as many ingredients as you need to make delicious meal for everybody
1) Baked Chicken With Carrots & Onions
One of the easiest recipes on the list all you need to do is put chicken and veggies on baking tray and let it cook for about an hour. After one hour you will get delicious and moist chicken. Oh and don’t forget about veggies, baked veggies are so delicious!
Ingredients
- Chicken thighs
- Carrots
- Red onions
- Olive oil
- Butter or ghee
- Seasoning: sweet paprika, parsley, salt, pepper
Instructions
- About 20 minutes before cooking mix chicken thighs with seasoning and touch of olive oil
- Remove skin from red onions
- Cut away edges of carrots and wash carrots
- Spread everything on the baking tray
- Bake for 60 minutes at 350°F/180°C
- Add little bit of butter on top of chicken thighs and let it melt
- Now just cut onions in halves and remove root
- Serve everything together and enjoy 🙂
2) Everyday Vegetable Soup
This delicious vegetable soup will surely warm hearth of your loved ones! When making vegetable soup make sure you divide vegetables into two categories so you cook hard veggies longer and don’t overcook other veggies.
3 Secrets of great vegetable soup
- You don’t need to use stock or broth
- Use fresh vegetables
- Divide veggies into 2 categories
- Hard and root vegetables that needs more time to cook or release flavor
- All other vegetables, I call them “soft” vegetables, they are easy to overcook and needs just 5-10 minutes of cooking
Ingredients
- Butter or ghee
- Water
- Salt
- Pepper
a) Hard veggies needs longer to cook - Celery root
- Carrots
- Parsnip
- Onion
- Garlic
- Mushrooms
b) Soft veggies can be overcooked easily - Cauliflower
- Tomatoes
- Leek
Instructions
- Dice all the veggies
- Fry slowly a) vegetables in hot butter for 3-5 minutes
- Add twice as much water (compared to size of a) veggies)
- Bring to boil and cook slowly for 15 minutes with lid on
- Add b) vegetables and bring to boil again
- Cook with lid on for another 10 minutes
- Enjoy delicious vegetable soup 🙂
3) Perfect Chicken Breast With Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Very fit version of chicken breast with sweet potatoes that can be easily scaled up for more portions. I am using failproof technique for the chicken that makes chicken perfect everytime. For more info about technique check video or article here.
Ingredients
- Chicken breast
- Sesame seeds
- Sweet potatoes
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Garlic
Instructions
- Peel of the skin from sweet potatoes and dice them
- Bake sweet potatoes at 200°C/390°F for 30 minutes
- Pound/flatten chicken breast
- Sear chicken quickly from both sides and sprinkle with sesame seeds
- Cook on low with lid on for 8-12 minutes (depends on thickness)
- After 8-12 minutes remove it from stove and keep it in the pan covered for another 10 minutes (don’t peak under lid!)
- Mix sweet potatoes with salt and garlic
- Enjoy delicious tender chicken breast with sweet potatoes 🙂
4) Broccoli Soup With Goat Cheese
What could be better recipe for two than simple broccoli soup all you really need is broccoli and water and if you add some cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and maybe some walnuts you will get very delicious soup for two.
Ingredients
- Broccoli (I have used 250g)
- Water
- Goat cheese
- Salt
- Pepper
- Optional: olive oil
Instructions
- Cut broccoli into smaller pieces
- Add some salt into boiling water
- Put broccoli into boiling water
- Boil broccoli for 4-5 minutes
- Move broccoli into mixer/heat proof jar
- Cover about ½-3/4 of broccoli with water it was cooked in
- Blend it until smooth
- Taste and add salt&pepper if necessary
- Place goat cheese to the plate
- Pour broccoli soup into plate and enjoy
5) Tuna Steak With Green Beans
Tuna steak is not the cheapest fish cut if you have to cook for two but no one said you need to buy the most expensive sushi grade tuna you find in the shop. I was able to make delicious meal from frozen tuna steaks that cost about the same as beef steaks.
Ingredients
- Tuna steak
- Coconut oil
- Bacon
- Garlic clove
- Green beans
- Lemon juice
- Salt, pepper
Instructions
- Cut bacon into small cubes and sear it on pan (don’t add oil) for about 2-3 minutes
- Add diced garlic and sear it together with bacon for 1 more minute
- Add green beans and let it cook for ~5 more minutes with lid on until green beans are soft
- Sprinkle tuna with salt and pepper
- On other pan heat up teaspoon of coconut oil
- Fry tuna on medium-high for about ~3-6 minutes, flip tuna every ~30 seconds
- Let tuna rest for same time you cooked it
- Enjoy your delicious tuna steak with green beans 🙂
6) Lettuce Leaf Beef Tacos With Tomato Salsa
How to make tacos suitable for your diet easily? Replace taco shells with lettuce leaves and have control over all ingredients so you don’t eat any hidden sugar and unhealthy fats.
Ingredients
- Beef (rump steak)
- Red onion
- Tomato
- Jalapeño
- Lettuce
- Lemon
- Coconut oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- First lets prepare salsa and very finely cut tomatoes, red onion and jalapeño pepper
- Mix it together and sprinkle with salt and pepper
- Cover salsa and let it rest in the fridge
- Cut beef into thin stripes
- Fry beef quickly on coconut oil, just about 3-5 minutes, don’t overcook it so it won’t get tough and season it with salt and pepper
- Prepare lettuce leaves, try to choose ones that are can hold the shape
- Now just fill lettuce leaves with beef, top it with prepared salsa and drizzle with lemon juice
- Enjoy your healthy tacos 🙂
7) Portobello Burger
You can easily make healthy burger when you replace bun with portobello mushroom and also don’t forget to remove unhealthy ingredients and replace them with their healthier variations. In video and in recipe you can also see my version where I used egg omelette instead of beef. Feel free to discover new variations and don’t forget to use high quality ingredients.
Ingredients
- Portobello mushrooms
- Bacon
- 2 eggs
- Tomato
- Arugula
- Little bit of olive oil and butter
Instructions
- Make omelette from 2 eggs
- Remove stems from portobellos
- Fry portobellos on hot olive oil slowly – head up
- Remove omelette when done
- On same pan slowly fry bacon and tomato cut in circles
- Cut omelette in half
- Now lets assamble everything
- Portobello – omelette – bacon – tomato – arugula – portobello
- Enjoy healthy burger 🙂
8) Zucchini Pasta Aglio e Olio
Pasta is great food for couples. You can easily make more and it tastes delicious but there is one problem with pasta it’s very high in carbs and sauces are often full of fats. As you may know eating too much fats and carbohydrates together isn’t very great idea but by removing carbs (pasta) and replacing it with zucchini greatly reduces carbohydrates in this meal. You can enjoy sauce from healthy fats (olive oil) while still having healthy meal.
Ingredients
- Zucchini
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Heat olive oil
- Crush garlic into hot oil
- Fry it very slowly
- Peel zucchini with peeler
- Continue until you hit center of zucchini
- Make sure you don’t burn garlic
- Add salt
- Heat oil again and add peeled zucchini
- Keep stir frying for about 2-3 minutes
- Enjoy delicious low carb pasta 🙂
9) Simple Pumpkin Soup
This simple pumpkin soup can certainly warm up you and your loved ones when it’s cold outside. Pumpkin soup is very rich and creamy. To enrich your pumpkin soup you can add ginger, coconut cream, cayenne pepper or sprinkle it with some delicious cheese.
Ingredients
- Pumpkin
- Water
- Ginger
- Coconut Milk
Instructions
- Clean up your pumpkin (remove skin and cut off stem)
- Cut in half
- Remove seeds
- Dice pumpkin
- Put pumpkin in pot and cover it with cold water
- Add little bit of finely diced ginger
- Cook for ~10 minutes
- Separate pumpkin and water
- Add about 3/4 of water back to pumpkin
- And mix it all together
- Top it with 1-2 tablespoons of coconut milk and enjoy 🙂
10) Broccoli Tuna Patties
If you are looking for very fit recipe for two you should try these broccoli tuna patties. They can be done easily in few minutes, they are very low on carbs and taste delicious. These patties are lower in calories and are full of proteins.
Ingredients
- Half of broccoli (250g / 9 oz)
- 1 egg
- 1 can of tuna (130g / 4-5 oz)
- Butter or ghee
Instructions
- You can mix broccoli in food processor or you can chop it very finely with a knife
- Pour away juices from canned tuna
- Mix broccoli, tuna and egg in one bowl
- Heat up little bit of ghee
- Put patties into pan and slowly let it cook through (you can put lid on)
- Flip patties over after about 3-4 minutes when they hold together
- Now just quickly cook them from other side and enjoy 🙂
11) Chicken Stir Fry With Red Bell Peppers And Onions
I love stir fries, I cook them for me and my girlfriend almost everyday. They are done quickly and we always use a lot veggies so we don’t need to add any extra carbs into this meal. Chicken breast stir fries are great because they are high in protein and lower in fat and if you leave out starches you will get very fit meal.
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts
- Onion
- Red bell pepper
- Olive oil
- Salt, pepper
- Soy sauce (for healthier version use miso or tamari sauce)
- Sriracha
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Cut red bell pepper and onion into strips
- Cut chicken breast into smaller pieces
- Fry onion on low-medium heat in tablespoon of olive oil until it’s golden brown (at least ~5 minutes)
- Move onion into bowl and again reheat little bit of olive oil and fry quickly (1-2 minutes on high) sliced red bell pepper
- Move red bell pepper into bowl, reheat little bit of olive oil and fry meat quickly on high heat for about 2 minutes
- Add veggies back into pan
- Add all the seasoning (salt, pepper, soy sauce and sriracha)
- Let it cook for a while (~3-5 minutes) until chicken is done and enjoy 🙂
12) Osso Buco
Osso buco is one of the easiest meals to prepare and doesn’t require any cooking skills. I’ve got this recipe from book 4 Hour Chef if you didn’t read it yet I really recommend you to do so as you will learn a lot about cooking. You will never cook just 1 portion of Osso buco which makes it great recipe for two or more. Authentic Osso buco is from cross-cut veal shanks braised with veggies, white wine and broth but if you don’t have access to veal just feel free to use beef shanks and to make recipe more healthy I would leave out broth but feel free to use your own home made beef or vegetable broth if you have one.
Ingredients
- Veal/beef shanks
- Carrots
- Canned tomatoes
- Dry white wine and/or broth and/or water
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Rosemary
Instructions
- Season meat with salt, pepper and rosemary
- At bottom of baking tray make layer from peeled carrots
- Place meat on carrots and add canned tomatoes (dice them)
- Now just cover almost all meat with wine, broth and/or water (I prefer wine and home made broth combination)
- Cover baking tray with aluminium foil
- Bake at 350°F/180°C for 2 hours
- Enjoy delicious tender meat with wonderful tomato sauce 🙂
13) Perfect Skirt Steak in the Oven
Not overcooking beef steak as beginner may not be an easy task especially if you are cooking steak for two. Cooking steak in the oven will allow you to nail your steak every time and you won’t be nervous that you will fail and overcook it. I recommend you to try it on your own before you will cook it for others so you won’t be surprised if something goes wrong. Next time just replicate your cooking process if everything was cooked perfectly. Oh and you can serve beef steak with grilled veggies or with simple salad from lettuce, tomato and red bell pepper.
Ingredients
- Delicious steak
- 1 clove of garlic
- Little bit of olive oil
- Little bit of butter
Instructions
- Add little bit of olive oil to both sides of meat
- Preheat pan to smoking hot before searing
- Sear for 40 secs from each side
- Bake for 2 minutes at 200°C/390°F
- After 2 minutes rotate and cook again for 2 minutes (Be careful, pan handle is very hot!)
- Let meat rest for 5 minutes
- Brush meat with garlic clove
- Add little bit of salt and butter
- After 5 minutes cut the meat and enjoy delicious steak 🙂
14) Cheap & Quick Canned Tuna With Tomato Sauce
Sometimes I need to make quick meal for two so I take can of tuna, can of tomatoes, add garlic, some seasoning and in 5 minutes I have delicious fit meal for two. Sometimes we eat it for lunch if we don’t have much time for cooking but if I have some spare minute I will make vegetable pasta that keeps meal fit and goes very well together with this tomato and tuna sauce.
Ingredients
- Canned tomatoes
- Canned tuna
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Crush garlic into hot olive oil
- Fry slowly for about 30 secs
- Add canned tuna, canned tomatoes and oregano
- Cook on high until almost all juices are reduced (stir occasionally)
- Serve over regular or vegetable pasta
15) Root Vegetables Chicken Liver Stir Fry
Here is one of the cheapest meat recipes I have ever made, it costs just about $1 per portion so if you are cooking on budget for two you can easily make meal for two with under $2-$3. Why is meal so cheap? I have used chicken liver instead of meat and only root veggies which are usually the cheapest veggies in the grocery store. If you never had chicken liver you should definitely try it. It’s delicious and full of vitamins.
Ingredients
- Chicken livers
- Celery root
- Carrot
- Parsnip
- Mushrooms
- Cashews
- Salt
- Rosemary
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Dice celery root, carrot and parsnip
- Cut mushrooms in half
- Stir-fry everything on olive oil for about 3 minutes
- Add salt & dried rosemary
- Move veggies into bowl
- Quickly pan roast some cashews
- When cashews catch some color move them into bowl
- Heat up some more olive oil and add chicken livers
- Keep stirring and add salt, dried rosemary and dried red chili flakes
- After 4-5 minutes mix it all together
- Put lid on and cook for about 7-10 minutes
- You are done, enjoy delicious chicken livers 🙂
16) Asian Steak Tartare
Steak tartare is not for everybody but if you and your partner loves meat you should definitely try this raw meat steak. If you have never ate steak tartare before don’t be afraid its not just raw steak on the plate. To prepare steak tartare you have to cut beef very finely and add some seasoning. I love my steak tartare with soy sauce and wasabi paste but you can try more traditional version with finely diced onion, mustard, egg yolk, salt and pepper.
Ingredients
- Low fat raw beef steak quality
- Soy Sauce
- Wasabi Paste
Instructions
- Remove all fat from lean beef
- Cut into thin slices
- Rotate and cut again to small pieces
- Spread out and cut again few more times
- Again and again until meat is cut very finely
- Add wasabi paste and soy sauce
- Mix well and enjoy 🙂
17) Duck Breast With Green Beans
Perfectly cooked duck breast is certainly great choice for romantic dinner. Try to avoid any starches and higher carb veggies in combination with duck breast if you want to keep meal fit. Duck is great protein but is also high in fat so combining it with carbs is not great idea.
Ingredients
- Duck breast
- Green beans
- Butter
- Salt
Instructions
- Salt duck breast from both sides
- Put breast skin side down on cold pan without oil
- Sear on high until skin gets golden brown
- Sear quickly fro other side and turn it back skin side down
- Bake at 200°C/390°F for 6-8 minute skin side down
- In meanwhile cook or steam green beans with touch of butter
- Remove green beans from heat when duck breast is done
- Let duck breast rest for atleast 5 minutes before cutting
- After 5 minutes cut the breast
- Serve crispy duck breast over green beans, enjoy 🙂
18) Avocado And Tuna Salad
If you and you partner are on low carb diet this salad is great choice for both of you. It is full of healthy fats and it may be salad but it will satisfy your hunger for sure. Making this recipe for two is very easy just get bigger bowl and more ingredients.
Ingredients
- Can of tuna
- Tomatoes
- Avocado
- Arugula
- Olive oil
- Dijon mustard
- Lemon juice
Instructions
- Put arugula into bowl
- Dice tomatoes and avocado, mix it with arugula
- In different smaller bowl prepare dressing, mix together about the same amount of olive oil, dijon mustard and lemon juice
- Mix salad with dressing
- Place canned tuna (without juice) on top of salad
19) Beef Cauliflower Stir Fry
Let me show you one of my favorite cauliflower stir fries that can be easily made for two. In this recipe you are going to use about 1:1 beef:cauliflower ratio and add my favorite combination of soy sauce and sriracha which makes this meal very delicious. At the end just sprinkle it with roughly chopped scallions and drizzle with lemon juice which helps to elevate more flavors.
Ingredients
- Beef (rump steak)
- Cauliflower
- Scallions
- Lemon juice
- Soy sauce
- Sriracha
- Coconut oil
Instructions
- Cut beef and cauliflower into smaller pieces
- Sear beef quickly (2-3 minutes) in hot coconut oil and move it to the bowl
- Again reheat little bit of coconut oil and fry cauliflower slowly for 5-10 minutes until it gets soft
- When cauliflower is soft add beef back into pan and mix in soy sauce and sriracha
- Cook it on medium with lid on for about 3 minutes until beef is done (but not overcooked)
- At the end move stir fry into bowl, top it with chopped scallions and sprinkle with lemon juice
20) Spicy Coconut Milk Chicken Livers
And last recipe for two is my very favorite creamy chicken liver. I loved this meal when I was kid and I decided to make its paleo/low carb version. My mum always made these creamy and delicious chicken livers but in her recipe you need to use flour and heavy cream I have changed it and used coconut milk and little more onions so I don’t need to use flour to have rich sauce. We always ate it with rice but if you are on low carb diet like me try to serve it over cauliflower rice.
Ingredients
- Chicken livers
- Onions
- Few garlic cloves
- Coconut milk or cream
- Lemon juice
- Almonds
- Sriracha
- Salt
- Pepper
- Coconut oil
Instructions
- Cut liver into smaller pieces
- Cut onion into wedges
- Heat up coconut oil and on medium fry sliced onions with crushed garlic for about 5-10 minutes until it is golden brown
- Move onion on side, increase heat to high and add chicken livers, season it with salt, pepper and sriracha and fry it for 5 more minutes
- Pour in coconut milk, try to almost cover everything in pan with coconut milk
- Put lid on and cook slowly for 10 more minutes
- Serve just as is or with cauliflower rice