20 Make-Ahead Meals to Simplify Dinnertime

Imagine a classic Asian-style rice bowl, but with a risotto-like blend of millet and amaranth as the base. At Vital Root in Denver, chef-owner Justin Cucci tops the grains with loads of vegetables and tofu, then drizzles on a silky tahini sauce.

It’s all about the variety of toppings with a Banh Mi Bowl. Top your noodles with protein of your choice.

This quick-cooking dish brings together the wildly popular seasoning on an “everything bagel”—plus the classic bagel toppings of smoked salmon, cream cheese, red onion, and capers—with Asian fried rice, to delicious effect.

This salad from Alice Waters’ restaurant Lulu highlights farmers’ market broccolini with a boost of flavor from fresh herbs and carrots that are mixed into quickly cooked lentils. 

This curry gets its lively pucker from tamarind paste. Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner of Vij’s in Vancouver, created it to go with her Winter Greens Curry, but it’s excellent on its own, too.

This pesto pasta will taste even better as its flavors meld together in the fridge.

For this intensely mushroomy lasagna, brawny portabellas and shiitakes cook down until their flavors are concentrated. Then they’re layered with a creamy, velvety sauce and sheets of no-boil pasta, which are thinner than regular dried pasta.

Welcome to our easy version of this Sichuan street-food classic, with ground chicken instead of pork, and fresh vegetables rather than preserved Chinese ones. A dan-dan is the pole, balanced on the shoulder, that vendors use to tote containers of noodles and sauce.

Thai Chicken and Noodle Curry is your go-to recipe when you need a chicken and noodle fix—with a kick. The secret ingredient is the curry paste, originally from Malaysia and now popular all over northern Thailand. It keeps in the fridge for months, and once you have it, you can whip up this recipe any time.

Reader Christine Datian, of Las Vegas, likes to use lots of spices in this soup recipe. Our version is medium-hot, but if you like it a little spicier, use the higher amount of serrano chile and a pinch more cayenne.

Not only is this chili easy to make ahead, it actually improves with time.

Lime juice and cilantro give Betsy Dasenko’s turkey meatballs bright flavor. Try them with a Vietnamese herb salad.

“Fab, fuss-free dinners are my holy grail,” says Michelle Tam about sheet pan meals. This one is adapted from her and husband Henry Fong’s Nom Nom Paleo cookbook, Ready or Not! “Sheet pan suppers allow me to maximize the amount of veggies for dinner,” she says. “And cleanup is a breeze.”

The paprika delivers the smoky flavor, so you don’t miss the char. Having a big salad in your fridge makes eating easy.

You’ll love the classic Italian flavors of this grilled chicken, and the caprese salsa with sweet, tart grape and cherry tomatoes is the perfect accompaniment to the charred flavor from the grill.

Inspired by the flavors of Chinese orange peel beef, this gutsy one-dish meal is made with fresh tangerine peel instead of the traditional dried.

This technique cooks salmon perfectly every time. The sauce is flavorful and rich, but not heavy—just right for a weeknight.

The deep flavor in this long-braised lamb dish belies the minimal labor it takes to make it. You don’t even need to brown the lamb.

Pork shoulder has the double advantage of pairing well with both white and red wines, and being one of the cheaper cuts at the meat counter. Long-braised and roasted, it also delivers a huge amount of flavor.

This classic braise, adapted from Stone Edge Farm Cookbook by chef John McReynolds of Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery in Sonoma, California, tastes even more flavorful made a day ahead, and chilling makes it easier to discard the fat.