What's for Dinner This Week: Grilled Eggplant Parm, Barbecued Chicken Salad, and Lots of Tomatoes!
Wondering what to make for dinner? Need some inspiration? Here's our list of suggestions: dinner recipes that take less than an hour of mostly hands-off time. Yes, there will be pasta (or noodles!) and, yes, it will be delicious. We'll be here every Friday with five weeknight dinners, including recipes, shopping lists, and everything you need to streamline your week ahead.
We're really, and we mean really, celebrating summer produce this week. It's peak just about everything right now: peak tomatoes, plenty of corn, too many zucchini perhaps, and eggplants galore. So we're featuring weeknight dinner recipes that let this fresh produce shine. Eggplant, zucchini, and corn each have a night when they take centerstage, and tomatoes are there as a supporting player in every recipe, but take on a bigger role come Friday night.
Related: 4 Ways to Transform a Rotisserie Chicken Into a No-Cook Summer Dinner
What to Buy
The produce and fresh ingredients you need to buy for your meals this week:
What to Make
Grilled-Eggplant Parmesan
Here's a filling Meatless Monday meal of eggplant parm, without the breading and with the grill. It's much faster to make too, just 35 minutes! Give it a try, we're sure you'll love it just as much as the classic.
Barbecued Chicken Salad
A smoky, satisfying salad with flame-kissed chicken cutlets and corn, plus lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and tortilla chips. What takes this dinner over the top is the marinade; made with lime, smoked paprika, and honey, it does double duty as a most delicious salad dressing.
Zucchini Carbonara
Carbonara is a delicious indulgence, but this zucchini-packed version makes it a little healthier. There's still the rich, cheesy sauce, but we add in two parts zucchini to one part pasta. Our recipe serves two, so you'll need to double it tonight—you know everyone will want a full portion of this comforting dinner.
Tuna, Tomato, and White-Bean Salad
It's salad for dinner—again! But a totally different salad, no lettuce here. (No grilled chicken, either.) This fast and delicious entree comes together in just 20 minutes. The only cooking tonight is all in one pot, for the potatoes and green beans. Open a can of white beans and two of tuna, and don't skip the important step of grating a tomato to add to the garlicky vinaigrette.
Corn Soup with Tomato-Bacon Toasts
Ready for a summery spin on the classic grilled cheese-and-soup combo? Ripe tomatoes and crisp bacon amp this open-face sandwich, and fresh sweet corn shines in the cold soup. This is the dinner that takes most prep this week but don't be put off; the prep is all easy and we included the time the soup needs to chill.
