Quick Spring Dinner Ideas
Whether you’re looking for a fresh and bright salad idea or you’re in the mood to grill, I’ve got you covered with these quick spring dinner ideas!
It’s spring! It’s time to turn away from the heavy and delicious comfort foods that got us through the winter like soups and hearty stews, toward something lighter, brighter, and altogether different. In this roundup, I have collected some recipes that are quick and easy and full of the fresh flavours of spring and summer. These spring dinner recipes are perfect for that warmer weather we all love!
Spring Salads
Salads are perfect for spring! Especially when you can make a fresh salad a full and complete meal using seasonal ingredients. Here are some fresh but hearty salads.
Cobb Pasta Salad
This Cobb Pasta Salad is a delicious twist to a classic salad! Made with lettuce, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, onions, grilled chicken (or add in pre-cooked roast chicken instead), avocado and crumbled cheese. Then tossed with cooked noodles and a tangy dijon mustard vinaigrette. A perfect spring dinner.
Greek Pasta Salad with Chicken
This Greek Pasta Salad with grilled chicken is a delicious and easy dinner idea! Made with marinated chicken, loads of vegetables, cooked noodles, feta cheese and Greek dressing, this salad is a perfect springy meal. Fresh and so delicious.
Grilled Turkey Salad with Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
This Blueberry Balsamic Grilled Turkey Salad is a delicious and easy spring or summer meal! Loaded with fresh summer blueberries and peaches, flavourful grilled turkey, and goat cheese, all drizzled with a blueberry balsamic vinaigrette, this vibrant salad is so good.
Sheet Pan Dinners
Sheet pan dinners are good for any season! These particular dinner ideas are perfect for spring with all the right flavours and veggie choices.
Sheet Pan Bruschetta Chicken
Nothing says spring like all the fresh and delicious classic flavours of tomato basil bruschetta! Combine them with baked chicken cooked to perfection and loads of mozzarella cheese and you’ve got a recipe for dinner success. This Sheet Pan Bruschetta Chicken is a quick and delicious meal that is ready in less than 1 hour.
Maple Salmon Sheet Pan
This easy and delicious Lemon and Maple Salmon Sheet Pan Dinner has so many elements of spring. Salmon and veggies baked in a delicious maple sauce with fresh lemon slices screams spring to me! The lemon flavour makes me think of sunshine and fresh air, and if you bake this salmon on a bed of spring veggies like broccolini or green beans, it is truly worthy of the season.
Hawaiian Chicken Sheet Pan
I love skewers but honestly, they’re a lot of work. That’s why I love sheet pan recipes like this Hawaiian Chicken so much, because it’s everything I love about skewers but without all the work. Put everything you would use for skewers onto a sheet pan, and let your oven do all the work. This Hawaiian Chicken Sheet Pan Supper is made with chunks of flavourful marinated chicken, roasted fresh vegetables like snap peas and peppers, as well as roasted pineapple. Fresh and delicious.
Pasta
Pasta is quick, light and fresh, perfect for spring when you are running out the door to new seasonal activities or just spending as much time outside as possible! These ideas have all the flavours and feels of a spring pasta dinner.
Grilled Chicken Caprese Pasta Salad
When I think spring dinners, I think easy, light and breezy. This Grilled Chicken Caprese Pasta Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing is perfectly on theme! It’s loaded with the fresh flavours of basil, balsamic vinegar, and the grilled chicken and cheese are so deliciously filling. And the lovely thing about this salad is that it’s great served a couple of hours after it’s been made, which makes it perfect for eating on the go on a busy night full of activities!
Lemon Garlic Turkey with Orzo
This simple and super flavourful recipe for Lemon Garlic Turkey is perfect for any special spring meal! Turkey fillets dredged in flour and pan fried in a little bit of olive oil and butter is the base of this turkey dish. Then I simmered the fillets in a lemon juice, garlic, butter and white wine sauce that is as delicious as it sounds! To complete this meal and make it extra spring-y, serve the turkey over a bed of cooked orzo pasta and some roasted spring vegetables, like asparagus and broccolini and a little sprinkling of fresh lemon zest!
Creamy Lemon Pasta
If you’re looking for something for dinner that everyone will love, is easy to whip up, and is SO flavourful, make this Creamy Lemon Pasta! Toss in some sweet peas with this pasta, they’re a perfect complement to this dish. This is a bright, delicious dish and perfectly springy. And bonus, it can be ready in less than 1 hour!
Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta
Fresh tomatoes are one of the classic flavours of spring, no matter how you serve them! This recipe for Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta is a simple and delicious dish that everyone will love, with the spring flavours of tomatoes, fresh basil, and lemon too. Toss in some shrimp, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese, and this dish looks fancy enough that you can serve it up for special occasions, but it’s great for easy weeknight dinners . Ready in less than 1 hour!
For the Grill
Part of the fun of spring is making the barbecue part of your regular dinner rotation again! While it is possible to grill outside in February at -30 degrees, it’s not as much fun and I always wait until spring to bust these recipes out again.
Grilled Pesto Chicken
This Grilled Pesto Chicken is a fresh, flavourful and easy spring meal! Pair this juicy grilled chicken breast with a plate full pesto pasta with fresh cherry tomatoes and bocconcini cheese and you’ve got a fresh and springy dinner. So good.
Macadamia Nut Maple Roasted Salmon
This Macadamia Nut Maple Roasted Salmon recipe is such a flavourful and delicious way to serve salmon. Made with 4 simple ingredients: salmon, macadamia nuts, sweet chili sauce and maple syrup. This is a PERFECT spring dinner…serve with crisp asparagus and a fresh spinach salad.
Veggie + Sausage Shish Kabobs
These Veggie and Sausage Shish Kabobs are easy and delicious. Load them up with fresh spring vegetables and your favourite hearty sausage, for a perfect spring or summer meal!
Honey Garlic Steak Marinade
I’ve got a great Honey Garlic and Ginger Steak Marinade recipe that will make your grilled steaks flavourful and tender. This delicious marinade is perfect for inexpensive or tough cuts of steak like a chuck steak, flat iron steak, or hangar steak. The result is tender meat with tasty honey, garlic and ginger flavours with an almost-teriyaki flair. Perfect for spring barbecuing!
The BEST Rib Recipe
These ribs are super easy and your oven does most of the work! Just apply my homemade 4-Ingredient Brown Sugar Spice Rub, then slow bake these ribs for a few hours. Result: THE most flavourful and tender ribs ever. Here’s where this recipe gets spring-y. After the ribs have finished baking, take them from the oven, slather them in your favourite barbecue sauce, then finish them off on the barbecue for a caramelized and slightly smoky flavour. Voila! Add a salad and baked potatoes and you’ve got yourself a meal.
Oven-Baked
We can’t get entirely away from the oven, even as it gets warmer outside! These dishes still have the spring-y qualities of being fast and simple, and they are perfect backyard picnic ideas too. Pop these meats in the oven and prepare the rest of your meal while they bake for low-stress meal prep.
Easy Meatball Subs
If you’re too busy planning your garden or running your kids around to their spring sports to spend a lot of time cooking tonight, I’ve got you covered! These oven baked Easy Meatball Subs are meaty, cheesy and SO flavourful. They make for a quick and simple meal that everyone will love. You just can’t go wrong with saucy meatballs in an ooey gooey cheesy bun!
Pulled Pork + Coleslaw Sandwiches
There is something very spring-y about coleslaw, don’t you think? It makes me think of picnics and barbecues and other fun spring things. I’m combining it with my favourite Oven Roasted Pulled Pork, baked to tender perfection with just the right spices and seasonings. Serve this pork with buns, my previously mentioned family-favourite coleslaw recipe, pickles and potato salad, and you’ve got yourself a beautiful spring meal for a crowd.
Stuffed Turkey Cutlets
This Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Stuffed Turkey Cutlet Recipe is a simple and delicious dinner. Perfect for spring dinners, Mother’s Day or Easter! It looks fancy, but it’s really easy to make and can be ready in 1 hour. Made with turkey cutlets (or chicken), Swiss cheese and fresh asparagus.
There you have it, so many fresh and spring-y recipes to choose from! How do you like to cook during this season? Tag me @aprettylife with your culinary fresh spring dinner ideas, I would love to see them!
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Have a delicious day!
