20 Delicious 20-Minute Dinner Ideas

Life has speeded up immensely that you find no time in the kitchen to slog and cook something so delicate and grand. It has become very evident that you need recipes that are done in just 20 or 25 minutes. Today, I am going to share these 20-minute dinner ideas with you. 

Some of the delicious 20-minute dinner ideas are crispy shrimp salad, creamy chicken skillet, egg drop soup, inside-out pork dumplings, spaghetti and spinach, garlicky shrimp and broccoli, easy beef stir fry, burrito bowls, salmon skillet, cheater’s mac and cheese, and basic omelet recipe.

You can make multiple dishes within the span of 20 minutes and make them look like they have the best flavor.

All the ingredients that can be involved in cooking faster food items are simple and easily cooked. While we are keen on finishing the dish sooner, it is also important that we maintain the best texture of the dish intact. We must remember that the cooked items would be enjoyable if they have a good texture and flavor.

I can think of many items that can be done in 20 minutes, more or less, and the list is given in line. All you have to do is just read through the recipes and try them at your convenience. From soups to pasta and microwaveable rice, many fast recipes can be accommodated in this list.

20-Minute Dinner Ideas

Below is the list of the best 20-minute dinner ideas that you will find exciting and enticing. They are all easy to be prepared and does render themselves tasty and healthy as well. you can innovate them and mold them according to your preference.

1. Crispy Shrimp Salad With Avocado Dressing

Avocado dressing is a blessing both flavor-wise and health-wise. It is also suitable for salads, noodles, and something like pasta. This crispy shrimp salad with avocado dressing is a fitting dinner meal that is light enough and yet, at the same time, nutritious for a busy night. 

This dish is fast and also rich in texture, as it is both juicy and crispy simultaneously. Firstly the shrimp is dabbed with salt and pepper only to be dredged in beaten eggs. Then it is tossed in panto breadcrumbs to be fried in the oil. 

It is set aside hot while the salad dressing is prepared. Cilantro, lime juice, yogurt, and scraped avocado flesh are mixed and whisked well together. The platter is arranged with avocado slices, cucumber, radishes, wilted greens, and fried shrimp. The dressing is just poured over the salad as a whole to be eaten in delight. It takes about 15 minutes to complete this meal, which is extremely fulfilling and tasty. 

Get The Recipe From – Southern Living

2. Creamy Chicken Skillet With Italian Seasoning

Chicken cutlets are the best standalone item that you could enjoy on a weeknight. Combining it with creamy sauce and veggies like cucumber, zucchini, and tomatoes while tossing Italian seasoning will make this dish a super hit. 

It is loved by kids and convenient for the mothers to prepare. I make it very often when I am in a time crunch, as this gets finished in a jiffy without any ado. Cooking this amazing dish entails cooking the chicken, dabbing in salt and pepper in a skillet until it browns. I like veggies and drop a lot of them in the pan only to get mixed with the chicken. 

I add onions, zucchini, bell peppers, and some wilted greens. Then the sauce is made by adding the wine, heavy cream, cheese, and lime juice. Give it a nice mix and pour it on the chicken to eat with delight. I love this crispy meal; the veggies add healthy layers to the meat.

Get The Recipe From – Recipe Runner

3. Egg Drop Soup With Instant Noodles

I love soups with noodles on them. Egg drop soup with instant noodles is delightful for the flavor of egg and noodles would be very delicious. Whisking a beaten egg into the broth would make the soup creamier and rich.

I personally add some spinach to make the soup healthy. It also adds some zinger and texture to the soup. The broth is just cooked and allowed to settle while beaten eggs along with spinach and seasoning agents are just added. They are poured into the boiling broth and given a consistency. The soup is served with cheese and sour cream if preferred. 

Finally, when the dish is ready, some parsley sprigs and spring onions are topped on the food item. It is a lovely dish and just has an excellent flavor that is captivating. It is chewy in texture and quite fulfilling for a busy night.

Get The Recipe From – Sauder’s Eggs

4. Inside-out pork dumplings

Dumplings are always thought to be a meticulous food item that takes some time to get steamed or boiled. However, inside-out pork dumplings are extraordinarily simple and have the perfect flavor to be captivating.

The oil is heated in the pan while the red pepper flakes, onions, and scallion whites are added and stirred. Then the pork is added to be given a stir. Add the bok choy and steam it for under 5 minutes.

The water is boiled, and the wantons are added to be steamed. Toss the wonton wrappers and top it with scallion greens. These dumplings are also quite healthy and tasty, with perfect texture and smoothness. These pork dumplings can also be combined with rice or noodles to fulfill your appetite.

Get The Recipe From – Punchfork

5. Grilled Cajun Shrimp Kebabs With Sausage

If you have skewers at home, then this meal is quite a quick fix for you on a busy weeknight. It takes less than 20 minutes to complete the whole meal and get it ready to serve alongside rice or baguettes.

The grill is preheated to 500 degrees F, and simultaneously, a large bowl is taken only to fill in with the shrimp, sausage, onions, bell pepper, tomatoes, olive oil, and cajun seasoning, with thyme and oregano.

The skewer is then threaded with the mix and grated through skewers for 2 minutes to be taken out hot and steaming. It has the flavor and the essence of the seasoning, and it pairs well with rice or noodles. I add more veggies to make it more attractive to spruce up the texture and nutritional profile.

Get The Recipe From – Southern Living

6. Spaghetti And Spinach With Sun-Dried Tomato And Cream Sauce

Spinach is healthy, and when it is molded into an extremely delicious dish, the more, the better. I do this quite often and find it very convenient. This gets over in 15 minutes and does not involve any meticulous process.

I add the sun-dried tomatoes only to amp up the flavor. The spinach is wilted and then mixed with the boiled spaghetti, only to get mixed with tomatoes and veggies of your choice. I would go for onions and also bell peppers to give some color to the dish. This item is extremely fulfilling and satisfying as a quick dinner meal.

Get The Recipe From – Julia’s Album

7. One-Pot Garlicky Shrimp And Broccoli

Shrimp and broccoli get cooked quickly as they don’t take in a lot of time. This dish is extremely simple as it involves lesser equipment and ingredients as well. All you need is one pot.

Garlic and veggies like broccoli and bell peppers are cooked together with seasoning agents. Shrimp is added to the mix and stirred well enough. It is served hot with rice.

I like adding wilted greens and more fancy veggies like cherry tomatoes and onions. All in all, this is a wonderful dish that just has an excellent nutritional profile along with a captivating flavor. this can also be served with hot noodles or even eaten as a dry item as a standalone meal.

Get The Recipe From – Homemade Hooplah

8. Easy Beef Stir Fry

This easy beef stir-fry can be cooked easily without any ado. All you need to do is to just stir-fry the beef and add it to the veggies of your choice. I add a lot of vegetables that suit the beef’s texture and try to give some extraordinary flavor to the stir fry. I combine and eat it with rice, but people can eat it how they deem fit. It is also perfect as a standalone meal that can be consumed separately.

Take a wok and stir fry the beef on both sides. Repeat the process in 3 or 4 batches and then set it aside. Now pick up all the vegetables and then mix them with the beef. Add some vinegar, honey, and some soy sauce with cilantro and garlic if preferred.

Mix all of them well in the pan and heat the rice. I pour it on top of the hot rice and eat it with delight. Your easy beef stir fry is ready.

Get The Recipe From – The Girl On Bloor

9. Salmon With Beetroot, Feta, And Lime Cheese

Feta cheese is unique in flavor and does have a thicker texture. Combining it with beetroot would be ideal for bringing some essence into the dish. Salmon with beetroot and salsa is an ideal dish that everybody at home would enjoy and gets done in under 15 minutes.

The salmon is just roasted with seasoning agents and flipped over on the stove on both sides. It is combined with a mix of beetroot and feta with a drop of lemon juice to spruce up the taste. It is served hot and qualified to be a standalone, exciting meal.

Salmon as such is a healthy meat and complements well with the texture of veggies like beetroot and feta cheese. A pinch of sprigs or wilted greens on the item would be an add-on and more flavorful by all means.

Get The Recipe From – Your Ultimate Menu

10. Burrito Bowls

Burrito bowls are considered extremely meticulous and are assumed to take a lot of time. However, if you plan on speeding up the process of burrito meals, the best way is to make this burrito bowl and deliver it within 20 minutes. The beans, water, chili powder, cumin, and a pinch of salt are stirred together in a hot pan.

The corn is then fried in a drop of oil with a tinge of lime juice. The brown rice is cooked while the avocados, beans, corn, lettuce, and cheese are readied for display. All of them are divided into 4 equal proportions and then eaten as a separate burrito bowl. This is an excellent dish and a convenient food item that gets done easily and is served without any ado.

I personally relish this item with cheese or sour cream only to increase the richness of the dish. This dish would be extremely fulfilling and quite a delight to be enjoyed on a special night as well as a weekday night. It can also be molded into different versions as per your choice of ingredients that you deem fit.

Get The Recipe From – Southern Living

11. Creamy Tomato Salmon Skillet

Salmon is easily cooked, and when you roast it brown, it is rusty and crispy. An exquisite combination of veggies, cream, and salmon is extremely fulfilling. The texture and flavor of the dish is extremely pleasing. The salmon is roasted for 3 to 4 minutes in a skillet with salt and pepper seasoning.

Salmon is browned exquisitely and then set aside on the plate. The onions and zucchini are heated with a glass of wine. Cream cheese, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder are added to the pan, thickening the gravy.

The sauce is then poured over the roasted salmon and sided with the salad. This meal can also be eaten alongside rice or noodles as it would be extremely flavorful.

Tomatoes and cream have an exquisite combination and it gets mixed well with salmon exceptionally. This dish particularly will be rich in texture and so smooth enough to be melted as you swallow it.

Get The Recipe From – Serving Dumplings

12. Cheater’s Mac And Cheese

Mac and cheese are done within 15 minutes. An original mac and cheese would take some time and is slightly meticulous. However, if you prepare the cheater’s mac and cheese, it just gets over within 20 minutes and is so convenient that it can be done on a daily basis.

I add broccoli and zucchini to the mac and cheese. Pasta is boiled, and when it softens up, just add the cheese and spread over the grated cheese over the pasta combining it with veggies. This creamy pasta is a delight and is equally loved by kids and adults. It is a lovely dish and quite fulfilling.

Mac and cheese is always a favorite item and this can be twisted and molded to be done within 20 minutes. i would add more vegetables to the dish as per my choice. if you want to go light on vegetables, then you can stick to the ones mentioned above.

Get The Recipe From – Martha Stewart

13. Basic Omelet Recipe

If you want to have something elegant and easy for a quick busy dinner, why not choose something so simple and obvious? A classic basic omelet could be so ideal for a quickie dinner that appeals to everybody. You can actually mold this dish with multiple vegetables of your preference.

I would be so thrilled to make this that I would just throw in all kinds of veggies like mushrooms, ham, herbs, and grated cheese with beaten eggs to make the omelet. It would be a perfect standalone meal, or even have it as an appetizer or a side dish for rice.

If you want to bring a cheesy spin to the omelet, then you can go ahead and add some cheese to it. you could actually add some cheese to the omelet and probably twist it as a French omelet that is tasty and fluffy on the whole.

Get The Recipe From – Simply Recipes

14. Shrimp Salad Bowls

Salads are very appetizing and very satisfying for a light meal. Especially when you have shrimp at home, the best way to consume it is to just whip up this salad and eat it in delight. I become too creative and add some more essence to the salad by pouring some seasoning agents of my choice.

I add chives, cilantro, lettuce leaves, hot dog buns, and fresh dill with some normal vegetables like onions and wilted greens. I also season the salad with Dijon mustard and mayonnaise with some drops of lime juice. Celery stalks are also interspersed in the salad. Shrimp is added and then mixed together to be enjoyed.

Salad bowls are always enticing and appetizing enough to be quiet fulfilling as a whole meal. Shrimp in the salad bowls will add to a nice texture and will go a chewy nature to the salad. it can also be had as a pre-meal snack if preferred.

Get The Recipe From – Southern Living

15. White Bean And Veggie Salad

As mentioned before, salads are very fulfilling. To my surprise, I made this salad and found that everybody at home just fell in love with it. The vegetables that go into the salad are of your choice. You can mold it to your liking and probably add something pleasing to your flavor.

I like cherry tomatoes and onions. I also add chopped cucumbers and salad greens with cilantro and celery stalks. I also add some kosher salt and pepper with red wine that sprues up the flavor. The final result is a very tasty and extremely textured salad.

White beans are packed with proteins and vitamins to be enriched with nutrition. I would personally add some more vegetables to the salad to make it healthy enough and flavorful with rich texture. The white beans actually gives a chewy texture to the item as well.

Get The Recipe From – Cook At Home

16. Easy Beef Tacos

Tacos are assumed to be a difficult meal which is also time-consuming. However, this one is an easy dish that takes about 20 minutes to finish. Beef tacos have an excellent texture that compliments the flavor and is quite ideal by all means.

The ground beef is seasoned with chili powder and cayenne, then wrapped into a crispy taco shell to be consumed delightfully. Onions and garlic are sauteed and then added into the mix or in the wrap only to attract our taste buds.

Beef is healthy and when mixed with vegetables and spices, it does give a shine to your plate. Onions and garlic along with beef would not only enrich the flavor but also bring a nice aroma to the food item.

Get The Recipe From – Salt & Lavender

17. Airfryer Sausages

Sausages are quite an appealing appetizer and go well with buns or rice as per your choice. I loved the texture of sausages, and especially when they are air-fried, they just rule the flavor and become the best. the crispiness is an extra feather in the cap and just entices your taste buds.

The sausages are shredded into pieces and then seasoned with agents only to be air-fried well enough to be sided with rice or buns. You can also combine it with seasoned salads or veggies of your choice, which will be so appealing.

Roasted and browned sausages are a treat to eat and treat your taste buds with. They combine well with wilted greens and are crispy as you take a bite. it can be enjoyed as a pre-meal snack and given a healthy spin with some greens of your choice.

Get The Recipe From – BBC Good Food

18. Chicken Noodle Bowl With Ginger-Peanut Sauce

Noodles are always considered to be the faster meals that one can relish. A chicken noodle bowl with peanut ginger sauce is a true winner that is very captivating by all means. The peanut ginger sauce is prepared in a jiffy and then combined with veggies of your choice to be mixed in noodles.

Peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, honey, chopped fresh ginger, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, and rice vinegar with kosher salt will whip up the sauce. This sauce is mixed with noodles, and the servings are divided into pieces of chicken and veggies alongside noodles. I add some cheese and mix some avocados to add perks to the dish. Believe me! It tastes yummy!

Peanut sauce in chicken noodles is an unconventional recipe to bring to the table. this one has the perfect flavor and mix for the same. it would how the east-Asians would like and peanut would add the zinger in the item as well.

Get The Recipe From – Southern Living

19. Vegan Coconut Chickpea Curry

I love chickpeas and coconut. Mixing them with appropriate ingredients and vegetables only to make it a healthy gravy would be so ideal. Combining it with rice is my way of having this amazing dish, but you could mold it however you want.

Chickpeas are boiled, cooked, and mixed with onions, bell pepper, zucchini, and coconut curry. Everything is mixed into a nice whip, and the broth is added to make it gravy. It is delicious with rice or noodles. This is a Vegan curry which also makes it nutritionally viable by all means.

Chickpeas in gravy is fun and a healthy treat as well. it adds some texture to the food you are eating and is filled with lots of proteins. it is a vegan curry and if preferred, you can cheese it up as per your choice.

Get The Recipe From – Real + Vibrant

20. Easy Chicken Posole

A good rotisserie chicken and broth would be enough to prepare the dish, and it is quite easy to whip it across. The ingredients will take care of the flavor, and the posole’s juiciness will also be exciting. It can be combined with rice or noodles.

The cooked chicken is stirred in the chicken broth and chile salsa. Sherry vinegar and freshly ground pepper are added to the posole. It is extremely delicious and quite appropriate for a lovely warm dinner. I would personally add some cheese to make it more creamy.

Chicken interspersed in the posole would be a great addition to spruce up the flavor and texture. it would actually be chewy as you take a sip and the chicken would be munchy for your taste. The spice would amplify the taste as well.

Get The Recipe From – Damn Delicious

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Conclusion

When you crave a quick dinner on a busy weeknight, there is always an option to latch on to. This article just has a parade of items that we can do and get relished. There are so many healthy options that we can prepare and probably enjoy the flavor also pretty well. It will be a nice read and equip you with readymade information on what food items you can make.

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