18 Heart-Healthy Dinners That Support Gut Health
Ali Redmond
Reviewed by Dietitian Jessica Ball, M.S., RD
Make one of these flavorful dinners to support both your gut and your heart. Each of these meals is packed with prebiotic-rich ingredients like vegetables, legumes and whole grains, plus probiotic-rich foods like kimchi, miso and yogurt to help you support a balanced microbiome. They’re also made with heart-healthy nutrition, with each serving low in sodium and saturated fats to help protect against heart disease.
Try recipes like our One-Pot White Bean, Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo with Lemon & Feta for a dish that’s savory and filling at dinnertime. And our Baghali Pollow with Quinoa (Persian-Style Quinoa and Beans with Chicken) is so delicious, it’s sure to become a staple.
Skillet Lemon Chicken & Potatoes with Kale
This easy one-pan skillet-roasted lemon chicken is perfect for weeknight dinners. Juicy chicken thighs are cooked in the same pan as baby potatoes and kale for a satisfying meal with the added bonus of minimal cleanup.
One-Pot White Bean, Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo with Lemon & Feta
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling, Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
This one-pot pasta dish with white beans, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes is lively and vibrant and leaves you with an easy cleanup. Toasting the orzo before adding the broth adds another layer of flavor. Another dark leafy green like chopped kale or Swiss chard can stand in for the spinach, but may take longer to wilt in the pan. If you use a sturdier green, add it to the pan during the last 5 minutes of cooking time.
Chickpea & Potato Curry
This fast Indian-style curry comes together with ingredients you most likely have on hand, like frozen peas and canned tomatoes and chickpeas. Plus, using these spices shows how simple it is to make a curry sauce for an easy vegetarian recipe. Serve with whole-wheat naan to sop it all up.
Baghali Pollow with Quinoa (Persian-Style Quinoa and Beans with Chicken)
Ali Redmond
This adaptation of baghali pollow, a traditional Persian layered rice dish, is made with quinoa instead of basmati rice. Plenty of fresh herbs and fragrant spices and a trifecta of protein—quinoa, chicken and beans—ensure the dish is both flavorful and satisfying.
Skillet Gnocchi with Shrimp & Asparagus
The gnocchi cooks right in the skillet, along with shrimp, shallots, asparagus and Parmesan cheese, in this gnocchi recipe. Look for shelf-stable gnocchi near other pasta. Serve with baby arugula salad with vinaigrette and a glass of pinot grigio.
Baked Chicken with Onions & Leeks
Baking pieces of chicken is one of the easiest ways to put a meal on the table for your family. This mustard-glazed chicken is roasted on a bed of sliced onions, leeks and garlic that you can serve alongside it.
Crispy Salmon Rice Bowl
Ali Redmond
Tender pieces of salmon get a sweet and crispy coating thanks to sweet and savory teriyaki glaze in this salmon rice bowl. Because the glaze is sweet and sugar can burn easily, it’s best to roast the salmon pieces without it, then apply the glaze to cook for just a few minutes under the broiler. We love crunchy cucumber and creamy avocado as toppings, but feel free to add whatever toppings you like best for your own spin on this easy meal. If you can’t find Sriracha mayo, you can make your own by mixing mayo and Sriracha to your preferred spice level.
Spiced Cauliflower Chraime
Micah Siva
Chraime is a spicy North African fish stew, popular with Sephardic Jews for Rosh Hashana, Passover and Shabbat. The word “chraime” has roots in an Arabic word meaning “hot.” This meatless version highlights cauliflower, stewed until tender, studded with plump and juicy golden raisins and drizzled with date syrup. Served over couscous, rice or quinoa, this sweet and spicy tomato-based stew is a great weeknight meal. Excerpted from Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine, by Micah Siva. Copyright 2024 by Micah Siva. Published by The Collective Book Studio. Reprinted with permission.
Chicken Shawarma with Yogurt Sauce
The key to cooking juicy chicken without a spit in this healthy recipe is high heat and dark meat. The yogurt in the marinade gives the chicken both its tender texture and its alluring char. More yogurt in the sauce, along with crunchy cucumbers and herbs, keeps the flavors bright.
Padma Lakshmi's Tandoori Chicken Salad
Padma Lakshmi's tandoori salad features chicken marinated in yogurt and plenty of spices, along with lots of crunchy vegetables including cucumber, cabbage, jicama and radishes. Her technique of cooking the chicken in its marinade and then using that cooked marinade as a salad dressing is genius—it infuses the salad with tons of flavor.
Turkey & Leek Shepherd's Pie
The mashed potato-covered shepherd's pie was originally created to use up the leftovers from a festive roast. This version blends peas, leeks and carrots with diced turkey, all in a creamy herb sauce. The dish is a perfect way to create a second meal with the holiday turkey but if you like, use leftover roast chicken, duck or goose.
Chicken & Cucumber Pita Sandwiches with Yogurt Sauce
Cucumbers do double duty in this healthy Greek-inspired chicken pita recipe—they're grated to lend a refreshing flavor to the quick cucumber-yogurt sauce and sliced to provide cool crunch tucked into the pita. Serve these sandwiches for a healthy dinner or light lunch.
Slow-Cooker Sun-Dried Tomato & Spinach Pasta Bake
Photographer: Fred Hardy, Food Stylist: Jennifer Wendorf, Prop Stylist: Lydia Purcell
This simple vegetarian pasta bake is rich in protein and comes together effortlessly in the slow cooker, for a convenient one-pot meal. The combination of sun-dried tomatoes, sun-dried tomato pesto and plenty of veggies delivers a mix of sweet and savory flavors with every bite. Feel free to replace the sun-dried tomato pesto with basil pesto, offering a fresh twist on the dish.
Gat Kimchi Bokkeum Bap (Mustard-Green Kimchi Fried Rice)
Cooling cooked rice is key here—it dries out the rice and firms it up so it doesn't stick together when it's fried, yielding fluffier results. Read more about this recipe.
Pastrami-Spiced Beef with Sauerkraut-Broccoli Slaw
Pre-prepped veggies and sauerkraut are the secret to making this healthy dinner recipe super-fast. Find broccoli slaw mix in most supermarkets near the other coleslaw mixes, and refrigerated fresh sauerkraut near the hot dogs. If you have the time and want to make your own broccoli slaw, shred broccoli stems through the large holes of a box grater.
Lentil & Roasted Vegetable Salad with Green Goddess Dressing
Goddess dressing typically gets its umami-ness from anchovies, but we use miso in this super green salad recipe to keep it vegetarian. Substitute 2 chopped anchovies for the miso if you like. Or add baked tofu, poached salmon or grilled chicken for a boost of protein.
Vegan Cauliflower Fettuccine Alfredo with Kale
In this date-night-worthy vegan fettuccine Alfredo recipe, cooked cauliflower transforms into a rich, luscious sauce when it's blended with softened cashews. A high-speed blender will give you the creamiest results. Opt for whole-wheat fettuccine to add fiber to this vegan pasta recipe.
Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken & Vegetables
This one-pan dinner gets a hit of flavorful heat from harissa, the popular North African chile-and-garlic paste. We use harissa paste from a tube for this recipe. It's got a concentrated chile flavor that makes an excellent spice rub for chicken and adds a subtle punch of heat to a refreshing herbed yogurt sauce.
Read the original article on Eating Well.
