These fall dinner recipe ideas will inspire your healthy meal plan. They’re made with minimal ingredients that are both nourishing and delicious.

Do you get overwhelmed when you have a long food shopping list too? I like to find ways to minimize my grocery list and one way I do this, is by using the same ingredients in different ways through the week ahead. I keep this in mind when I’m creating my meal plan, so I have good overlap and am intentional with the meals/recipes I choose. This approach also helps prevent food waste since some recipes don’t require using all of an ingredient.

The recipe ideas I’m sharing in this post include a handful of pantry staples that you’ll likely have on hand, or could add to your list as needed. These include extra virgin olive oil, dried spices and herbs, mayonnaise, mustard and honey. This healthy food shopping list includes fiber rich carbohydrates, good proteins and healthy fats, to give you balanced and nourishing meal ideas for cozy fall dinners. If you’d enjoy a little more variety, you can add more, but it’s amazing what you can make with these basic ingredients! This list of fall dinner meals can work for lunches too, whether you’re eating at home or in the office.

Healthy Grocery List

Sweet potatoes
Whole grain bread
Farro
Kale
Onion
Garlic
Chicken breast
Eggs
Bone broth and/or stock
Tahini

Fall Dinner Ideas

Dinner Plate

Roasted Sweet Potato Halves with Spiced Tahini Sauce
Garlic Sautéed Kale
Chicken (baked, roasted, grilled)

Tahini pairs so well with both sweet potatoes and kale (or greens in general, it’s great with arugula too!). I make roasted sweet potatoes by cutting them in half length wise and roasting at 400F until they’re soft. I make the spiced tahini sauce by whisking a few tablespoons of tahini with equal parts water to thin and adding sea salt, smoked paprika powder and garlic powder to taste. You can bake chicken breast at the same time as the sweet potatoes and sauté kale with garlic while they cook.

Fall Panzanella Salad

Croutons
Roasted sweet potatoes
Chopped kale
Roasted or caramelized onions
Shredded chicken
Simple balsamic or honey mustard vinaigrette

Panzanella salad is a salad that has toasted bread in it, so you can make it a variety of ways, and switch it up with the seasons. It’s a great meal prep salad because it actually tastes better the longer it sits, and allows the bread to absorb the flavors. For a fall harvest salad style you can use chopped kale, roasted sweet potato cubes, roasted or caramelized onion, shredded chicken, and croutons (rip pieces of bread and toss with olive oil- then bake at 325F until toasted through). A simple balsamic or honey mustard vinaigrette pairs perfectly with this fall salad. You can add toasted nuts like walnuts or pepitas if you have them too.

Farro bowl with roasted garlic tahini dressing

Farro
Steamed kale
Roasted or caramelized onions
Shredded chicken
Roasted sweet potatoes
Roasted garlic tahini dressing

This farro bowl fits perfectly into a meal plan of healthy fall recipes. It’s like a fall harvest salad mixed with a nourishing ancient grain in a one bowl dinner. You can make it similar to the panzanella salad by adding steamed kale, roasted or caramelized onions, shredded chicken and roasted sweet potato cubes. You can toss the ingredients together while warm to wilt the kale slightly and toss with the dressing to serve. For the dressing you can make it super simple by mixing equal parts tahini and water and add in the roasted garlic and sea salt to taste. Thin with more water for desired texture, or try this recipe (and sub fresh for roasted garlic).

Chicken, Kale and Roasted Garlic Mayo Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries

Whole grain bread
Sliced chicken
Steamed Kale
Roasted garlic mayo
Roasted sweet potato fries

This is one of those easy fall recipes, especially if you have the chicken, kale and garlic mayo prepped ahead. On lightly toasted bread, you can layer sliced chicken, chopped steamed kale, and roasted garlic mayo (just mix roasted garlic with mayo and sea salt). This is a good recipe for sweet potato fries!

Sweet potato, kale and chicken soup

This is perfect for fall soup recipes. It has simple ingredients and won’t take much time to prep. I think soup tastes best when it has time to sit and allow flavors meld overnight, so it’s great if you can make it ahead. This is a simple recipe if you’re looking for fall soup ideas, I’d just add shredded chicken for more protein, use bone broth instead of vegetable broth and leave out the tomatoes.

Garlic Kale Frittata & Olive Oil Toast

I love frittatas and toast for easy fall dinners (or meal prep breakfasts). Frittatas are super easy to make and reheat well, so they’re also a great meal prep recipe. You can make a frittata right in an oven safe skillet. For this one, sauté minced/grated garlic in a little butter/olive oil. Then add in chopped kale with a couple pinches of sea salt and sauté until it’s wilted. Add in eggs off heat (I usually do a mix of whole eggs and egg whites) and stir together. Bake in an oven heated to 325F until it’s just cooked through (time depends on thickness). The texture is best if you take it out before it puffs up or gets golden brown. Serve with toast drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.

Prep Plan

Prepping some of these ingredients and meals ahead helps to make weeknight cooking even easier. With meal prep, you can prioritize the things that take the longest or are more labor intensive to lighten the load that week. Even if you only prep one thing ahead, it’s a huge help, so don’t feel like you need to prep everything. When I meal prep, I always start with things that need to bake or simmer first, and then use the time they’re cooking to prep other things. Here’s a prep plan that you can pick and choose from to save yourself some time.

Cook chicken ahead or grab some rotisserie chicken to save time
Roast garlic to store in the fridge
While the garlic and chicken cook, wash and steam the kale you’ll need (I always dread this task for some reason, and am so glad when I do it ahead)
Cook the farro ahead, it reheats well in the microwave.
Roast cubed sweet potatoes.
Make the sweet potato, kale and chicken soup ahead.
Make the frittata ahead.