Quick second courses: discover 20 easy and tasty recipes to try for lunches and dinners ready in just a few minutes.
Do you want some ideas of second courses fast and healthy to bring to the table for lunch or dinner? Cooking quickly is even easier when the dishes to be served are based on vegetable ingredients that require rapid cooking.
We think about stir-fried vegetables or how easy it is to cook the tofu and seitan to bring a quick first course to the table. Those who have a little more time available can experiment with the preparation of homemade meatballs and burgers with already cooked legumes and boiled vegetables.
There are also some really quick recipes for preparing savory pies and parcels at home for healthy and tasty lunches and dinners. With these recipes you will make all your guests really happy, not just those who are vegetarian or vegan.
Here’s one collection of recipes to try to start experimenting in the kitchen with quick second courses.
Read also: QUICK FIRST COURSES: 15 EASY RECIPES TO TRY
Vegetable burgers
You can prepare your veggie burgers with vegetables and legumes. To create a compact base, the suggestion is to use boiled potatoes or chickpeas then reduced to a puree to which to add chopped vegetables and grated bread or chickpea flour to bind the ingredients.
Tofu and spinach meatballs
Here are our spinach and tofu based meatballs, to be served as second dish. You can also prepare them with other ingredients, such as chickpeas, lentils, carrots, potatoes and leafy vegetables as alternatives to spinach. In addition to spinach and tofu, the ingredients to be used to make them are flour, breadcrumbs, ginger, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and a pinch of bicarbonate.
Spinach and potato medallions
Potatoes and spinach, two simple ingredients with which you can prepare very tasty medallions that you can cook in the oven or in a pan and can serve to adults and children both warm and at room temperature. Here is the complete recipe to follow step by step.
Baked aubergine pizzas
A simple and tasty recipe for baked aubergine pizzas. You can replace the mozzarella with any ingredient you want, pesto, olives, capers, you can indulge yourself. Here is the complete recipe.
Baked tofu medallions
For those who want to bring a light and easy to prepare vegetarian and vegan second course to the table, here are our baked tofu medallions, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. All you have to do is experiment with the recipe.
Farfried
Farifrittata is one omelette without eggs which is prepared with chickpea flour. Cooking takes place in the oven or in a pan, to make the preparation even easier, quicker and crispier. Experiment with farfrittatas with different fillings depending on the season, for example with grated carrots, courgettes or aromatic herbs.
Vegetable millet and turmeric meatballs
@123rf
We suggest a tasty recipe for the preparation of vegetable meatballs based on millet, vegetables and turmeric. Our Naturomania blog recommends adding a little chilli to their preparation, in order to enrich them with flavor if you love spicy. As for the vegetables to use, you can choose between leeks, carrots, courgettes, celery, peppers, potatoes and so on depending on the season.
Hummus
@Vladlena Azima /123RF
Chickpea hummus is a quick preparation to be served as a light second course together with raw and cooked vegetables and croutons or wraps. To prepare chickpea hummus, quickly blend the already boiled chickpeas with extra virgin olive oil, yogurt, salt and pepper. There are many variations of hummus, in addition to chickpea hummus, for example, you can prepare carrot or pumpkin hummus. Here are some ideas to take inspiration from.
Quick chickpea falafel
Not just hummus. With chickpeas you can also prepare some delicious falafel, that is, fried or baked spicy meatballs. The advice for quick preparation is to use already boiled chickpeas. If you buy them, it is better to choose already cooked chickpeas stored in a glass jar.
Vegetarian meatballs with yogurt and pesto
To prepare these vegetarian meatballs with yogurt and pesto you will need: soft, not too mature cheese, eggs, herbs and spices. Among the ingredients we also find celery, carrots and onions, which you will have to finely chop to obtain the meatball mixture. You can cook them in the oven.
Scrambled tofu
Scrambled tofu, here is one of the fastest ways in the world to cook and serve tofu and also to make it really tasty and tasty. The trick is to season it well with the turmericspices and aromatic herbs, such as oregano, rosemary and parsley.
Curry potato dumplings
Potato dumplings are a really tasty dish especially if you flavor the filling with the curry and with cumin. To prepare them quickly, use already boiled potatoes and a ready-made organic puff pastry.
Savory vegetable pie
Prepare your savory pie with seasonal vegetables and if you have little time, use a ready-made organic puff pastry for the base, so you can create a quick and easy but also very tasty dish.
Vegetarian roast
Vegetarian roast is an easy recipe to prepare starting from boiled potatoes and already cooked legumes such as chickpeas, beans or lentils. With these ingredients, aromatic herbs, spices and breadcrumbs you will have to prepare some sort of Meatloaf to be cooked in the oven or in a pan until golden and crunchy.
Tofu sticks
Photo source: Kung Food
THE tofu sticks they are an original idea for preparing tofu in an alternative way. Simply cut the tofu into slices about half a centimeter thick and about two centimeters wide. With the chickpea flour one is prepared thick batter, adding warm water little by little, a pinch of turmeric, salt, pepper and chopped aromatic herbs to taste. The tofu slices must be dipped in the batter and covered with it. The sticks can then be cooked in the oven or in a pan with a little oil. Here is a useful recipe.
Read also: HOW TO PREPARE TOFU AT HOME
Potato salad
Potato salad is a second course to be served warm or cold depending on the seasons. You can enrich it with aromatic herbs and dried fruit, for example with pistachios and walnuts, but also with a homemade dressing sauce.
Baked pumpkin
Baked pumpkin is a truly delicious second course which you can prepare when this vegetable is in season and serve in combination with legumes or salad. Try one of our recipes.
Aubergine Meatballs
Between recipes with courgettes the most popular are the homemade courgette meatballs which you can easily prepare according to the original recipe and in a vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free version to make everyone happy. Another very tasty version are courgette meatballs with ginger. Here is the complete recipe.
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant parmigiana is a very rich second course to be prepared in numerous variations depending on the regional recipe which inspires us. In fact, there are both aubergines parmigiana with tomato and fried and plain aubergines parmigiana. All you have to do is experiment.
Potato gateau
Potato gateau is a traditional flan made with potatoes and cheese to which you can add spices and your favorite seasonal vegetables to enrich the dish. Serve it as rich second course.
Do you have other quick and easy second course recipes to suggest?