Illustration Credit: Mattea Shuen
Three easy weeknight dinners inspired by the “Girl Dinner” trend
Kiera Quinlivan, Staff Writer
Hi! My name is Kiera, and I am a girl who eats dinner. Paying homage to the trend that swept the internet a few months ago, I’m sharing three recipes that reflect the curated randomness of a girl dinner. Despite what the name implies, these recipes can be made and enjoyed by anyone with a taste for the chaotic.
Roasted Vegetable Soup
If I have a lot of veggies that I need to use up, I’ll make this simple roasted vegetable soup. All you need is a sheet pan, a blender, and a pot, and this recipe can be prepared in under an hour. Since this is a “girl dinner,” you can tailor this dish to your tastes by adding whatever random vegetables or seasonings you enjoy. Here’s a recipe based on what I usually have lying around my kitchen:
Ingredients:
- 2 Roma tomatoes, quartered
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 bell peppers, halved and flattened
- 1 large carrot, cut into small chunks (pro tip: cut these chunks thinly to help them soften faster)
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup of milk (if using non-dairy milk, I recommend unflavoured oat milk)
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- 1 tsp of dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
- Add the cut vegetables to a medium baking pan, coat in olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast vegetables for 20–30 minutes or until the peppers are lightly charred and a fork can easily pierce the sweet potato and carrot chunks.
- Add the roasted vegetables to a blender with the broth, milk, and seasonings and blend until smooth.
- Add to a pot and cook over medium heat until warm.
- Pro tip: if you’ve just watched The Bear and are feeling fancy, strain the vegetable puree through a strainer while pouring it into the pot to make the soup smoother.
Serves 4
Green Goddess Pasta
Like the roasted veggie soup, this recipe only requires some basic kitchen utensils and knife skills. Again, you can customize this dish with whatever random green vegetables and pasta shapes you have around your kitchen. However, I would not recommend adding tomatoes to this recipe; I tried that once. The sauce turned brown and wasn’t the most appetizing 🙁
Ingredients:
- 1 zucchini, quartered and cut into thin slices
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 block of frozen spinach
- ½ cup of frozen peas
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- ½ cup of milk (if using non-dairy milk I recommend oat milk)
- ½ cup of vegetable or chicken broth
- ¼ cup of pasta water
- 2–3 cups of pasta
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- 1 tsp of dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Grated mozzarella or parmesan cheese (add as much as or as little as you want depending on your tastes)
Steps:
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt to the water and add in your pasta of choice. Cook until al dente. Make sure to reserve some pasta water for the sauce before straining the pasta.
- Add 1 tsp of olive oil to a pan and warm on medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook until fragrant (1–2 minutes).
- Add the zucchini, spinach, and peas to the pan and sauté until the zucchini is soft and the spinach and peas are defrosted (roughly 7–10 minutes).
- Season with salt and pepper before transferring the vegetables to a blender.
- Add the milk, broth, pasta water, and seasonings to the blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the sauce back into the pan and add your cooked pasta.
- Add the grated cheese to the pan and stir together until combined.
- Pro tip: Top your plate of pasta with some extra cheese and red pepper flakes for an extra chef’s kiss.
Serves 2
The Not-Like-Other-Girl-Dinners Dinner
As its name suggests, this recipe is unlike other girl dinner recipes. So far, I’ve given you two decent dinner recipes that are tangentially related to the “girl dinner” concept. Now, I give you an authentic girl dinner recipe, the dinner I eat when I am most chaotic (usually around finals season).
Steps:
- Go to the Independent City Market in Manulife Centre and buy a whole tray of their premade mac n’ cheese.
- Go to Shoppers Drug Mart (also in Manulife) and buy a whole tub of whatever ice cream is on sale.
- Go back to your apartment or dorm room.
- Reheat a bowl of the mac n’ cheese. Tell yourself you’re only eating one bowl. Eat the whole tray in one sitting.
- Eat the ice cream right out of the tub with a spoon while watching your favourite comfort TV show (mine is New Girl).
- Cry softly.
- Pro tip: Do all of these steps while wearing pajama bottoms and whatever St. Mike’s orientation t-shirt you use as your pajama shirt.
Serves 1 very tired and stressed girl
