4 Mediterranean-style dinners for a busy week
最後更新 2026年10月8日
僅英文
A lentil soup, a warm lentil salad, a courgette and avocado salad with crispy chickpeas and a shakshuka make a week of dinners with one shared shop. Their listed times run from 30 to 60 minutes, and they overlap on olive oil, lemon, onions, herbs and bread. Each recipe is written for four servings, so the week below suits a household of four, with a version for two further down.
"Mediterranean-style" is a loose label, so here it means a cooking pattern, not a diet plan: olive oil as the main fat, pulses or eggs at the centre of the plate, plenty of vegetables, and lemon and herbs doing the seasoning. That describes how the food is cooked, not how it affects health, and the recipes' nutrition has not been measured here.
The four dinners
Each recipe is published on Nourishible, lists a total time of an hour or less, cooks in olive oil, and puts lentils, chickpeas or eggs at the centre. Times below are the totals each recipe lists.
| Dinner | Listed time | Centre of the plate | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mediterranean lentil soup with preserved lemon and herb oil | 60 min | Green or brown lentils | Brown an onion for 10–15 minutes, then simmer the lentils for about 20 |
| Warm French lentil salad with shallots, garlic and pine nuts | 30 min | French green lentils | Simmer the lentils for 18–20 minutes while you slice the shallots and garlic and zest the lemons |
| Zucchini and avocado salad with crispy chickpeas | 30 min | Tinned chickpeas | Brown the courgette, then crisp the chickpeas for 7–10 minutes |
| Easy shakshuka | 35 min | Eggs in a tomato and pepper sauce | Simmer the sauce until thick, then cook the eggs in it, covered |
The soup is the long one: 10 to 15 minutes browning the onion, about 20 simmering the lentils, and the chopping on top, so give it the evening you have an hour. It also asks for preserved lemon, which you may need to buy. The lentil salad's notes say you can cook the lentils and slice the shallots and garlic the day before, which leaves the frying, mixing and assembly for the night.
The courgette salad is the light night of the week. It is a platter salad: one courgette, one avocado and 1 cup (165 g) of chickpeas across four servings, with no bread or grain in the recipe, so put crusty bread or a pot of grains with it. For more on cooking ahead, see meal prep without eating the same dinner.
Is there a fish dinner in this week?
Not by this rule. Creamy lemon sardine spaghetti is a 25-minute recipe built on tinned sardines, lemon and capers, but it finishes with butter and breadcrumbs and has no pulse or egg, so it sits outside the pattern used here. If you want fish in the week, swap it in for a night; it adds capers, white wine and butter to the shopping list, and what to eat with canned fish has more.
What they share
All four lean on olive oil, onions or their relatives, lemon or tomato for acidity, and fresh herbs, so a single shop covers them. The table shows where each shared ingredient turns up, using only the quantities the recipes state.
| Shared ingredient | Soup | Lentil salad | Courgette salad | Shakshuka |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp, plus about 2 tbsp for the herb oil | Enough to coat the pan | For frying, plus 1 tbsp to finish | 3 tbsp |
| Lemon | Preserved peel, zest of 1, juice to taste | Zest of 2, 2 tbsp juice | Juice to taste | None |
| Garlic | 6 cloves | "A generous amount" | None | 4 cloves |
| Onion family | 1 large yellow onion | 2 shallots | Half a red onion and green onions | 1 large onion |
| Fresh herbs | Basil and dill, or parsley; thyme | Basil, parsley, mint | Dill | Coriander or parsley |
| Lentils or chickpeas | 1 cup lentils | 1 cup lentils | 1 cup tinned chickpeas | None |
| Bread | Optional | Optional | None | Optional |
The two lentil dishes each take 1 cup of dry lentils, but the soup says green or brown and the salad says French green, and the salad's notes say other green or brown lentils need less cooking time, so read the packet if one bag will serve both. Parsley is an option in the soup, the lentil salad and the shakshuka, so you can buy it once.
One shopping list
Buy the shared items once and the rest by dish. The list assumes you cook all four; drop the lines for any dinner you skip. Where a recipe gives no quantity, the list says so rather than guessing.
| Shop | Buy | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Cupboard | Olive oil (extra-virgin for finishing), salt, black pepper, bay leaves (2 for the soup, 1 for the salad) | All four |
| Cupboard | Dried lentils: 1 cup green or brown, 1 cup French green | Soup, lentil salad |
| Cupboard | 1 cup (165 g) drained tinned chickpeas | Courgette salad |
| Cupboard | 1 large tin (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes | Shakshuka |
| Cupboard | Paprika, ground cumin, chilli powder; ground coriander and Aleppo pepper | Shakshuka, courgette salad; soup, lentil salad |
| Cupboard | Vegetable broth (4 cups), pine nuts (½ cup), walnuts (¼ cup), nutritional yeast, preserved lemon, vinegar | Soup, lentil salad, courgette salad |
| Fresh | Lemons: at least 3 for the zest alone (1 for the soup, 2 for the lentil salad), plus juice for all three recipes that use it | Soup, lentil salad, courgette salad |
| Fresh | Garlic: at least 10 cloves, plus a generous amount for the salad | Soup, lentil salad, shakshuka |
| Fresh | 1 large yellow onion, 1 large onion, 2 shallots, half a red onion, green onions | All four |
| Fresh | Carrots (3), 1 red pepper, 1 courgette, 1 avocado, about 3 cups rocket | Soup, shakshuka, courgette salad, lentil salad |
| Fresh | Soft herbs: parsley, dill, basil, mint, thyme | All four |
| Fridge | 6 eggs | Shakshuka |
| Fridge | Feta (¼ cup, 35 g) and Greek yoghurt (⅓ cup, 80 g); plant-based yoghurt (about ½ cup) if you make the optional soup sauce | Courgette salad, soup |
| Bakery | Crusty bread | Soup, lentil salad, shakshuka |
Cooking order
Start with the dinners built on salad leaves and soft herbs: the courgette salad (avocado, courgette, dill), then the lentil salad (rocket and herbs). The shakshuka comes next (red pepper, herbs, eggs), and the soup last, since it relies mostly on cupboard lentils, broth, onion and carrots. That order is a suggestion, not a tested schedule, and the lentil salad's make-ahead tip helps whichever night it lands on.
The shakshuka recipe leaves the yolks runny, and its note says to cook the eggs a little longer for firmer yolks. The FSA's advice on runny eggs depends on whether you can confirm British Lion or Laid in Britain eggs. If you can't, and anyone eating is under five, read can under-fives have runny eggs when eating out? first.
Cooking for two
Each recipe serves four, so cooking the soup and the lentil salad gives two people four dinners (eight portions). They share lentils, lemon, garlic, herbs, bread and olive oil. One way to spread them over four nights:
| Night | Dinner | Eat | Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soup | 2 portions | Cool, divide and freeze the other 2 |
| 2 | Lentil salad | 2 portions | Cool and chill the other 2 |
| 3 | Lentil salad | The 2 chilled portions | Nothing left |
| 4 | Soup | The 2 frozen portions, defrosted in the fridge until fully defrosted | Nothing left |
The Food Standards Agency says to cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, to eat leftovers within 48 hours or freeze them, and to use food within 24 hours of it being fully defrosted (FSA: chilling, freezing and defrosting food). Night 3 falls inside that 48 hours. Bread is the only side left to prepare, and it is optional in both recipes. Two things have not been tested: the warm lentil salad eaten cold on night 3, and the soup after freezing.
Cheese and yoghurt
The NHS says "it's also recommended that people should reduce their overall fat intake and replace saturated fat with some unsaturated fat, including omega-3 fats" (NHS: eat less saturated fat). That is advice about the whole diet, not about one dinner. The NHS list of foods that contain saturated fat includes cheese, and feta tops the courgette salad (¼ cup, 35 g in the recipe). For yoghurt, the NHS says to choose a lower-fat, lower-sugar one and check the nutrition label, which applies to the Greek yoghurt in the same recipe. The soup's optional yoghurt sauce uses plant-based yoghurt. A GP or registered dietitian can say what suits you.
For more pulse-led dinners, see bean and lentil weeknight dinners and what to cook with chickpeas.