A fresh, citrusy dinner ready in 30 minutes or less? Count us in! From creamy lemon pasta with veggies to tangy lemon chicken and seafood dishes, these quick and easy recipes bring the flavors of lemon to life in healthy and delicious meals. Try our Lemon Chicken Pasta and Old Bay Salmon with Lemony Mashed Peas for a tasty and refreshing way to end the night.
Lemon-Tahini Couscous with Chicken & Vegetables
When you want pasta in no time, couscous is your best friend! The tiny pasta balls cook up in minutes, and absorb all the water so you don’t have to fuss with draining. Tossed with sautéed vegetables plus leftover chicken, it’s a fast and tasty meal in a bowl that’s perfect as an easy dinner recipe.
Creamy Lemon Pasta with Shrimp
Yogurt makes a fine substitute for cream in the sauce for this easy pasta recipe. Just warm the yogurt (do not boil) and add some pasta-cooking water to thin it out. Lemon and fresh basil brighten up the whole-wheat pasta and complement the shrimp in this quick dinner recipe.
Old Bay Salmon with Lemony Mashed Peas
Cooking butter until it browns adds a toasty, nutty flavor to this easy skillet salmon recipe. Here it gives Old Bay-rubbed salmon a chef-worthy finish—not bad for 20 minutes!
Lemon Chicken Pasta
In this easy lemon chicken pasta recipe, we love the combination of lemon zest and toasted breadcrumbs. This healthy dinner is made with rotisserie chicken, quick-cooking spiralized zucchini and baby zucchini, so you get a complete meal in just 10 minutes.
Lemon-Garlic Pasta with Salmon
Wondering what to do with leftover salmon? This is a delicious and easy way to turn it into another weeknight-friendly, quick dinner. Don’t forget to reserve some pasta water—its starch thickens the lemon-garlic pasta sauce and makes it silky-smooth.
Leek & Lemon Linguine
This simple pasta recipe has bold lemony flavor. It’s nice with a salad for a light supper or serve it along with seared fish, shrimp or chicken. Vary it as you please–add a bit of crumbled goat cheese, chopped rinsed capers, shelled edamame or thin strips of yellow bell pepper.
Lemon-Garlic Butter Scallops
In this healthy scallop recipe, lemon brightens up sweet scallops. Serve the lemon-garlic butter scallops alongside sautéed spinach with a piece of toasted whole-grain bread to sop up the buttery sauce.
Creamy Lemon Chicken Parmesan
This riff on classic chicken Parmesan replaces the usual marinara with a luscious lemony cream sauce. We’ve lightened it up by using half-and-half instead of cream and by coating the chicken in whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs, with just-as-delicious results. Serve this lemony chicken dinner with whole-wheat pasta or brown rice.
Lemon-Sopressata Chicken
You’ll only need 5 ingredients and 30 minutes for this healthy chicken recipe. Serve with mashed potatoes and a mixed green salad with red-wine vinaigrette to round out dinner.
Linguine with Lemon Alfredo Shrimp
This bright and lemony shrimp pasta dish was inspired by traditional Alfredo but comes in at only a fraction of the fat and calories. Reduced-fat cream cheese adds body to the sauce, while Parmesan cheese adds its signature robust flavor. This recipe calls for brown rice pasta, which is gluten-free, but if gluten is not a concern for you feel free to serve this sauce over regular linguine or fettucine—or any pasta you like!
Skillet Lemon Chicken with Spinach
This simple, ultra-quick chicken dinner—packed with spinach and peppers—is delicious on its own or served over brown rice or your favorite pasta.
Lemon-Garlic Grilled Cod
This lemon-garlic grilled cod features charred lemon and garlic oil that adds an extra dimension to the moist and flaky fish.
Chicken & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan
This one-pan chicken pasta combines lean chicken breast and sautéed spinach for a one-bowl meal that’s garlicky, lemony and best served with a little Parm on top. I call it “Mom’s Skillet Pasta” and she called it “Devon’s Favorite Pasta.” Either way it’s a quick and easy weeknight dinner we created together and scribbled on a little recipe card more than a decade ago, and it remains in my weekly dinner rotation to this day. It’s a simple dinner the whole family will love.
Lemony-Garlic Pan-Seared Salmon
This pan-seared salmon features fresh herbs of your choice, bright lemon and savory garlic. Leaving the skin on the salmon keeps the fillet in one piece while cooking. The skin is deliciously crispy, but easy to remove if you prefer skinless salmon.
Lemon-Garlic Chicken with Green Beans
This easy lemon-garlic chicken recipe calls for cutlets, which cook in less than 10 minutes! Can’t find them? Make your own from chicken breasts. Place each breast on a cutting board and, with your knife parallel to the board, slice into the skinny side of the chicken breast in a single smooth motion. The side of green beans is cooked right in the same pan as the chicken, so this 20-minute easy, healthy dinner is not just a snap to prepare—the cleanup is a cinch too.
Snapper Piccata
Lean snapper in a buttery lemon-caper sauce is a simple main dish, ready in just 30 minutes.
Spicy Grilled Shrimp with Feta Dipping Sauce
If you like shrimp, this spicy grilled shrimp recipe will be your new favorite. It’s easy, fast and delicious! The subtle spice of the cayenne is balanced by the creamy feta sauce. If you want to tame the heat, you can cut the cayenne in half or skip it completely.
Farfalle with Tuna, Lemon and Fennel
This warm, flaked tuna and lemon pasta recipe is ready in 30 minutes.
Hummus-Crusted Chicken
Hummus goes from appetizer to main dish as a rich, tangy coating on chicken breasts. In the oven, the hummus coating caramelizes slightly and the sprinkle of sesame seeds turns extra-crunchy and nutty. For leftovers, you could slice up the chicken and tuck it into a pita with crisp lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.
Baked Lemon-Pepper Chicken
Looking for a quick, easy dinner to add to your go-to chicken recipes collection? This baked lemon-pepper chicken recipe is it. Chicken breasts are cooked in a skillet, then finished in the oven with lemon slices that soften and become part of the sauce, with a touch of maple syrup and butter to carry the flavor. It’s so simple and delicious, you’ll be making this healthy dinner again and again.