Quick Easy Family Dinners: 3 Recipes With Their Cook Times

Round-ups promise “30 minutes” without saying which steps that number covers. This one shows the arithmetic: three recipes from this site, read step by step, with every minute the pages actually print added up, and the heat level is quoted as written so you can judge it for your own table. The fourth page is a set of 12 one-pot templates for the nights when even that is too much structure.

The quick answer

Recipe	Timed steps as printed	Timed total	Heat as printed
Curry turkey noodle soup	Fry paste 1 min; simmer turkey 5 min; noodles 3 min; chilli and bean sprouts 2 min; coconut milk brought to the boil	11 min plus two boils	1 to 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste “to taste”; 1 red chilli, deseeded
Chickpea tomato stew with spinach	Garlic, ginger and chilli 5 min; tomatoes 5 min; chickpeas 10 min; spinach until wilted	20 min plus softening the onion	2 mild red chilli peppers
Garlic roasted salmon	Roast 15 to 20 min at 180°C (350°F)	15 to 20 min plus an untimed marinade	None

The totals count only what the pages put a number on. None of the three times its chopping, and the salmon page does not say how long to marinate, so treat the right-hand column as oven-and-hob time, not door-to-table time.

Recipe 1: curry turkey noodle soup, 11 timed minutes

The curry turkey noodle soup recipe is one skillet and one sequence. As printed: 1 to 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, 1 litre chicken broth, 500 grams skinless turkey breast sliced, 225 grams fine rice noodles, 1 red chilli deseeded and sliced, 300 grams bean sprouts, 400 ml canned low-fat coconut milk, the juice of 1 lime, 2 teaspoons sugar and a small handful of cilantro.

The method: “fry the curry paste for about 1 minute until fragrant”, add the broth and bring to a boil, add the turkey and “let it simmer for about 5 minutes”, add the noodles and “simmer for another 3 minutes”, add the chilli and bean sprouts and “continue cooking for 2 minutes”, then pour in the coconut milk and bring it to a boil. That is 1 + 5 + 3 + 2 = 11 minutes of timed steps, plus the time it takes to bring a litre of broth to the boil and then the full pot again once the coconut milk goes in, neither of which the page times.

Family notes from the page itself: the curry paste quantity is marked “(to taste)”, the chilli is deseeded, and the noodles are the starchy food the NHS asks for with each main meal. The 2 teaspoons of sugar are across the whole pot.

Recipe 2: chickpea tomato stew with spinach, 20 timed minutes

The chickpea tomato stew with spinach is a pot, a can and a bag of spinach. As printed: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 sliced red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a 1/2-inch piece of ginger, 2 mild red chilli peppers thinly sliced, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 3/4 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 4 chopped tomatoes, 2 teaspoons tomato paste, 400 g canned chickpeas rinsed and drained, 200 g tender spinach leaves, and rice or flatbread to serve.

The method starts with an untimed step, “gently sauté the onion until softened”, then “cook for 5 minutes” once the garlic, ginger and chilli go in, the spices “for a few seconds”, the tomatoes and paste “simmer for 5 minutes”, the chickpeas and 300 ml water “simmer for 10 minutes”, then the spinach until it wilts. Timed total: 20 minutes of cooking after the onion.

This is the meat-free one, and its chillies are the ones the page specifies as “mild” – though the salmon, with no chilli at all, is the mildest of the three. The rice or flatbread on the side is the starchy food.

Recipe 3: garlic roasted salmon, 15 to 20 minutes in the oven

The garlic roasted salmon is the shortest page of the three and it does not give quantities. The ingredient list is five lines with no quantities: salmon fillets, chopped garlic, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. The method is four lines: put the fillets in a bowl, mix the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper into a marinade, coat the fish, then roast “in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) and roast for about 15-20 minutes until the fish is tender and juicy”. How long to marinate is not stated.

What it does offer a family is a dinner with no chilli in it and an ingredient list a child can read. Salmon is the first name on the NHS oily fish list, and the NHS eight tips page asks for “at least 2 portions of fish a week, including at least 1 portion of oily fish”, so this is the one that covers that line. It has no starchy food of its own; add potatoes, rice or bread to meet the “at least 1 starchy food with each main meal” line on the same page.

The 12 one-pot templates

When you would rather improvise, the site’s healthy one pot dinner ideas for busy weeknights page lists 12 ideas and says up front: “Use these as templates, not strict recipes.” They run from a white bean, kale and tomato soup and a chicken, brown rice and salsa skillet through a turkey and cabbage skillet, a lentil sloppy joe pot, a chickpea and vegetable curry, a tofu peanut noodle skillet and an egg and vegetable hash. None of them carries a time, so they are not in the table above.

Two lines from that page are worth carrying into any family dinner. On heat, from the curry template: “Keep the heat mild for mixed households and add hot sauce at the table.” On what makes the pot filling: “Fiber comes from beans, lentils, vegetables, whole grains, potatoes with the skin, and tomato-based sauces.”

What the NHS page adds

Three of the eight tips are the ones these three recipes speak to. (The fruit and veg tip applies to any main meal as well; the lunch piece works through that one.) Starch: “Try to include at least 1 starchy food with each main meal”, preferring “wholewheat pasta, brown rice or potatoes with their skins on”. Fish: two portions a week, one oily, as above. Salt: “Adults and children aged 11 and over should eat no more than 6g of salt (about a teaspoonful) a day. Younger children should have even less”, and “about three-quarters of the salt you eat is already in the food when you buy it”, which for these three recipes means the broth, the curry paste and the canned chickpeas before any salt you add.

The page shows “Page last reviewed: 22 November 2022” and “Next review due: 22 November 2025”; as of 21 September 2026 those are still the dates on it.

Before you rely on any of this

• Timed totals are only the printed times. Prep, chopping and bringing liquid to the boil are untimed on all three pages, so real elapsed time is longer.
• Quantities are quoted as the pages print them. The three recipes are older posts on this site, and the salmon page gives no quantities at all.
• Heat is as written, not as tasted. “Mild” chillies and “to taste” curry paste vary by brand; start at the low end.
• The NHS page is past its stated review date. Read the live version before quoting it further.

Sources

Recipe quantities, steps and times from the four healthygourmetfood.com pages linked above, read 21 September 2026. NHS, “8 tips for healthy eating” (page last reviewed 22 November 2022), read 21 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Which of these family dinners is actually the quickest?

Adding up only the steps the recipes put a time on, the curry turkey noodle soup is 11 minutes of timed cooking plus bringing the pot to the boil twice, the chickpea tomato stew is 20 minutes of timed cooking after the onion softens, and the garlic roasted salmon is 15 to 20 minutes in the oven after an untimed marinade. Chopping and prep are not timed on any of the three pages.

Are these dinners mild enough for children?

As printed, the stew uses 2 mild red chilli peppers, the soup uses 1 to 2 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste marked to taste plus one deseeded red chilli, and the salmon has no chilli at all. The site's one-pot page puts it plainly for its curry: keep the heat mild for mixed households and add hot sauce at the table.

Do these dinners meet the NHS advice for a main meal?

The NHS eight tips ask for at least one starchy food with each main meal and at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily. The soup has rice noodles, the stew is served with rice or flatbread, and the salmon is on the NHS oily fish list, so between them the three cover both lines.