Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with your partner, with your capsule or alone, these recipes will help make the day special without spending an entire day in the kitchen. These dishes don’t require tons of ingredients and most of them come together in less than an hour.
See our complete collection of Valentine’s Day recipes.
Nothing says “I love you” like a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with melted Gruyère and caramelized onions. This Ali Slagle recipe has over 2,000 five-star reviews, so it’s a guaranteed home run. (Hint: have mint tablets handy.)
This easy cake by Jerrelle Guy can be made with fresh or frozen strawberries (or any berry, actually). Just be sure to defrost frozen fruits in the microwave first. Serve with whipped cream or the best vanilla ice cream you can – or both.
Recipe: Strawberry Spoon Cake
This vibrant vegetarian dinner by Yasmin Fahr is as beautiful as a bouquet of flowers, but infinitely more satisfying. If you like, use broccoli instead of broccoli and serve the whole mess on a pile of rubber farro.
Recipe: Roasted Feta Pan with Broccoli, Tomato and Lemon
Make children of all ages happy by serving hot chocolate for breakfast. If you feel ambitious, cover with homemade marshmallows, whipped cream and red and pink sprinkles.
Perfect to celebrate with your Galentine pod or your family, this velvet fondue from Melissa Clark is a welcome excuse to remove that 1970s fondue set that you inherited from your aunt Charlene. It is infinitely adaptable: Sub in Cheddar, raclette or Monterey Jack for Gruyère and Emmenthaler.
Recipe: Classic Cheese Fondue
Thanks to Genevieve Ko for creating this salty-sweet salmon with five ingredients. For a complete feast, serve with baked potatoes, green beans or a salad.
Recipe: Roasted Salmon on Board
Readers love Sue Li’s 30 minutes of white beans with lemon and shrimp stew for their simplicity and adaptability. If you want, add another can of beans, serve over the dough or use shallots instead of the leeks to speed up the preparation.
Recipe: Lemony Shrimp and Stewed Beans
A delicious meal prepared in the same pot looks like a magic trick. This brilliantly flavored chicken dish from Yewande Komolafe is just that. Readers have succeeded in replacing feta with halloumi and standard couscous or rice with pearl couscous.
Recipe: Chicken Frying Pan With Couscous, Lemon and Halloumi
Mark Bittman’s Diane steak – essentially grilled steaks with Dijon cream sauce – is deliciously retro and undeniably delicious. Baked potatoes, crispy green salad and yacht rock are excellent accompaniments.
Recipe: Diane steak for two
Skip the socially distant shopping experience at the chic chocolate shop and make your own worthwhile goodies. David Tanis’ recipe is easy to follow and fun to customize.
A perfectly toasted scallop is a good thing, in fact, and Colu Henry’s pasta with tomatoes and herbs is packed with them. It takes time and patience to get that golden crust, so let the pan get very hot before adding the scallops, then leave them alone for a few minutes before checking to see if they are cooked.
Recipe: Grilled Scallop Pasta with Tomatoes and Herbs Burst
Molly O’Neill brought this recipe to the Times in 1997, and it still stands. It’s as simple as possible: sprinkle Dijon mustard on both sides of some savory chops, crushed cumin seeds (or powdered cumin, if applicable) and black pepper; seal in a hot pan; then finish in the oven. If you think about it, salt the chops the day before. (Sam Sifton’s star anise brine is perfect for that.)
Recipes: Roasted pork chops with cumin | Star anise brine
These genevieve Ko genius bars strike a balance between salty and sweet and are ready for improvisation. Use a mixture of sweet and sour, semi-bitter, milk or white chocolate. Decorate with sprinkles or colorful candies. An editor at NYT Cooking pressed broken Oreos into the melted chocolate and was very happy about it.
Recipe: Krispies rice treats with chocolate and pretzels
Champagne, bitters, lemon juice and maple syrup – that’s all it takes to make this brilliant drink from Mark Bittman. (Cover with a ripe raspberry, if you like.)
Recipe: Champagne Cocktail
“BIG WIN” wrote a reader about Alexa Weibel’s vegan version of the classic Italian dish. Pasta cooking water, store-bought cashew butter, nutritional yeast, white miso paste and roasted ground peppercorns come together to form a creamy, dairy-free sauce that doesn’t seem like a compromise.
Recipe: Vegan Cacio and Pepe
A Dutch baby, also known as a German oven pancake, is like a giant popover. This, by Florence Fabricant, is wonderful served with maple syrup or icing sugar, or topped with fresh fruit.
Recipe: Dutch Baby
Mousse has a reputation for being demanding, but this is not. It originated in a 1980s Junior League cookbook and reached The Times through cook Monica Stolbach, through pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz. You don’t have to separate the yolks and the whites; instead, you Pour the hot sugar syrup into the blender with chocolate and whole eggs. Mix a little and then wrap the mixture in lightly whipped cream.
Fried eggs are good. Melissa Clark’s fried eggs with frico edges are the next level. Do not use pre-plan Parmesan here. Grate the cheese in the larger holes on your grater and use a nonstick skillet or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet to achieve crunchy perfection. Serve the eggs on a pile of fresh arugula with toasted buttered butter.
Recipe: Crispy parmesan eggs