Quick Dinner Dishes—Pantry Meals

Along with make-ahead, freeze-and-reheat, overnight casserole and crockpot dishes, pantry meals are another cooking method you should learn and master if you want to pull off dinners in a jiffy.  When you use pre-cooked pantry items, you are basically skipping the time-consuming stuff such as cooking the sauce or boiling the beans thereby shaving a huge chunk off the time and labor a made-from-scratch recipe would normally take. 

Traditional Risotto

Have a taste of this classic Italian rice dish in which rice is generously coated with all the goodness of chicken broth, olive oil, herbs, white wine, butter and Parmesan cheese.  The best part is that you can have this restaurant fare in 20 minutes.  

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups short-grain Arborio rice
• 5 cups chicken broth
• ½ cup dry white wine (or just more chicken broth)
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper to taste
 

Directions:

• In a heavy saucepan, place the chicken broth and bring to a simmer over medium low heat.
• In another heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic until onions are translucent and limp, about 5 minutes.
• Remove saucepan with rice from heat and stir in the rice to the sautéed herbs.  Stir constantly for about 4 minutes until the grains of rice become slightly transparent.  Add the wine, cooking and stirring until the wine is fully absorbed by the rice.  Slowly stir in half a cup of the chicken broth until the broth is absorbed as well.
• Add more broth, a cup at a time, until fully absorbed each time.  The dish is done when the rice is cooked al dente—tender but firm in the center.  Remove pan from the heat and stir in the cheese, butter, salt and pepper.  Stir until melted and well mixed.  Serve hot.
 

Florentine Crab and Bean Soup

A dreamy mix of bow ties, beans, diced tomatoes, herbs and veggies make this very hearty soup.  And when you add in the crab meat and Parmesan cheese, the result is understandably delicious—and yet all for half an hour of easy pantry meal cooking.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 (14-oz.) cans vegetable broth
• 6-oz. package Florentine Beans with Bow Ties or 1 ½ cups bow tie pasta and 1 cup frozen spinach
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (14-oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 (6-oz.) can crab meat, drained
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
 

Directions:

• Pour vegetable broth into a pot and bring to a boil over high heat.  Stir in the bean and pasta mix.  Add in the carrots, onions, garlic, undrained tomatoes and pepper.  Bring to a boil before reducing the heat to low and bringing the mixture to a simmer.  Cover and simmer on for 10 minutes until pasta is tender.
• Stir in the crab meat and heat for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve with a topping of grated Parmesan cheese.