20 Easy Dinners Under 500 Calories (2024)

Looking to eat more healthily this year? These 20 easy dinners are all under 500 calories per portion, but are packed with flavour, family friendly (no more cooking separate meals) and won’t leave you hungry, either!

Being a food blogger and staying slim is a tough gig! I am constantly taste-testing and photographing new recipes and looking at pictures of food on social media! In fact, trying to ensure I didn’t end up the size of a house was a big reason why I decided to focus on (mainly healthy) weeknight dinners here on Easy Peasy Foodie.

I have to eat dinner anyway, right? So I do all my taste-testing and most of my photography at dinner time, then I can just eat the food I’ve made without piling on the pounds!

The other trick I’ve found helpful, in my quest to stay slim, is to keep my portion sizes sensible. The NHS recommends a woman should have about 2000 calories per day to maintain her weight, so I try to eat 500 calories for breakfast, 500 calories for lunch and 500 calories for dinner – that keeps me from feeling hungry during the day and gives me a few calories leftover for healthy snacks and the occasional glass of wine!

To achieve this, my usual breakfast is a large bowl of muesli and milk. Lunch is generally leftovers from the previous evening’s healthy dinner or, if there are no leftovers, two slices of granary toast with marmite, a small piece of cheese and an apple. And dinner is either a new recipe I am testing or one of my existing Easy Midweek Meals.

To help you (and me!) to know which of my easy dinner recipes are under 500 calories per portion, I’ve compiled this list of 20 Easy Dinners Under 500 Calories…

(Pssst – need to go even lower? Check out my roundup of 20 Easy Dinners Under 400 Calories!)

20 Easy Dinners Under 500 Calories

1.Sticky Chicken Traybake

Get the recipe =>Sticky Chicken Traybake
Takes => 35 minutes
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 328 kcal (without rice), 458 kcal (with 100g cooked white rice)

2.Chorizo, Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew

Get the recipe => Chorizo, Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew
Takes => 30 minutes
Makes => 6 portions
Calories per portion => 346 kcal (without rice), 457 kcal (with 100g cooked brown rice)

3.Quorn Shepherd’s Pie (Vegetarian)

Get the recipe =>Quorn Shepherd’s Pie
Takes =>40 minutes
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 471 kcal

4. Easy Salmon Fishcakes

Get the recipe =>Easy Salmon Fishcakes
Takes =>30 minutes
Makes => 4 portions (3 fishcakes per portion)
Calories per portion => 329 kcal

5.Aubergine and Mozzarella Pasta (Vegetarian)

Get the recipe =>Aubergine and Mozzarella Pasta
Takes => 30 mins
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion =>479 kcal

6.Easy Lamb Jalfrezi

Get the recipe =>Easy Lamb Jalfrezi
Takes => 1h 45mins (only 15 minutes prep!)
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 354 kcal (without rice), 484 kcal (with 100g cooked white rice)

7. Chicken Chilli Con Carne

Get the recipe =>Chicken Chilli Con Carne
Takes => 30 mins
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 359 kcal (without rice), 460 kcal (with 100g cooked brown rice)

8.Easy One Pot Vegetable Paella (Vegan)

Get the recipe =>Easy One Pot Vegetable Paella
Takes => 30 mins
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 434 kcal

9.Tomato, Pepper and Chorizo Pasta

Get the recipe =>Tomato, Pepper and Chorizo Pasta
Takes => 30 mins
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 488 kcal (not including grated cheese)

10.Easy Vegetable Fajitas (Vegetarian)

Get the recipe =>Easy Vegetable Fajitas
Takes => 20 mins
Makes => 4 portions
Calories per portion => 399 kcal (not including sour cream)

11. Leftover Chicken, Kale, Quinoa and Pumpkin Salad

Get the recipe =>Leftover Chicken,Kale, Quinoa and Pumpkin Salad
Takes => 30mins
Makes =>6 portions
Calories per portion => 431 kcal

12. Easy Prawn Korma

Get the recipe => Easy Prawn Korma
Takes => 20mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 304 kcal (without rice), 434 kcal (with 100g cooked white rice)

13.Easy Quorn Bolognese (Vegetarian)

Get the recipe => Easy Quorn Bolognese
Takes => 20mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 423 kcal (not including grated cheese)

14.Chicken Shish Kebabs

Get the recipe => Chicken Shish Kebabs
Takes => 20mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 275 kcal (not including pittas), 420 kcal (including 1 wholemeal pitta)

15. Jerk Salmon with Mango and Avocado Salsa

Get the recipe =>Jerk Salmon with Mango and Avocado Salsa
Takes => 25 mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 402 kcal (salmon and salsa only, not including rice)

16. Easy Chicken Rogan Josh

Get the recipe =>Easy Chicken Rogan Josh
Takes => 30mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 372 kcal (not including rice), 472 kcal (including 1 portionPilau Cauliflower Rice)

17. Easy Lamb Hotpot

Get the recipe =>Easy Lamb Hotpot
Takes => 1 hour 40mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 310 kcal

18.Easy Quorn Sausage Casserole

Get the recipe => Easy Quorn Sausage Casserole
Takes => 30mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 274 kcal (without rice), 404kcal (with 100g cooked white rice)

19. Oven Baked Chicken Shawarma with Garlic Sauce

Get the recipe => Oven Baked Chicken Shawarma with Garlic Sauce
Takes => 30mins
Makes =>4 portions
Calories per portion => 274 kcal (without pitta bread), 419kcal (with 1 wholemeal pitta bread)

20. Turkish Spicy Lamb Pizzas (Lahmacun)

Get the recipe => Turkish Spicy Lamb Pizzas (Lahmacun)
Takes => 30mins
Makes =>8 portions
Calories per portion => 374 kcal

Did you find a new favourite?

I hope you enjoyed this roundup and have found lots of new favourites 😀 If you have tried and enjoyed any of these recipes I’d love to hear about it! Either let me know in the comments below, or snap a quick photo and share it on social media. Tag me @easypeasyfoodie and I’ll like and comment on as many as I see!

If you enjoyed this roundup…

…then you might also enjoy these:

• 20 Easy Dinners Under 600 Calories
• 20 Easy Dinners Under 400 Calories
• 20+ Easy UPF-Free Dinners
• 31 Easy Vegan Dinners
• 18 Easy Peasy Salad Recipes
• 27 Easy Chicken Dinners

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Disclaimer

* Nutrition advice is approximate and meant as a guideline only. I have done my very best to ensure nutrition information is as accurate as I can make it, however there will obviously be some variation depending on the exact ingredients you use.

I am a food blogger NOT a nutritional health professional, so while I do try to make (mostly) healthy recipes, none of this should be read as professional advice about weight loss!