11 Simple Fall Recipes That Make Weeknight Dinners a Breeze

2 bowls of Chicken Chile Verde with ripped tortillas, limes and cilantro, on black marble surface — Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

September is here, signaling the beginning of fall. But with warm, sunny days still lingering in many parts of the country, it doesn't quite feel like autumn. Though I'm eager for comforting meals with autumnal vibes, I'm not ready for the heavy stews of winter just yet. That's where these light yet cozy dinner recipes come in. Below, you'll find some of our favorite transitional recipes—easy soups, salads, and chicken dinners—that are hearty but not overly rich. They showcase some of fall's best flavors, including butternut squash, kale, hazelnuts, and warm spices—perfect for easing you into sweater weather.

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Easy Sausage, Kale, and Black-Eyed Pea Soup With Lemon and Rosemary

Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

With a few simple tricks, it’s pretty easy to turn Italian sausage, dried beans, and kale into a deeply satisfying one-pot meal. Soaking the beans in salted water weakens the structure of the beans' skins, allowing them to soften more easily. Italian sausage brings a bold, savory punch, and adding rosemary and lemon zest in two stages—at the beginning and then right before serving—gives the soup layers of flavor.

Easy Sausage, Kale, and Black-Eyed Pea Soup With Lemon and Rosemary
Classic Butternut Squash Soup

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

As soon as September arrives, butternut squash comes to mind—and there's no better expression of fall than a steaming bowl of butternut squash soup topped with frizzled sage. Roasting the squash at high heat concentrates the gourd's natural sugars, while sautéing onions in brown butter adds savory, nutty depth. For the smoothest, creamiest texture, blend the soup in a high-speed blender if you have one.

Classic Butternut Squash Soup
Roasted Delicata Squash and Kale Salad With Hazelnut-Parmesan Crumble

Serious Eats / Jillian Atkinson

Delicata squash and kale shine in this autumnal sheet-pan salad, which is simple to make yet deeply complex in flavor. Placing the squash along the perimeter of the pan maximizes caramelization and shields the kale roasting in the center. Once cooked, everything is tossed on the sheet pan with a thyme-mustard vinaigrette and a sage-infused hazelnut and Parmesan crumble.

Roasted Delicata Squash and Kale Salad With Hazelnut-Parmesan Crumble
Chicken Chile Verde

Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

This time-tested chicken chile verde is a winner on all fronts. After some light prep—peeling and chopping—you'll add everything to the pressure cooker and cook under pressure for just 15 minutes. The chicken and vegetables release enough liquid to braise in their own juices, no broth required. Once done, all that's left to do is to purée the vegetables and cooking liquid into a sauce, then serve it with warm tortillas and lime wedges.

Chicken Chile Verde

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Roasted-Beet Salad With Horseradish Crème Fraîche and Pistachios

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Roasted beets make a surprisingly satisfying light supper when paired with punchy horseradish crème fraîche and crunchy toasted pistachios. Roasting the beets in a foil pouch concentrates their flavor and keeps them moist as they steam in their own juices, while also making them easier to peel—their skins slip right off under cool running water. Toss the cooked beets in a simple vinaigrette with a hint of honey to accentuate their natural earthy sweetness, then serve them over a pool of creamy horseradish sauce.

Roasted-Beet Salad With Horseradish Crème Fraîche and Pistachios
Stracciatella alla Romana (Italian Egg Drop Soup)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

This Italian-style egg drop soup is warm, comforting, and about as quick to make as it gets. With so few ingredients beyond eggs and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, homemade chicken stock is essential for depth of flavor. To create light, delicate ribbons, whisk the eggs and cheese together before streaming the mixture into the hot stock. Finish with a grating of nutmeg and a touch of lemon zest, and it's buonissimo.

Stracciatella alla Romana (Italian Egg Drop Soup)
Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa

Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze. Prop Stylist: Claire Spollen, Food Stylist: Chelsea Zimmer

Caramelizing vegetables can heighten their natural sweetness, but it isn't always necessary, like in this spicy carrot and ginger soup. Sweating aromatics such as onion, garlic, and ginger, then cooking them with harissa, cumin, and coriander seed, creates an intensely flavorful base that complements the carrots beautifully. For a fully vegan version, swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock or carrot juice.

Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa
Crispy Pork Hash

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

If you’re looking for an easy way to repurpose that leftover slow-roasted pork shoulder, this skillet hash is the perfect antidote to cooking fatigue. Each component is cooked separately and in reserved pork fat to maximize flavor and texture: asparagus and serrano pepper take on a smoky char, while the pork and parboiled potatoes crisp up beautifully. Finish with a couple of fried eggs on top, or tuck the hash into corn tortilla for tacos.

Crispy Pork Hash

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One-Pan Honey-Mustard Pork Chops

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

What makes these tender, juicy pork chops a weeknight dinner classic is the effortless prep and minimal hands-on cooking. An optional step of dry-brining the pork chops results in moist, deeply-seasoned meat. Starting the pork chops at a lower temperature and then finishing them in a hot pan allows the pork to remain moist and tender while also getting nicely browned. Use the pan drippings to make a quick honey mustard (or an apple cider variation for a more autumnal vibe!), then serve it with a handful of greens and some crusty bread to soak up that delicious sauce.

One-Pan Honey-Mustard Pork Chops
Chicken Saltimbocca

Serious Eats / Frederick Hardy II, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley, Food Stylist: Margaret Dickey

Chicken saltimbocca—golden, crispy chicken layered with prosciutto and bathed in a lemony pan sauce—sounds like a fancy dish from an upscale Italian restaurant. But it's actually quite easy to make at home, thanks to this one-pan version from our Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Jasmine. Frying the sage leaves before searing the chicken infuses the oil with earthy flavor and perfumes the poultry, and starting the chicken prosciutto-side down gives the meat full contact with the pan, resulting in a crisp, savory layer.

Chicken Saltimbocca
30-Minute Chicken With Lemon Butter Sauce

Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

One of the ways to keep chicken breast—a cut that notoriously tends to dry out—juicy is to cook quickly over high heat. Pounding the meat thin allows it to cook evenly while developing a golden crust; here, we sear pounded cutlets for just a few minutes per side, then remove them from the pan to make a sauce with the residual fond. Deglaze the pan with wine and stock, then swirl in cold butter for a rich, glossy sauce.

30-Minute Chicken With Lemon Butter Sauce