20 Heart-Healthy Dinners You'll Want to Make Forever (2024)

A heart-healthy diet can still include flavorful, satisfying meals that incorporate your favorite proteins and flavors—whether that means a delicious veggie burger or a mouth-watering steak. Each of these heart-healthy recipes is lower in saturated fat and sodium, so you can savor a great dinner and take care of your heart at the same time. Recipes like our Basil Pesto Pasta with Grilled Vegetables and Irish Pork Roast with Roasted Root Vegetables will soon be favorites you return to again and again.

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Irish Pork Roast with Roasted Root Vegetables

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In this easy one-pan dinner, boneless pork loin roast is cooked over a bed of carrots and parsnips for an all-in-one dish that makes an impressive centerpiece for a holiday meal or Sunday dinner. Choose free-range heritage pork if you can--its flavor really shines with no more seasoning than a bit of thyme and a little sea salt. If you'd like, dress up the meal with a traditional Irish apple condiment--Ploughmans chutney or Bramley applesauce, which you can find in specialty stores and online.

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Basil Pesto Pasta with Grilled Vegetables

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This dish is an easy way to turn grilled vegetables into a satisfying meal, thanks to hearty whole-grain pasta and a quick homemade pesto.

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Spice-Seared Salmon with Greek-Style Green Beans

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Preparing this spice-seared salmon recipe is a joy for the senses! Rubbing salmon with spices creates a light, delicious main course. Serve this recipe with roasted potatoes or brown rice. If you have leftover salmon, serve it on top of a simple salad for a satisfying lunch the next day.

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Charred Shrimp, Pesto & Quinoa Bowls

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These shrimp, pesto and quinoa bowls are delicious, healthy, pretty and take less than 30 minutes to prep. In other words, they're basically the ultimate easy weeknight dinner. Feel free to add additional vegetables and swap the shrimp for chicken, steak, tofu or edamame.

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Peppery Barbecue-Glazed Shrimp with Vegetables & Orzo

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In this healthy BBQ shrimp recipe, shrimp are seasoned with a peppery spice blend and served with zucchini, peppers and whole-grain orzo for a delicious and easy dinner that's ready in just 30 minutes. The shrimp and veggies are cooked in the same skillet, so cleanup is a snap too.

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Zucchini-Chickpea Veggie Burgers with Tahini-Ranch Sauce

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This vegan burger recipe is one you'll want to make again and again. Savory chickpea and zucchini patties are topped with a creamy, herb-flecked tahini ranch sauce, juicy tomato slices and peppery arugula for a satisfying and healthy homemade veggie burger. Serve them on buns or stuff them in pitas. We recommend making extra sauce--it's a great dip for veggie sticks and, thinned with a little water, it makes a wonderful salad dressing.

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Mushroom Ragout with Herbed Ricotta & Pappardelle

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This mushroom ragout is topped with dollops of ricotta, which cut through the acidity of the tomato-based sauce for a balanced flavor and creamy texture.

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Tabbouleh with Pan-Seared Chicken

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Tabbouleh is a Lebanese dish that relies on plenty of fresh parsley and just a hint of mint. Here, we add pan-seared chicken to transform this tabbouleh recipe into a heartier meal.

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Beer-Battered Fish Tacos with Tomato & Avocado Salsa

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Lovers of fried fish get the taste without all the calories, and the salsa adds a fresh, clean note. To complete the Baja theme, serve with black beans, some diced mango and a bit of light sour cream.

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Pan-Seared Steak with Crispy Herbs & Escarole

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This easy dinner takes just 20 minutes to prepare, meaning that seared steak can be a weeknight meal. Cooking herbs in the pan with the steak releases their aroma, infusing it into the meat while creating a crispy garnish. After the steaks and herbs are pan-seared, the escarole is cooked in the same skillet, so this healthy dinner requires minimal cleanup too.

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Summer Shrimp Salad

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Use an array of colorful tomatoes to make this healthy shrimp salad pop. Cooking the shrimp with fresh herbs and garlic infuses them with flavor without coming off too strong for a light dinner salad that's perfect for summer entertaining.

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Chicken Kebabs with Warm Cabbage-Apple Slaw

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Serve these easy grilled chicken kebabs with apple and cabbage slaw and potatoes for a healthy dinner that's great for summer cookouts. Leave yourself enough time to marinate the chicken for up to three hours in the simple orange-ginger marinade before threading it onto skewers and putting them on the grill.

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Vegan Cauliflower Fettuccine Alfredo with Kale

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In this date-night-worthy vegan fettuccine Alfredo recipe, cooked cauliflower transforms into a rich, luscious sauce when it's blended with softened cashews. A high-speed blender will give you the creamiest results. Opt for whole-wheat fettuccine to add fiber to this vegan pasta recipe.

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Chhole (Chickpea Curry)

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Made with convenient canned beans, this quick and healthy Indian recipe is an authentic chickpea curry that you can make in minutes. If you want an additional vegetable, stir in some roasted cauliflower florets. Serve with brown basmati rice or warm naan.

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Charred Vegetable & Bean Tostadas with Lime Crema

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Pile vegetables and black beans onto crisp tostadas and top them off with lime crema for a vegetarian dinner the whole family will love. Charring the vegetables under the broiler infuses them with smoky flavor while cooking them quickly.

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Chicken & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan

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This one-pan pasta that combines lean chicken breast and sautéed spinach for a one-bowl meal is garlicky, lemony and best served with a little Parm on top. I call it "Mom's Skillet Pasta" and she called it "Devon's Favorite Pasta." Either way it's a quick and easy weeknight dinner we created together and scribbled on a little recipe card more than a decade ago, and it remains in my weekly dinner rotation to this day. It's a simple dinner the whole family will love.

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One-Pot Garlicky Shrimp & Spinach

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Shrimp, spinach and garlic brown and cook quickly for a simple one-pot weeknight dinner. A fast pan sauce gets life from zesty lemon juice, warm crushed red pepper and herby parsley. Serve with a slice of whole-wheat baguette to swipe up every last drop of sauce.

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Roasted Salmon with Smoky Chickpeas & Greens

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In this healthy salmon dinner, you'll get a dose of greens and green dressing! Chowing down on 6 or more servings of dark leafy greens a week can help keep your brain in top shape. This dish features the Test Kitchen's current go-to method for doctoring a can of chickpeas: spice them up and roast until crispy.

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Green Veggie Bowl with Chicken & Lemon-Tahini Dressing

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For this healthy 30-minute dinner, treat your veggies like pasta and cook until al dente, or just done. If you have a little extra time, double or triple the lemon-tahini dressing and use it to quickly dress a salad or as a sauce for steak or shrimp.

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Trapanese Pesto Pasta & Zoodles with Salmon

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Trapanese pesto is the Sicilian version of the sauce that uses tomatoes and almonds instead of pine nuts. This savory pesto sauce coats low-carb zucchini noodles and heart-healthy seared salmon to create an absolutely delicious pasta dinner.