10 Recipes

Quick Dinner Ideas for 2

Right-sized dinners for two — no leftover Tupperware, no half-empty pan. Steak, shrimp scampi, salmon, and pasta dinners scaled for date night.

Contributors
Brittany Khamille
Chloe Navarro
Tabetha Garrison
+7

Popular

Creamy Shrimp Scampi Popular

Creamy Shrimp Scampi

Creamy Shrimp Scampi

30 min620 cal35g proteinServes 41,775 saves
Brittany KhamilleBrittany Khamille

Ingredients

  • 1 pound peeled & deveined shrimp
  • lemon pepper
  • onion powder
  • Cajun Seasoning
  • juice from half a lemon
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 10 ounces linguine
  • prolly a lot garlic-minced
  • 1 shallot-finely diced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • juice from half a lemon
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • cajun seasoning
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley

Instructions

  1. 1Put a large pot of water boiling, seasoned with cajun seasoning. Cook the pasta according to the package.
  2. 2Meanwhile, in a bowl, season the shrimp to taste & add some lemon juice.
  3. 3Heat the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the shrimp, 2-3 minutes per side on medium high heat. Remove.
  4. 4Melt the butter and sauté the shallot and garlic for about 5 minutes on medium low heat. Add in the broth & lemon juice.
  5. 5Stir in the heavy cream & bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add back in the shrimp, stir in the noodles & fresh parsley.

P.S. We update the recipes on this page every few days. If you want to cook this recipe over and over again, we'd love it if you downloaded Pepper 🤝.

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Dinner Sized Right

Cooking for two is its own skill — every recipe in the meal-for-four world leaves you with three days of leftovers, and that's not always the goal.

Cooks on Pepper turn to this collection for date nights, small households, and any dinner that shouldn't turn into a Sunday-through-Wednesday marathon.

Every recipe here is scaled or portioned for two adults — enough that nobody's hungry, not so much that you're eating the same thing all week.

Quick Tips

  1. 1

    Buy a two-person pan

    A 10-inch skillet is the perfect size for two portions — no crowding, no empty space, no burnt bits.

  2. 2

    Halve the pasta box

    One-half box of pasta (8 oz) is the right yield for two — save the other half for another night.

  3. 3

    Split the steak

    One 12-16 oz ribeye or NY strip serves two beautifully when sliced against the grain.

  4. 4

    Skip the side casserole

    Two servings of a roasted vegetable finish faster than a whole side dish — sheet-pan asparagus in 10 minutes.

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