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Dinner Ideas

Weeknight dinner ideas cooks are actually making — top-saved chicken, pasta, and one-pan meals from across Pepper.

Contributors
RT
Matthew Bounds
Carolanne Maria
+7

Fan Favorite

Garlic butter Shrimp PastaFan Favorite

Garlic butter Shrimp Pasta

20 min620 cal30g proteinServes 516,818 saves
RT
Raelyn Troche

Ingredients

  • 1 bag Shrimp
  • 1 box Angel hair pasta
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • to taste salt
  • to taste pepper
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp Cajun seasoning
  • 1 tbsp Parsley
  • 1/2 cup Pasta water
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan
  • 1 tsp Garlic Salt (optional)

Instructions

  1. 1Peel and devein your shrimp and leave in a seperate bowl. Start boiling your pasta to your desired tenderness. Preheat a large skillet for your shrimp
  2. 2In the seperate bowl, season your shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, parsley and cajun seasoning. Mix well
  3. 3In your large skillet melt down 2 tbsp of butter and add minced garlic and sauté until fragrant. Then add shrimp
  4. 4When the pasta is ready, save half a cup of the pasta water and drain pasta and then add back to the warm pot. Take 2 tbsp of butter add to pasta and mix in until butter is fully melted
  5. 5Once shrimp are fully cooked add in cooked pasta and pasta water. Mix shrimp in well and top with parmesan to melt. Can also add garlic salt if preferred.
  6. 6Plate and ready to serve!

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How Pepper Cooks Solve Weeknight Dinner

The best dinner ideas on Pepper share a pattern: a single protein anchor, a starch or grain, and a vegetable that roasts on the same sheet pan.

Home cooks on Pepper have gravitated toward one-pan chicken bakes, weeknight pasta with pantry sauces, and casseroles that reheat well the next day.

What ties the top-saved dinners together is speed under an hour, familiar ingredients, and portions that stretch into leftovers.

Quick Tips

  1. 1

    Batch on Sunday

    Cook proteins and grains in bulk on one afternoon so weekday meals reheat in minutes.

  2. 2

    Season in layers

    Salt the protein early, add acid at the end — it's the fastest way to make simple ingredients taste finished.

  3. 3

    Match the pan to the recipe

    A sheet pan wants space between ingredients; a skillet wants everything touching. Following that rule fixes most texture problems.

  4. 4

    Taste before you serve

    Almost every recipe here benefits from a final pinch of salt or squeeze of lemon right before plating.

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