With Rosh Hashanah upon us and Yom Kippur and Sukkot not too far behind, you may be looking for some delicious meal ideas to make that are creative, not too hard and most importantly, that your guests will love. At a certain point, after preparing meal after meal after meal, coming up with new ideas becomes stressful and time consuming. So here are three delicious meal ideas that are relatively easy to make and are a twist on the regular dishes that you are already serving. They are all flavorful, fun and can be customized to your liking.

Sweet and Nutty Rice

Whether you’re Sefardi or Ashkenaz, rice is such a great staple to include at your meals. Here’s a way to upgrade your rice dish. Let’s make this delicious nutty, flavorful and perfectly textured rice that comes together in one pot. This rice has a perfect flavor profile for Rosh Hashanah, with ingredients like carrots, cranberries, almonds, etc. You really get all the flavors of the holiday in just this one dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 4 cups freshly shredded carrots
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup your favorite cooking sauce for extra flavor
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 2 cups white basmati or jasmine rice

Topping:

• 5 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a 3 quart sauté pan over medium heat. Cook onions until translucent (5 minutes).
2. Add carrots, sauce and cook at medium-low heat for 7 minutes.
3. Add water, salt, raisins and rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
4. Fluff rice with a fork and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
5. Top with almonds and cranberries before serving and enjoy!

Zesty Chicken With Fava Beans

The many ways to make chicken are seriously endless. And by this time in life, you probably have been through quite a number of recipes. But have you tried this delicious fava bean zesty chicken? I’m the kind of person who only likes moist, delicious and soft chicken. I’m not that picky, but when it comes to dry chicken, I don’t love it. With this fava bean zesty chicken recipe, you will have moist and delicious chicken in every single bite. It’s also a filling dish, being that it’s made with fava beans. It has a variety of delicious flavors with sautéed onions and lemon juice. This all comes together in one pan so you can take one thing off your list and have this chicken recipe ready with minimal effort.

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 cup frozen fava beans
• 1 cup of cooking sauce
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of water
• The juice of one lemon
• 1 cup of chopped cilantro

Instructions:

1. Slice the onions.
2. Sauté onions in olive oil in a large pan until they’re transparent.
3. Place the chicken on top and scoop some onions over the chicken.
4. Pour the sauce, lemon juice, salt and water over the chicken.
5. Let it cook until the sauce is boiling.
6. Add the fava beans and ensure the sauce covers everything.
7. Cook on low heat until the chicken is done, beans are cooked and the sauce has thickened slightly.
8. Enjoy!

Hope you have a year filled with health, happiness and success in everything you do! It should be sweet and even sweeter than the food you make.

Tali is a recipe developer that loves creating recipes that take minimal effort yet taste delicious. She started her Instagram account @behindthesnack back in 2019 and has grown it to 85K+ fans who all share the same love of easy and delicious recipes.