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Five ingredients or less dinner favourites

Sometimes you don't want to muck around with 15 different ingredients.

Potato tortilla

Potato tortilla Source: Rachel Tolosa Paz

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While it's true that recipes with a huge list of ingredients are often surprisingly simple to make, sometimes you don't want to take the risk. A dish with five ingredients or less is always a sure thing for simplicity.

Grab your ingredients (you'll only need one trip) and crack out one of these beauties for dinner tonight. They're so straightforward you'll swear your stopped time.

Five ingredient dinners from The Cook Up

Cuban macaroni

Warm green bean salad

Chicken linguine pasta


One quick word before we launch: we haven't included the holy trinity of oil, salt, pepper in our 'five'. We figure nothing good ever comes out of a kitchen without this trio as a base... fair enough?

Rigatoni alla Gricia

Rigato alla gricia
An iconic Roman dish of pecorino cheese, pepper and cured pork. Source: Jono Fleming
Right now an esausta mamma is cooking up this pasta in her apartment by the Piazza di Spagna, knowing that despite it taking only 15 mins to pull together, everyone will love it and there will only be one pan to wash up at the end. Yep, it's that dish.
READ MORE

Spicy sausage and ricotta pasta

Margaret Fulton's pumpkin soup
This is Margaret Fulton's pumpkin soup recipe, so it comes with extra comfort. Source: Hardie Grant
Every cook needs a good
pumpkin soup recipe
up their sleeve for busy, over-it kind of nights. It's simple to make and oh-so soothing to eat.
READ MORE

Broccoli, lemon and parmesan soup

Batata harra

Roast potatoes
Source: Alan Benson
Crispy potatoes roasted with fresh lemon, spicy garlic, coriander and hot pepper flakes - this
Lebanese dish
serves up a flavour bomb.

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine
Quiche Lorraine is traditionally made with just eggs, crème fraîche and bacon, so let's stick with that. Source: Alan Benson
Sure, if you made your own pastry you'd be well over the five-ingredient quota. Which is why you don't have to.
READ MORE

Chips with cheese sauce

Japanese egg salad sandwiches

Cacio e pepe

Cheesy chitarra pasta adorned simply with black pepper
Cacio e pepe is just one easy win. Source: Tammi Kwok
This is one
of the most traditional dishes of the Lazio region. It’s so simple and requires just five ingredients. It was developed in that area due to the abundance of shepherds in the region who produce Cacio (Roman cheese). Mmm... cheese!
READ MORE

Spaghetti aglio e olio

Potato tortilla

Potato tortilla
A tortilla might seem like simplicity itself, but the taste is surprisingly complex. Source: Rachel Tolosa Paz
Remember when we mentioned that mamma in Italy? Well, this is the
Argentinian version
. Mamá, Plaza del Congreso, exhausta.
READ MORE

Amy Schumer's potato skins

Egg and bacon pies

Egg and bacon pies
Donna Hay's got your dinner sorted with these fast, fresh and simple no-pastry pies. Source: Donna Hay: Fast, Fresh, Simple
If these little pies don't make you do a happy dance at the end of the day, we've failed. Four ingredients, 10 minutes of prep and bacon.
READ MORE

Caramelised onion, potato and feta tart

Oven-baked chicken

Oven-baked chicken thighs with olive, tomato and lemon
Throw your five ingredients together in five minutes, then set and forget in the oven. Source: Adam Liaw
You can always rely on a chicken traybake to be fuss-free and
this one
is no exception. Big flavours like olives and lemon give you plenty of bang for your fiver.
READ MORE

Braised chicken (pollo in potacchio)

Peynirli hangel

Handkerchief noodles
Blue cheese is definitely better as a solo artist. Source: Feast magazine
From the hills of northeastern Turkey comes
a recipe
that will make blue cheese lovers swoon. It's basically fresh homemade noodles with butter and crumbled blue cheese (any soft blue will do). Don't mess with perfection, right?
READ MORE

Caramelised grapefruit, blue cheese, rocket and watercress

Cong you tofu

Cong you tofu (silken tofu with spring onion oil and soy sauce)
Ready in ten. Source: Adam Liaw
We're cheating just a little bit here because
this Chinese table pleaser
 uses two types of soy sauce (light and dark), which technically brings the ingredient count to six. But then, we figure most of us will end up using one or the other, so five it is!
READ MORE

Tofu doughnuts

Four-ingredient flan

Four Ingredient Flan
When was sugar, eggs, milk, condensed milk and vanilla ever not going to be good? Source: Adam Liaw
Finish your meal with a
Filipino leche flan-inspired
dish that will take you five minutes to prepare. It's hard to believe this thing of beauty is constructed from only four ingredients, but that's the magic of sugar for you... and Adam Liaw.
READ MORE

Italian almond biscuits (ricciarelli)

Yuzu cheesecake

Around five

Homemade rice noodles

Chunky Greek oven chips with feta

Paris mash

Wagyu scotch fillet with potato gems

Taglierini with porcini mushrooms (taglierin con porcini)

Fettuccine napoletana (tomato sauce)

Home-style tomato noodle soup (sopa de fideo de mi casa)

Havuc (carrots, carraway and yoghurt)

Dhal salon

Silken tofu with orange and ginger syrup

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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only.
Watch nowOn Demand
Follow SBS Food
facebook
twitter
instagram
tiktok
3 min read
Published 22 July 2021 11:55am
Updated 7 August 2023 5:04pm
By SBS Food bite-sized
Source: SBS

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