Here’s What to Cook Every Night This Week (March 6 – 12)

Diets are a dime a dozen, but it turns out that there’s one we *actually* love. The Mediterranean diet is more of a guideline than a capital D diet. For the uninitiated, it focuses on foods found in the Mediterranean (ingredients from Greece, Italy, Israel and the Middle East are all fair game). It doesn’t exclude any food groups, meaning you can have just about anything in moderation. But the meal plan does focus on plant-based protein more than meat, fish and dairy, plus grains, veggies, fruits and healthy fats. To give you a taste, here are seven dinners to cook this week that are inspired by the Mediterranean lifestyle.

Mini mozzarella balls, juicy tomatoes, fresh basil and tender orecchiette, all tossed in balsamic-mustard dressing—now that’s amore. There’s no easier (or tastier) way to feed eight people in 30 minutes flat, trust.

Who needs red sauce or pizza dough when store-bought hummus and pita exist? The real star here is the homemade Greek seasoning, which calls for a bunch of pantry staples that you likely already have on hand.

If you ask us, lamb is *so* slept on. Here, it’s spiced like shawarma and given the Italian wedding treatment (meaning it’s shaped into tiny meatballs) to create a one-of-a-kind soup for the books.  

Easy, stunning and prepared in one pan, this entree checks your most important boxes. Our favorite part? The rice cooks right alongside the chicken, so you won’t need to wait for a separate pot of water to boil.

Consider TikTok feta pasta’s 15 minutes of fame a wrap: This cheesy dish is taking its place in the spotlight. It’s endlessly customizable, so you can substitute mustard greens or Swiss chard for kale, onion for shallot and white beans for chickpeas.

Your Crockpot is about to make magic again, this time with only eight simple ingredients and two main steps (whisking the eggs and combining the ingredients in the slow cooker—that’s it). Add whatever less-than-perfect produce and leftover meat you have to the mix, too. 

_{Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.}