FOOD

5 Autumn Sunday Night Dinner Ideas

dinner

WORDS: Peter Minkoff PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

The summer in Australia is slowly leaving us, making way for autumn, one of the most beautiful seasons in our country. In the fall, we all slow down a bit and leave time to enjoy simple pleasures like cooking a tasty dinner for your loved ones or taking a walk to a good restaurant for some food. As you can see, fall mostly pushes us to eat better and prepare for winter. If you also crave some tasty goodies these days, here are a few Sunday night dinner ideas you can cook, order or go out and try: 

Warming soup

Fall and winter are the perfect times to enjoy some soup. A warm soup will help you adjust to new temperatures yet stuff you with something light yet filling. If you wait long enough for the pumpkins to come, you can make a delicious curried pumpkin soup with chicken and chilly and fire up those taste buds. If you’re craving something East Asian, you can’t go wrong with miso ramen. With only a few extra ingredients you probably have at home (egg, corn, broth, green onions, ramen noodles) you can whip up a fast bowl of miso ramen. A creamy tortellini soup is also a perfect fall choice, but since tortellini shells are a bit complicated to make, it’s best to have this delicacy at the restaurant. 

Fresh salads

No matter the season, salads always have a place on our Australian tables. However, don’t hesitate to add a few fall staples to your salad this Sunday. For instance, you can add roasted eggplant to your Caprese salad or enrich your cabbage salad with some mayo and mustard for nice coleslaw. These are all easy to make at home, but feel free to order them during your next dinner date as well. 

Hearty baked meals

The weather is slowly getting colder Down Under, which means we can all benefit from some hearty baked meals straight from the oven. If you want to try a few meals on your own, you can stock up on healthy meat chunks and some veggies you can stick in the oven to roast. Something perfect for autumn is sticky chicken with plums and bok choy. There’s something about ripe plums mixed with savoury meat that screams beautiful fall. If you want to go out and eat on Sunday and treat yourself to a nice meal, find an Italian place that serves pizza topped with figs as the ultimate fall fruit. If you’re lazy even for that, you can always find boscaiola in Sydney that will appear right at your doorstep thanks to delivery. This baked pasta meal will warm up your stomach and your heart without having to lift a finger (well, you must lift a finger to order this amazing meal from your local top chef). 

Loaded snacks and sides

While summer requires only a light dressing to improve your salads and freshen up your meat, in the fall, you can really go all-in with snacks and sides to make your meals a bit heartier. For instance, if you love to make corn chips nachos, swap chips for sweet potatoes and you’ll have a wonderful snack full of nutrients and calories. Top your roasted sweet potato with some cheese, veggies and lean meat, and you can have an easy-to-make snack for the entire family. Another great fall side dish is cauliflower. Fall is the time when cauliflower tastes the best, so add amazing dimension to your meals with smoked-paprika cauliflower florets or cauliflower mash. 

Pies 

What is a Sunday meal without a pie? In the fall, you get a lot of great pie ingredients that make a perfect savoury or sweet pie. Pies are beloved all over Australia, but if you don’t want to make anything yourself, it’s best to order a good curried pork pie or apple pie, or better yet, take a walk to your local restaurant for a piece of blueberry pie. 

This fall, don’t forget to add a few seasonal veggies and fruits to your menu. As you can see, it’s very easy to adapt your menu to the changing weather and create meals that will give you energy and keep you warm throughout the colder months.