12 No-Chop Recipes That Cut Prep Time So You Can Eat Sooner

Warm Shrimp and Baby Dutch Potato Salad

Peeling and chopping potatoes can be a pain, so skip it! These baby yellow potatoes taste just as good when you cook them whole with the skins on, and it'll save you tons of time on dinner. Even though this shrimp, green bean, and mixed greens salad looks complicated, it'll only take 30 minutes.

Hurried Gazpacho and Handheld Quesadillas

If you like making and canning fresh salsa, this is the perfect recipe to put it to good use. It's a jump start on making the gazpacho for this recipe since you only need to add a few extra ingredients (including fresh cilantro). Then, use black beans and sliced olives to make delicious and nutritious no-chop quesadillas. Your Mexican-inspired no-chop feast will be ready to eat in just 30 minutes.

Vegetable Fried Rice with Red Curry Nut Sauce

Fried rice has always been a go-to meal on busy weeknights, but this version rises above the rest. To keep everything moving in your kitchen and avoid any chopping, purchase broccoli florets and shredded (or julienned) carrots for adding to your skillet. And the no-chop secret to our creamy, spicy curry nut sauce? A spoonful of peanut butter!

Mediterranean Salad on Mini Naan

One of the best parts of getting your protein from beans like chickpeas is that there's no chopping involved. Crack open a can of garbanzo beans, then dress it up for dinner with fresh mozzarella balls, arugula, basil, and Kalamata olives. Then, you can scoop up bunches of this salad and eat it with naan to make a fast, healthy, no-chop dinner.

Asparagus, Chicken, and Green Pea Salad with Mint

This fresh and easy recipe adds more green to your plate than ever before. Instead of plain lettuce, serve shredded rotisserie chicken on a bed of asparagus, peas, and mint leaves. Especially when you toss goat cheese and a dash of crushed red pepper into the mix, no one will ever accuse this recipe of being boring.

Pan-Grilled Mahi Mahi with Avocado Sauce

Unlike many veggie sides, spinach doesn't need chopping to make it easy to eat (especially when you serve it wilted). Fish fillets have the same advantage, so we spiced them up with chili powder before pan-grilling. Serve with a super-simple buttermilk and avocado sauce, and this mouthwatering dinner can be yours in just 20 minutes.

Lemon-Basil Pasta

Five ingredients, 25 minutes, AND it's no-chop? Sign us up because this recipe has it all. Linguine and cannellini beans make this recipe hearty enough for dinner, and stirring in homemade lemon and basil pesto makes it so tasty you'll want to have it for dinner every night. If you have extra basil after making this recipe, add a few additional leaves to your plate for even more fresh flavor.

Mexican Skillet Dinner

When you use chorizo sausage, frozen corn, and canned tomatoes, you can toss together this tasty Mexican skillet dinner in a snap with no chopping at all. Pinto beans and rice will help this recipe stick to your ribs, so you won't need to sneak down for a midnight snack later. If you're a cilantro lover, you can add a few fresh sprigs on top (but if it tastes like soap, you're also free to leave it off).

Turkey Meat Loaf Pockets with Peach-Barbecue Glaze

You can probably make most meat loaf recipes without much chopping, but not every recipe has a serving of veggies hiding inside. Use dry bread crumbs and tangy barbecue sauce to hold the ground turkey together, then fill the center with mixed vegetables and shredded cheese. Then, when everyone at your table cuts into their own loaf, they'll find a cheesy, healthful surprise.

Macaroni Alfredo with Pumpkin and Kale

You'll never need to chop canned pumpkin, and as a bonus, it makes pasta deliciously creamy and savory. Almost like pumpkin mac and cheese, this no-chop recipe has torn fresh kale to make it a little healthier than your average macaroni. You can keep this an easy no-prep meal by using purchased minced garlic instead of chopping your own.

Sheet-Pan Chickpeas and Eggs

In this 4-ingredient no-chop recipe (though we recommend snipping some fresh parsley or chives to make the dish pop), we toss chickpeas in a bit of oil and smoked paprika before roasting. Crack a few eggs on the pan in the last five or so minutes, and you've got a delicious meatless meal ready to go.

Buy It: Nordic Ware Naturals Quarter Sheet Pan ($11, Target)

Lemon-Caper Tuna and Noodles with Alfredo

For a simple one-dish dinner everyone in the family will love, look no further than this no-chop recipe. Well, we do require cutting a lemon here, but we promise the brightness it brings to the dish is worth it. This is also a fresh way to use canned tuna in the pantry.