Light Supper Ideas: 20 Light Evening Meals That Still Feel Like Dinner
Twenty light evening meals grouped by the kind of night you are having, with what a light meal actually is and how to make one filling enough to last.
By Eatpace 10 min read 
Light supper ideas tend to go wrong in one of two directions: a plate so small you are back in the kitchen at ten, or a "light" dish that turns out to be a cream sauce with a salad leaf on top. What people mean when they search for something light to eat for dinner is simpler than either. They want to eat properly and feel comfortable an hour later.
So, what is a light meal? It is one where the heaviness has been taken out, not the food. Lean protein instead of fatty cuts, vegetables doing the bulk, broth or a sharp dressing instead of cream, herbs and acid instead of cheese and pastry, and a sensible portion of rice, noodles or bread rather than a mound of it. A light evening meal can still be warm, still have a proper plate's worth of food on it and still be the thing you looked forward to on the way home.
The 20 light evening meals below all pass that test. Every one is a real dinner from the collection, named with its own cooking time, and they are grouped by the kind of evening you are having: a bowl, a soup, a piece of fish, something warm and vegetable-led, or a salad that is honestly big enough to count. If you want to keep browsing afterwards, the light dinner recipes and the healthy dinner recipes are the two shelves to look on.
One scope note. If the reason tonight needs to be light is a big lunch, there is a separate post on light dinner ideas for when you have eaten a big lunch that deals with timing and portions. This one is about the ordinary evening when you simply want something lighter.
A bowl: warm rice or noodles with the heavy parts left out
A bowl is the easiest light dinner to get right because the proportions are built in. A modest layer of rice or noodles at the bottom, a clear protein on top, a lot of raw or quickly cooked vegetables, and a dressing sharp enough to make you want the next mouthful. Nothing is swimming in anything.
Salmon Poke Bowl, ready in 30 minutes, is the template: cold cubed salmon, warm rice, cucumber, avocado and a soy and sesame dressing. It is filling because the salmon brings 35 g of protein and the rice is a proper portion, but it still eats clean. Crispy Tofu Spring Roll Bowl in 28 minutes does the same with rice noodles, lettuce, herbs and crisp tofu; it is the dinner version of a plate of summer rolls without the rolling.
Two more for the bowl nights. Lime Prawn & Avocado Bowl is 30 minutes and tastes of lime, coriander and chilli, with prawns that cook in the time it takes to warm the rice. Crispy Chickpea & Hummus Bowl, also 30 minutes, is the vegetarian one that does not feel like a side dish: roasted chickpeas for crunch, hummus for richness, cucumber and tomato for volume.
A soup or broth: the lightest dinner that is still hot
Soup gets dismissed as a starter, and a thin bowl of it with nothing else is one. A soup with protein in it and something to chew is a different proposition and one of the most comforting light meals for dinner there is, particularly from October onwards when a salad feels wrong.
Hot & Sour Tofu Soup is ready in 25 minutes and is the lightest dinner on this list at 220 kcal, so it wants a bowl of rice or a few dumplings alongside if you have been active. The flavour is all vinegar, chilli, ginger and mushroom, and it wakes your appetite up rather than sitting on it. Brothy Miso Rice with Mushrooms, 38 minutes, goes the other way: the rice cooks in the broth so the result is halfway between soup and a risotto, savoury and warming with none of the butter.
Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup in 25 minutes is the one to make when someone in the house is under the weather and still needs feeding properly; it has 27 g of protein and is thickened with egg rather than cream. Mediterranean Fish Soup takes 39 minutes and is a proper tomato and fennel broth with chunks of white fish, the sort of thing you tear bread into.
A light dinner is one you have stopped thinking about an hour later, not one you are still hungry after.
Fish: the fastest route to a light dinner that feels like a treat
Fish is the protein that makes light cooking easy. It cooks in minutes, it does not need a heavy sauce to taste of anything, and a fillet with greens and a wedge of lemon looks like dinner in a way a plain chicken breast never quite does.
Lemon Sea Bass & Butter Beans is ready in 28 minutes: crisp-skinned fish on beans warmed through with garlic, lemon and parsley, the beans doing the job of potatoes without the weight. Hot Honey Salmon & Greens, also 28 minutes, has a sticky glaze that reads as indulgent, but the plate underneath is salmon and a pile of greens, 36 g of protein and nothing to feel heavy about.
Ginger Spring Onion Fish & Rice in 28 minutes is steamed white fish with sizzled ginger and spring onion over rice, which is about as clean as a hot dinner gets while still being generous. Lemon Salmon & Crispy Capers Greens is 25 minutes, with the capers fried until they burst and scattered over the fish; it is the dish to make when you want something that looks like more effort than it was.
Warm and vegetable-led: when a salad is not going to cut it
Some evenings want heat without heft. The dishes here are built on vegetables but cooked, seasoned and served warm, so they land as dinner rather than as a plate of something good for you.
Green Shakshuka with Feta, 28 minutes, is eggs baked into spinach, leeks and herbs, with feta crumbled over the top and bread on the side for the yolks. Romesco Tofu & Tenderstem in 28 minutes is crisp tofu and charred broccoli over a smoky red pepper and almond sauce; it has 22 g of protein and enough character that nobody misses the meat.
Courgette & Pea Frittata is 25 minutes and the best use of a glut of courgettes you will find: sweet, green and light, with a slice of bread or a few boiled potatoes alongside. Lemon Courgette Spaghetti, also 25 minutes, is the proof that pasta can be a light supper. Thin ribbons of courgette, lemon zest, a little parmesan and olive oil, and a normal portion of spaghetti rather than a heap.
A big salad that is honestly dinner
The difference between a salad that is dinner and a salad that is a side is protein and something warm or crisp. Tuna, steak, halloumi or beans, a dressing with some fat in it, and at least one element with texture, and it holds you until morning.
Niçoise Tuna Salad, 30 minutes, is the original dinner salad for a reason: tuna, eggs, green beans, potatoes and olives with a mustardy dressing, and at 42 g of protein it has more protein than anything else on this list. Beef Tataki Salad in 24 minutes is thin slices of seared beef over crisp leaves with a ponzu dressing, pink in the middle and light on the plate.
Lemon Tuna & White Bean Salad is the quickest dinner here at 15 minutes and comes almost entirely from the cupboard: a tin of tuna, a tin of beans, lemon, red onion and parsley, with 36 g of protein. Charred Broccoli & Halloumi Salad, 22 minutes, puts the charred and the salty in the same bowl, and broccoli stalks taste better burnt at the edges than they ever did steamed.
How to make a light dinner filling
The complaint about light meals is that they do not last. That is almost always a build problem rather than a portion problem. The dishes above are filling because they share four habits, and you can apply them to anything you cook.
- Put a proper protein on the plate: fish, eggs, tofu, beans, lean meat. The fish fillets, tuna salads and beef dinners above all deliver 35 g or more, and that is what stops the ten o'clock cupboard raid.
- Get the bulk from vegetables, cooked or raw. Half the plate, not a garnish.
- Keep some fat in the dish: olive oil in the dressing, avocado, a little cheese, the skin on the fish. Fat is what makes the meal register as food.
- Serve a real but modest portion of carbohydrate. A fist of rice or a small pile of pasta beats none, because none is how you end up eating toast at bedtime.
The hard part is rarely knowing this. It is having a light dinner ready to go on the night you want one, with the fish bought and the lemon in the fruit bowl. Most of us decide at six that we fancy something light and then discover the fridge was stocked for a different week.
A dinner planner helps here if it already holds your next few dinners. In Eatpace, when tonight's plan is a sausage pasta and you are not in the mood, tapping Swap and choosing Lighter puts something like the dishes above in its place, and if you set More veg as your goal the plan leans that way from the start. The grocery list follows the plan, so the ingredients are in the fridge before the craving arrives.
Everything here is a complete recipe you can cook from any screen or a scrap of paper. The point of grouping them by kind of evening is that you can stop searching for "light but filling meals" at six o'clock and go straight to the shelf that fits: bowl, soup, fish, warm veg or salad. Rate the ones that worked Loved it in Eatpace and more like them come round.
What is a light meal?
A light meal is one that leaves you comfortable, not full to the point of sluggish. In practice it means lean protein, plenty of vegetables, broth or a sharp dressing instead of cream, and a modest rather than huge portion of rice, pasta or bread.
What are good light evening meals that are still filling?
Dinners with a clear protein and a lot of vegetables: a poke or spring roll bowl, a fish fillet on beans or greens, a frittata, a tuna salad with eggs and potatoes, or a soup with tofu, chicken or fish in it. All 20 above fit.
Is a light dinner the same as a low-calorie dinner?
Not necessarily. The dinners here sit between 220 and 498 kcal by their own nutrition figures, but the point is how they eat rather than the number. Light means less cream, pastry and heavy starch, not less food.
What should I eat for dinner if I want something light but warm?
Soup with protein in it, brothy rice, baked eggs with greens, or fish with vegetables. Hot & Sour Tofu Soup, Brothy Miso Rice with Mushrooms, Green Shakshuka with Feta and Lemon Sea Bass & Butter Beans all serve hot and still count as light.
How do I stop feeling hungry after a light dinner?
Make sure there is a proper protein on the plate, some fat from oil, avocado or cheese, and a real portion of carbohydrate rather than none. Hunger after a light meal is usually a missing protein or a missing carb, not a portion that was too small.
The dinners in this post
Every one is in the Eatpace catalogue, with the time and nutrition on the recipe. Add it to your plan in the app.
