3 Spectacular & Simple Sheet Pan Dinner Recipes
No one would know you made them on a sheet pan!!
Colorful chefs - happy Thursday 💚
This is where we cook easy, delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun, easy, and learn important stuff about metabolic health and home cooking while doing it.
My life is very full right now. In a beautiful way; I’m not complaining. But, Alex and I have been traveling or hosting friends and family in LA every week for the last 8 weeks, and we’ve got 4 more weeks of the same until we have a “free” weekend at home. We also both work full-time and spend copious amounts of time keeping sous cat Alfie out of trouble around the house. All that to say, my go-to lately has been quick, simple, nutrient-dense meals that are still full of color and flavor. This means easy to prep and make (for me) and easy to clean up (for Alex). Just because life is full doesn’t mean you can’t fit in great food and incredible flavor.
All of this reminded me of an quote from one of my favorite essays - The Pleasures of Eating — by Wendell Berry. (HIGHLY recommend if you have not read already)
A significant part of the pleasure of eating is one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes. The pleasure of eating, then, may be the best available standard of our health. And this pleasure, I think, is pretty fully available to the urban consumers who will make the necessary effort.
No matter how busy full life is — I have a standard for my health that drives my desire to make the necessary effort to cook delicious meals. I still go to the farmers’ market and buy the best quality ingredients I can find at the store. My weekly CSA ensures I get incredible fresh produce from a local organic farm. With high quality ingredients, you don’t need to do anything fancy or time-consuming to have a great, flavorful meal.
My goal with the recipes this week is to show you that it does not have to be complicated or time consuming to embrace this standard no matter where you live, and it can be wildly pleasurable!
So, this week I’ve got not one, not two, but THREE SHEET PAN MEALS to help you find pleasure in your food with minimal effort. They are easy to prep, clean, but still full of color and flavor.
[COLOR CLUB] Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Cauliflower, Dates, Herbs and a Lemon Yogurt Feta Sauce
[COLOR CLUB] Crispy Gnocchi With Sausage, Broccoli, Leeks and a Lemon Parm Drizzle
Let’s get to the recipes & the why behind them 👇🏼
Miso-Kabocha Salmon with Asparagus & Snap Peas
This combo hits all the marks: the kabocha squash brings natural sweetness and slow-burning carbs, balanced out by protein-rich salmon, fiber-packed greens, and a creamy miso-tahini sauce that brings some incredible umami. The sauce is actually made from the roasted squash itself — warm, tangy, and a little sweet. It brings zhuzh with minimal effort!!
A brief moment for how amazing kabocha squash is… fun fact it has significantly fewer carbs than butternut or acorn squash — about 7g net carbs per cup, compared to ~15g+ in butternut. This makes it more blood sugar friendly. Honestly, it’s an amazing and under-appreciated squash. Like other orange-fleshed squashes, kabocha is rich in beta-carotene — a precursor to vitamin A — which supports vision, immune health, and skin. People often rave about pumpkin for its beta-carotene, but kabocha actually has even more. If you’ve never had it, I find the texture and flavor similar to a sweet potato, but with half the carbs and calories. I got one in my CSA this week (s/o to Earth Matterz) and am so glad I did because otherwise this recipe would not exist this week!
Despite my love letter to kabocha squash, this recipe is flexible. You could use delicata or honey nut squash, and you could mix in tons of other spring veggies (see ideas in swaps section of the recipe.)
Yields: 2-3 servings
Total time: ~45 minutes
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
RECIPE HERE - FREE FOR EVERYONE
Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Cauliflower, Dates, Herbs and a Lemon Yogurt Feta Sauce
The sweet potatoes and dates in this recipe bring natural sweetness and fiber, balanced by protein-rich chicken, fibrous cauliflower, and healthy fats in the lemony yogurt-feta sauce. The cauliflower really soaks up the warm Moroccan spices, and the fresh herbs and pistachios add brightness and crunch! It’s a perfect sheet pan combo, and it’s got 10 COLORS. Honestly, once you’ve plated this this, you could fool anyone that this was made on one large sheet pan.
Yields: 3-4 servings
Total time: ~45 minutes
Prep time: 10 - 15 minutes
Cook time: 25 - 35 minutes
RECIPE HERE - FOR COLOR CLUBBERS
The Color Club is $5/month or $50/year.
Any metabolic health information, or home chef learnings that I share on my Substack is and will always remain free. However, to avoid annoying ads and support my insane grocery bill when I test and re-test recipes, I’ve decided to charge a small fee for my recipes themselves.
Crispy Gnocchi With Sausage, Broccoli, Leeks and a Lemon Parm Drizzle
There are some dishes that crisp up and work perfectly on a sheet pan, and this is one of them. I love cooking almond flour or cauliflower gnocchi this way because it gets crispy and golden brown. Combine that with broccoli, leeks, and some sort of flavorful sausage, and you’ve got a nutrient-dense, super flavorful meal.
You may be noticing a theme by now, but every sheet pan meal needs a simple sauce or dressing, and the combo of lemon, parmesan, and olive oil (with a dash of salt, pepper, and chili flakes if you’re into it!) brings the whole dish together. I’ve made this five times in the few weeks — not because I needed to test or photograph it again, but because it just hits the spot.
This meal checks all the Cooking in Color boxes: protein, fiber, healthy fats, micronutrients, blood sugar-friendly carbs, and a little zhuzh from the lemon-parm drizzle. Tons of ways to make swaps in this recipe, see swaps section of the recipe per usual!.
I used Cappello’s almond flour gnocchi and the pre-cooked Force of Nature sausages in this recipe.
Yields: 3 servings
Total time: 30 minutes
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
RECIPE HERE - FOR COLOR CLUBBERS
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If you make these recipes (or ANY of my recipes!), I’d love nothing more than to hear how it turned out and any feedback you have! Comment below or on the recipe in the Color Club, and if you are on IG share it and tag me @sonjakmanning.
Lastly, if you heart or re-stack this post or share it with a friend, you’ll help me and these colorful recipes reach more people! Thank you!! 🙏🏼
Chefs kisses,
Sonja
Made the Moroccan Chicken tonight and both my boyfriend and I loved the flavor! I swapped in butternut squash (pre-cut from TJs for simple prep) and sunflower seeds for the top as my boyfriend is allergic to nuts. Very flavorful and easy meal - a little messy on the hands but worth it in the end! Loved all the spices!
Food photos are looking gorg!! and These look great :) and fewer dishes for a certain dishwasher that lives with you!