22 Anti-Inflammatory Spring Dinners for Weight Loss

Garlic-Anchovy Pasta with Broccolini
Photo: Jacob Fox

Featuring vibrant spring produce like broccoli, leafy greens and artichoke, these dinner recipes are both nutritious and delicious. Each dish has at least 6 grams of fiber and less than 575 calories per serving, so they’re light yet satisfying choices that can help support weight loss if that is your goal. Recipes like our Garlic-Anchovy Pasta with Broccolini and our Roasted Root Veggies & Greens over Spiced Lentils are packed with anti-inflammatory ingredients like whole grains, fatty fish, nuts and root vegetables, to help combat symptoms of inflammation while keeping you satisfied. Try them for a delicious and nourishing meal tonight.

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Garlic-Anchovy Pasta with Broccolini

Garlic-Anchovy Pasta with Broccolini
Jacob Fox

Here, we sprinkle the final pasta dish with crumbled goat cheese for nice tangy bites throughout. But if you prefer a creamy sauce, stir the cheese into the pasta in Step 3 along with the reserved cooking water.

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Copycat California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad

a recipe photo of the Copycat California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad
Photographer: Fred Hardy, Food Styling: Jennifer Wendorf, Prop Stylist: Shell Royster

This salad is inspired by California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ chicken salad, with crisp lettuce and jicama, sweet BBQ chicken and juicy corn kernels. You can cook the chicken thighs on a grill pan, or use an outdoor grill if the weather permits. Tortilla strips add a welcome crunch to the salad—find them in the salad dressing aisle at major supermarkets.

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Sweet Potato-Black Bean Burgers

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These vegan sweet potato-black bean burgers spiced with curry powder are easy to make. Blending the mixture with your hands gives you a soft, uniform texture then the outside gets crispy by cooking in a cast-iron pan. To make this recipe gluten-free too, use gluten-free oats and serve the patty in a lettuce wrap, omitting the bun.

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Roasted Root Veggies & Greens over Spiced Lentils

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This earthy bowl of lentils is topped with leftover roasted root veggies from a large batch for an easy weeknight dinner. Keep it vegan or add a drizzle of plain yogurt for extra richness.

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One-Pot Tomato Basil Pasta

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This one-pot pasta with tangy tomato-basil sauce is a simple, fast and easy weeknight dinner. All of your ingredients go into one pot, and with a bit of stirring and about 25 minutes of cook time, you'll have a healthy dinner the whole family will enjoy.

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Fish Tacos with Preserved Grapefruit Salsa

Fish Tacos with Preserved Grapefruit Salsa
Leigh Beisch

Tart preserved grapefruit and fresh grapefruit segments combine with avocado to make a complex salsa that pairs nicely with fish.

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Quick Lentil Salmon Salad

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In this budget-friendly salmon recipe, canned salmon tops lentils, carrots and celery--ingredients you probably have on hand already. Fiber-rich lentils come in a variety of colors and they typically cook faster than dried beans, so they're a great choice for a fast weeknight dinner.

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Brown Rice Shrimp Bowl with Tomatoes & Avocado

Brown Rice Shrimp Bowl with Tomatoes & Avocado

This quick and easy bowl pairs brown rice with cooked shrimp, tossed in a ginger-soy-sesame sauce, to create a flavorful dish in no time. Topping with tomatoes and avocado adds color and nutrients. Use leftover brown rice or pick up a package of pre-cooked brown rice from the grocery store to keep this meal no-cook.

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Vegan White Bean Chili

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Fresh Anaheim (or poblano) chiles add mild heat to this classic white bean chili and contribute lots of smoky flavor. Quinoa adds body to the chili, while diced zucchini provides pretty flecks of green and increases the veggie content.

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Chickpea Pesto Burgers with Roasted-Red Pepper Sauce

Chickpea Pesto Burgers with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Carolyn Hodges

In this easy plant-based burger recipe, we combine chickpeas and pesto to create a delicious patty that gets topped with balsamic-roasted red onions and a creamy roasted red pepper mayonnaise sauce. The end result is a delicious dinner that will quickly become your family's new favorite way to do burgers. Enjoy alongside a big salad and roasted potatoes to make it a meal.

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Creamy Spinach Orzo

Creamy Spinach Orzo
Photography / Caitlin bensel, Food Styling / Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Styling / Julia Bayless

This creamy spinach orzo pasta dish is light, quick and easy. The fresh basil truly shines through and complements the spinach in this vegetarian pasta dinner.

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Salmon & Avocado Salad

Salmon & Avocado Salad

<Placeholder foTender salmon tops a hearty salad of red cabbage, carrots and avocados tossed with a creamy dill vinaigrette in this quick, easy dinner.r paragraph block>

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Farfalle with Tuna, Lemon and Fennel

Farfalle with Tuna, Lemon, and Fennel

This warm, flaked tuna and lemon pasta recipe is ready in 30 minutes.

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Sheet-Pan Chicken Cutlets with Brussels Sprouts & Sweet Potatoes

Sheet-Pan Chicken Cutlets with Brussels Sprouts & Sweet Potatoes
Photographer: Will Dickey, Prop Stylist: Christina Brockman, Food Stylist: Jennifer Wendorf

This easy sheet-pan dinner is made with quick-cooking chicken cutlets, so you can make it on any busy weeknight. We season the vegetables and protein in stages, with the end result being a punch of flavor. Crumbled bacon adds a salty note to complete the dish.

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Air-Fryer Tempura Artichoke Salad with Lemon-Dill Dressing

a recipe photo of the Air-Fryer Tempura Artichoke Salad with Lemon-Dill Dressing
Photographer: Kelsey Hansen, Food Stylist: Charlie Worthington, Prop Stylist: Stephanie Hunter

Sneak more vegetables into your salad with these lightly battered artichoke "croutons." Use a vegetable peeler to shave long ribbons from asparagus stalks.

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Edamame Lettuce Wrap Burgers with Peanut Sauce

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Edamame make these homemade veggie burgers mean, green protein machines. Peanut sauce, curry paste and quick-pickled carrots give them Thai-inspired flair.

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15-Minute Salmon & Creamy Orzo with Spinach & Mushrooms

15-Minute Salmon & Creamy Orzo with Spinach & Mushrooms
Brie Passano

In this quick salmon dinner, salmon fillets are paired with creamy orzo, wilted spinach and earthy mushrooms. Cooking the salmon at a high temperature helps speed up the cooking in this healthy dinner recipe. Look for pre-sliced mushrooms to speed it up even more.

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Cheesy Polenta with Roasted Eggplant & Red Pepper Sauce

Roasted Eggplant
Ryan Liebe

This hearty vegetarian main dish features tender eggplant, cheesy polenta and a roasted red pepper sauce. It's perfect for entertaining friends and family who are eating more plant-based meals.

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Bitter Greens Salad with Beets & Oranges

Bitter Greens Salad with Beets & Oranges
Leigh Beisch

Beets may be earthy, tasting of the soil they're grown in, but these roots also contain the most natural sugar of any vegetable. And when roasted, all that sweetness is intensified. This jewel-toned take on caprese swaps tomatoes for beets and oranges and basil for peppery arugula and radicchio. Toasted breadcrumbs sprinkled over the top add crunch.

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Vegan Coconut Chickpea Curry

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To make this 20-minute vegan curry even faster, buy precut veggies from the salad bar at the grocery store. To make it a full, satisfying dinner, serve over cooked brown rice. When shopping for simmer sauce, look for one with 400 mg of sodium or less and check the ingredient list for cream or fish sauce if you want to keep this vegan. If you like a spicy kick, add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce at the end.

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Spaghetti with Creamy Lemon-Spinach Sauce

a recipe photo of the Easy Spaghetti with Spinach Sauce

Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling, Prop Stylist: Josh Hoggle

Give your veggie servings a boost with this easy spaghetti with spinach sauce recipe. Loosely inspired by the flavors of classic pesto, this vibrant pasta packs in plenty of spinach and basil with a garnish of nutty walnuts and savory Parmesan cheese. Serve with a drizzle of good olive oil and a green salad on the side.

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Easy Chicken Tikka Masala

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This full-flavored, deeply spiced chicken tikka masala comes together in just 30 minutes. You'll want to add it to your weeknight dinner rotation ASAP.

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