Date nights at home can be a lot more fun than going out! It can be a challenge to find the time (and money) to go for a fancy night out every week or even a couple of times a month. But when you pick a few simple ingredients and really dress them up, magic can happen.
This collection of date night recipe ideas are budget-friendly and available all from Aldi making sure that it's all effortless too. Most of these dinner recipes are just a handful of ingredients, require minimal ingredients and require not much more than 30 minutes to make.
25 Easy Date Night Recipes
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30 Minute Pesto Chicken
This quick and easy pasta is perfect for date night because those noodles are so silky and the pesto tastes like you're on an Italian holiday. Serve it with a golden seared tender chicken breast and fresh mozzarella to make it feel very indulgent.
30 Minute Prawn Rice
Prawns can be expensive in a restaurant and intimidating to cook at home. This simple rice dish feels like a pricey restaurant item but is simple to cook at home when it's part of this paella inspired recipe. It's also cheap to make. The prawns are a little on the pricey side but everything else is really cheap!
Honey Garlic Salmon Tray Bake
This oven-baked salmon is a healthy 30-minute dinner. Tender boneless salmon, crispy roast potatoes and roasted asparagus all get baked on a tray and then drizzled with a super-easy honey garlic butter sauce. Since this salmon is all on one tray and requires very little effort, feel free to sip a glass of wine together while you wait for dinner.
One-pot Spinach Gnocchi
This one-pan dinner is crispy pan-fried gnocchi simmered in a simple cream sauce with lots of healthy spinach, salty parmesan and crispy prosciutto and all it's already in 30 minutes! It's absolutely perfect for date night because it's simple to make but looks so darn impressive. It's perfectly paired with a glass of cold rose wine. The perfect budget-friendly dinner using only ingredients from Aldi.
Pineapple Chicken with coconut rice
A gorgeously fresh and light chicken dinner that's perfect for a more casual date night. Tender and juicy chicken marinated in a sticky sweet soy sauce and served over coconut rice. It's perfect for a movie at home date night.
Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy
Maybe Salisbury steak doesn't feel fancy, but anytime there's sliced mushrooms involve and smothered with a rich and thick gravy, it feels luxurious and indulgent. It's the prefect way to have a gorgeous date night dinner on a shoe string budget. You can also do a lot of prep for this ahead of time, to avoid any date night stress.
Quick & Easy Prawn Curry
Making an effort doesn't have to mean spending hours in the kitchen or spending a lot of money. Plump juicy prawns in a Thai noodle broth. A great dinner with a bit of kick. This date night prawn curry uses a Thai red curry kit to make sure that dinner is easy and you can focus on your date, not making dinner!
Honey Garlic Roast Pork Belly
It's very seldom that you would think to make something like pork belly at home because it sounds a little fancy and intimidating. But it couldn't be further from the truth. This pork belly recipe gets tender and juicy and the crackling is next level. Your date will be more than impressed!
One Pan Lemon Roast Chicken
This one pan dinner is so elegant it's perfect for date night. A lemon-y garlic sauce served along side crispy roast potatoes and tender aspargus. Your date will definitely be asking for seconds and thirds.
Smoked Salmon Pasta
Smoked Salmon Pasta is a creamy pasta recipe that is easy to make and absolutely delicious. It's made with staple ingredients and there are many options for substitutions so you can make this pasta with what you have on hand. In just 20 minutes you can have a tasty and cozy dinner on the table. *For Aldi ingredients, skip the artichoke hearts and use the chargrilled peppers that come in a jar in the spice aisle.
Tomato Spinach Prawn Pasta
A rich but silky (and garlicky) tomato sauce clinging to chewy fettuccini noodles tossed with juicy tender garlic butter prawns. These giant piles of pasta are then spiked with wilted spinach and topped with aggressive amounts of parmesan cheese.
Stuffed Chicken Marsala
This recipe is impressive and delicious! You can stuff the chicken breasts the night before to make everything easier on date night. Or this recipe is perfect for making together. Just be sure that you each have a glass of wine to sip to make the prep fun! *For Aldi ingredients, skip the marsala wine and use white wine, a mix of white wine and brandy, or chicken stock.
Easy Prawn Tacos
These spicy prawn tacos are served with avocados, lots of lime juice and the plumpest tender prawns tossed in a spicy cajun spice blend. Drizzle it all with cooling Greek yoghurt lime sauce and a sweet and spicy pineapple salsa. *Serve with some ice cold beers for the perfect Mexican date night in!
30 Minute Brown Sugar Pork Chops
These aren't your every day pork chops. Rubbed in a spicy brown sugar rub and pan fried to golden perfection and drizzled with a brown sugar butter sauce. These chops are sure to impress. Serve them with rice and some vegetables.
Spinach and Tomato Baked Gnocchi
Italian food seems to be one of the most romantic but comforting cuisines on the planet and this dish might be one of the best of them all! A creamy tomato sauce, soft pillowy potato gnocchi all baked under a cheesy blanket of mozzarella. This is the ultimate date food to show you care!
Creamy Garlic Butter Salmon
creamy garlic butter tuscan salmon is restaurant quality pan seared salmon in a delicious creamy sauce with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and parmesan! Rich and creamy, crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside salmon fillets. The entire family loves this deliciously easy to make Salmon recipe. The creamy sauce is to die for!
Marry Me Chicken
If you want your date to fall at your feet, this is the recipe for you! The simplest of ingredients are transformed into a dinner that is fit for a king or a queen with very little effort or expense. This recipe is the epitome of making something spectacular out of basics.
Creamy Tuscan Gnocchi
Soft, tender pillows of gnocchi enveloped in a full-flavoured cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, spinach, parmesan and fresh basil. all cooked in one pan!
Perfect Baked Salmon
Perfect Baked Salmon with Lentils, Quinoa, and Lemon Herb Sauce – super healthy, high protein, bakes all in one big easy dish. This stuff is SO DELICIOUS! *To keep this as an Aldi only recipe use a pre made packet of lentils or rice from Aldi and skip the sauerkraut. Just beware, the lemon herb sauce is drinkable!
Desserts
Because no date night is complete without dessert to finish off the perfect meal! Here are some of the very best ones. Mostly make ahead and all of them indulgent!
Easy Chocolate Mousse
A luscious easy chocolate mousse recipe made with only 3 ingredients. One of them being rich dark chocolate. This simple mousse recipe is made without egg, so everyone can enjoy this light and airy mousse without worry. It's a quick and easy recipe that tastes as though you've been to pastry school.
Lemon Sugar Burnt Basque Cheesecake
This cheesecake!!! It's creamy, full of rustic charm and so creamy on the inside with the perfect lemon sugar bite. It's easy to make ahead and it will definitely be a highlight of any date night meal!
Quick & Easy Fruit Crumble
This dessert is full of luscious fruit, buttery oat topping and served with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's the perfect end to any dinner.
Puff Pastry Apple Tart
This dessert will make it look like you went to a French pastry school! Full of sweet juicy apples all wrapped in flaky buttery pastry and served with vanilla ice cream or custard if you prefer. This dessert will make you feel like you've been transported to France.
The Easiest Chocolate Brownies
This is definitely the only brownie recipe you will ever need! These are fudgy, dense, thick, and so. darn. chocolatey!
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Need help with meal planning? You can find our (Aldi ingredients only) weekly meal plans here! Sign up to receive them free every week or take our quick meal planning course and grab the blank meal planner and use all these recipes to create your own meal plans.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING AND COOKING ALONG WITH ME! IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE A QUESTION, I’D LOVE IT IF YOU LEFT A COMMENT AND A RATING. YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ALONG ON PINTEREST, FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM TO SEE WHAT WE’RE EATING, PINNING AND A LITTLE BEHIND THE SCENES TOO!
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