When you come home to an empty fridge after a hard day at work, the siren song of takeout is strong. But the ding to your wallet and healthy eating plans makes it worth reconsidering. Here, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Asian recipes that are even better than ordering in. (Plus, they’re inexpensive, quick and rely on easy-to-find ingredients — win!)
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12 Healthy Asian Recipes That Are Better Than Takeout
Appetizers and Light Bites
1. Chopped Asian Mason Jar Salad Recipe
Take your meal prep game up a notch with adorable (and delicious, of course) Asian Mason jar salads. You can stick with the recommended half-jar serving size and enjoy this as a light side to a sandwich or soup, or up your serving to a full jar. The peanut butter and ginger dressing packs flavor into the protein-rich quinoa and fiber-dense veggies, which will keep you full for hours. Photo and recipe: Carmen Sturdy / Life by Daily Burn
2. Chicken Vegetable Lettuce Wraps
Skip the deep-fried eggrolls and wontons and go for these tasty lettuce wraps, instead. While most chicken lettuce wraps consist of little more than ground chicken, these wraps actually feature hearty chunks of chicken and a whole host of veggies. This makes them great as an appetizer or snack, or even a well-rounded light meal. Photo and recipe: Ana Stanciu / Hello Glow
3. Quinoa Shrimp Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are another excellent option as an app to share or an easy office lunch you can enjoy cold. You can find rice paper at most Asian grocery stores and supermarkets. Just one roll has 7.5 grams of protein thanks to the shrimp and quinoa. That means two to three could keep you satisfied for hours. Photo and recipe: Emily Miller / Life by Daily Burn
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Noodle and Rice Dishes
4. Easy Lo Mein
Looking for a more nutrient-heavy take on Asian noodles? Look no further. This recipe is jam-packed full of veggies, like mushrooms, snow peas and spinach, high in vitamins C, A and K. While it does require a few more ingredients than the the five-ingredient noodle dish above, they’ll still be pretty easy to come by in the average grocery store. Photo and recipe: Chungah An / Damn Delicious
5. Winter Vegetable Ramen Bowls
Nothing beats the belly-warming goodness of noodle soup. But sometimes the rigmarole of making your own soup broth can be too time-consuming for a weeknight meal. That’s why we favor the semi-homemade broth in this recipe. This dish calls for Vegetarian Chick’n Broth and is amped up with Asian spices and seasonings. What’s also really helpful is this blogger breaks up the steps over the course of 24 hours, but in just a few minutes at a time. Photo and recipe: Anetta / Wanderlust Kitchen
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6. Easy Vegan Fried Rice
The ultimate use-it-up recipe for leftovers gets a facelift with this vegan fried rice. And lest you think fried rice isn’t particularly healthy, this recipe actually packs 22 grams of protein per serving and only one optional teaspoon of oil for the whole recipe. It keeps things simple with only 10 ingredients, which you can easily find at almost any grocery store. Photo and recipe: Dana Shultz / Minimalist Baker
7. 5-Ingredient Asian Peanut Noodles
This is the easiest take on Asian noodles we’ve seen yet. Chicken stock takes the place of that chemical-laden packet found in packaged ramen, and good old spaghetti is used instead of Asian noodles. Mix in a little soy sauce, peanut butter and sriracha, and you’ve got yourself a flavorful and crazy-quick dinner. Photo and recipe: Sabrina / Dinner then Dessert
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Stir Fries
8. 15-Minute Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
It almost sounds too good to be true: Chinese that can be cooked at home faster than you can get takeout delivered — and you can even pronounce all the ingredients in it. Bonus: This beef and broccoli recipe uses lower-cost cuts of beef (and tons of veggies!). For the sweet sauce, this blogger combines low-sodium soy sauce, water, a little brown sugar or coconut sugar, fresh ginger, red pepper flakes and corn starch. Photo and recipe: Lacey Baier / A Sweet Pea Chef
9. Quick and Easy Cashew Chicken Recipe
The Chinese takeout classics just keep on coming with this cashew chicken recipe. Cutting the chicken into bite-size pieces significantly cuts down on cook time compared to full chicken breasts, and cornstarch thickens the sauce to save you time letting it boil down. Photo and recipe: Anna Hinman / Crunchy Creamy Sweet
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Indian Curries
10. Chicken Tikka Masala
Indian food has a reputation for being time-consuming and complicated to make. Instead, opt for this recipe for chicken tikka masala, which includes instructions for tikka masala paste that you can make once and use again and again. Aside from the paste, there are only five other ingredients, about 30 minutes of marinade time and 20 minutes of cook time. Photo and recipe: Lindsay Ostrom / Pinch of Yum
11. Cleaned Up Creamy Butter Chicken with Cauliflower Rice
If butter chicken (or chicken makhani) is your Indian dish of choice, let this recipe change your mind about just how heavy and indulgent the classic Indian takeout options are. Cauliflower rice makes for a low-cal and grain-free base that’s perfect for enjoying creamy coconut-milk-based butter chicken. Photo and recipe: LeChing Vuong / That Clean Life
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12. Red Lentil and Spinach Masala
Vegans, rejoice! We’ve found a delicious and completely butter-, meat- and milk-free Indian recipe that’s also rich in protein, thanks to lentils. Spinach gives this recipe an added boost of nutrients from leafy greens. Photo and recipe: Phoebe Lapine / Feed Me Phoebe
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