date night dinners

Over 50 of the best date night dinner ideas for a romantic night in including seafood recipes, pasta recipes, chicken recipes, vegetarian recipes, and more!

50 Date Night Dinner Ideas

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Plan your menu ahead of time. You can prepare some of these recipes in advance, and store them in an airtight container for a few days at room temperature or longer in the refrigerator. Some can even be made much further in advance and frozen, according to recipe directions.

Prep your ingredients. If you aren't able to make something completely in advance, then prepare as much as you can ahead of time, whether that is chopping ingredients, making a sauce, or assembling the dish and storing in the refrigerator until it's ready for the oven. Anything that you can prepare in advance will make things go much more smoothly on date night.

Set the table. Take out the fancy plates, mugs, flatware, placemats, and napkins to make date night dinner even more special. If you have time, set the table early so that you don't have to worry about it later.

This great collection of Romantic Dinner Ideas is perfect for Valentine&#x27;s day, anniversaries, date nights and other special occasions. We love this super easy scallop pasta:

The 40 BEST Romantic Dinner Mains

pasta

Tbsp butter

olive oil

scallops

garlic,

white wine

cherry tomatoes

Tbsp parsley

Salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the directions on...

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package to your desired tenderness, and drain. While pasta is cooking, continue with remaining steps.

Pat scallops dry with a paper towel and...

Pat scallops dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil and butter in a skillet over...

Heat oil and butter in a skillet over medium high heat.

Once the pan is hot, sear the scallops...

Once the pan is hot, sear the scallops for 2-3 minutes, flip and sear the other side 1-2 more minutes. Remove the scallops to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and add in garlic...

Reduce heat to medium and add in garlic and sauté for about a minute.

Pour in wine and simmer for a few...

Pour in wine and simmer for a few minutes to reduce it.

Add cherry tomatoes and parsley. Cook for a...

Add cherry tomatoes and parsley. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the tomatoes start to soften.

Toss in pasta and scallops, season with salt...

Toss in pasta and scallops, season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

These braised beef short ribs are the definition of comfort food. They are incredibly flavourful, super tender, and fall right off the bone. If you are looking for an easy short ribs recipe look no further, this is it!

Braised Beef Short Ribs

vegetable oil (for frying)

salt and pepper (for the beef)

beef

garlic

carrots (chopped)

celery (chopped)

onion

tbsp worcestershire

tomato paste

dry red wine (cabernet sauvignon

beef broth (I use salted)

bay leaves

rosemary

thyme

sage

chives (for topping)

Begin by setting your oven to 325 degrees.

To your beef short ribs, season all sides (including the sides) with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Chop up your onion, celery and carrots into similar sized pieces. Set aside.

To a large dutch oven, add your vegetable oil and set to medium/high heat.

Once hot, add your beef short ribs, working in batches if you need, to avoid crowding the pot. Sear on each side (including the sides) for anywhere between 4-7 minutes until a golden crust begins to appear. Once each side of the beef has a nice golden color, remove from the pan and set aside for a few minutes.

To the same pot, add your vegetables and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Once veggies are softened slightly, add your garlic and saute for an additional 2 minutes.

Add your tomato paste and worcestershire and cook until the tomato paste changes to a dark red color, about 3 minutes.

Deglaze your pan with the red wine, scraping whatever bits remain on the bottom of the pan. Bring the wine to a boil for 1 minute and then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the wine has thickened and reduced by half.

Add your beef broth and bring to a simmer.

Once simmering, add your beef back into the pot, top with your herbs, cover and get into the oven for at least 3 hours, checking in after about 1.5 hours.

Once the meat is visibly pulling away from the bone and the meat is fork tender, they are ready. This should take 3 to 3.5 hours of cooking time.

Remove your beef for a moment and gently strain the broth so you are left with a silky smooth consistency.

Once strained, bring broth to a low simmer on your stove for about 10 minutes, until it thickens slightly.

Return your beef back to the broth while you assemble your plates.

Add your braised short ribs onto a bed of mashed potatoes or polenta and top with lots of that broth.

Top with fresh chives and thyme.

Enjoy right away!

Amazing! Made it twice and my family always says they’re soooo good!

This is my go to recipe when I've got guest coming. It tastes better than a restaurant, but is actually quite easy. Thank you for sharing the recipe! Can't wait to try some of your others!

My daughter’s BF made this for me for my  b-day. Sooo good!

made this for Christmas - #outstanding!!! tysm for this recipe 🤗😋😋😋 (the last time I cooked w/ wine it came out bitter; this was #perfection 😘✨)

literally the best! we only use this recipe for our short ribs! so yummy :)

This was so good. Lots of flavor and tender meat. Didn't have fresh herbs this time, had to opt for dried, but this was still good. Will do this recipe again. Even the dog loves the bones!

This was an excellent recipe. I’ve never made short ribs before but when I saw your IG post I knew I had to try. So glad I did. Pretty easy recipe. My husband said it was one of the best short rib meals he has ever had.

I made this for my wife's birthday today--it was outstanding!!!

Made this tonight for my hubbys birthday! I actually ended up using a crockpot and slow cooking Them for about 5 hours on high and they were PERFECT!
I also made mushrooms and used the broth to cook the mushrooms in and they were incredible and tied the meal together. 

I will say instead of straining the broth and then putting it in a pot on the oven I would only use a little of the broth and simmer that. I ended up with way to much broth and a mess. I needed to add a little to a pan and simmer it and thicken it, then add it over the top of the short ribs, mushrooms and potatoes.

Top 3 date night dinners recipes from across the web

The most viewed date night dinners recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

50 Date Night Dinner Ideas

The 40 BEST Romantic Dinner Mains

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Top 3 date night dinners recipes from across the web

The most viewed date night dinners recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

50 Date Night Dinner Ideas

The 40 BEST Romantic Dinner Mains

Braised Beef Short Ribs

The most viewed date night dinners recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine