Fall for Autumn Cooking with These 21 Weeknight Recipes

On weekends I love to dive into baking and braising, filling the house with apple crisp and turnovers, pumpkin bread and cake, and all sorts of long-cooked meats paired with autumn vegetable side dishes. And that’s so nice for a leisurely weekend. But when I want to carry fall through the week, I need some quick and easy recipes to make when the weekend’s leftovers run out.

Enter this collection of our favorite fast fall recipes from the Cook’s Country archives. Each of these recipes requires 11 ingredients or fewer and can be ready in an hour or less. And each recipe celebrates some element of fall, whether a particular fruit or vegetable or a flavor, such as maple or sage. Take a look through and start planning your next autumnal meal.

Instead of treating spaghetti squash like spaghetti and burying it in tomato sauce, mix it with cream and Parmesan and let it shine in a gratin, alongside crispy, golden roasted chicken thighs.

Give chicken thighs the fall treatment by braising them in applesauce flavored with rosemary and onions. Fry latkes while the chicken cooks to complete the meal.

Thinly slice fennel and apple and toss them with sour cream and maple syrup to make a crunchy slaw to serve with deeply roasted chicken thighs.

Who says you have to wait until Thanksgiving to have your turkey and cranberry sauce? This recipe lets you have them any night. A little poultry seasoning in the burgers drives home the Thanksgiving vibes.

It doesn’t get much simpler than sandwiches for dinner. And these sandwiches are no exception, but they are exceptionally flavorful. Apple slices, pickled in vinegar and honey, add tangy-sweet flavor to the classic combo of turkey and cheddar.

Maple syrup and miso make appearances in a glaze for pork tenderloin and sliced delicata squash, as well as in a dressing for a brussels sprout salad.

Crispy bacon and sweet, caramelized apples pair up with mild pork in this ultracozy fall dinner. Searing the bacon-wrapped pork before roasting it renders out fat from the bacon. The apples get cooked in the fat, soaking up the smoky notes. 

You can’t go wrong with the combination of pork and apples, especially when the two are joined by a few more fall favorites: brussels sprouts and cranberries. This simple dinner comes together in one pan.

Stuffed squash is such a comforting fall meal. Here acorn squash is seeded, roasted, and filled with a sausage-and-sourdough stuffing, studded with sweet apples and glistening cranberries. (A jump-start in the microwave shortens the squash's roasting time.)

Tart Granny Smith apples and thinly sliced red onion, cooked until softened and livened up with maple syrup and red wine vinegar, make the ideal accompaniment to golden-brown pork chops lightly smothered in rich, savory maple-sage butter.

Hearty grains such as farro make the perfect base for fall dinners like this one. Some kale, pecans, currants, and apples fill out the pilaf, while sliced Italian sausages complete the meal.

The classic Italian combination of prosciutto, goat cheese, and figs was the inspiration for this dinner-size salad. Some toasted hazelnuts and apple slices add contrasting crunch.

For a hearty vegetarian salad, look no further than this kale salad. Tossing the kale with a flavorful miso-ginger dressing and letting it sit softens it and allows time to fry cubes of tofu. Topping the kale with the tofu, cashews, and avocados makes the salad filling enough for dinner.

Roasting sweet potatoes and chickpeas with curry powder gives this salad a kick of flavor. The bulgur gets just a little more sprucing up in the way of kale, dried cranberries, walnuts, and goat cheese.

Cheesy ravioli enrobed in a creamy pumpkin sauce, drizzled with browned butter, and topped with toasty hazelnuts and crispy sage—if this dish doesn’t say fall, then what does? 

This vegetarian dinner features stewy white beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, and kale spooned over a filling bowl of polenta that’s flavored with garlic and red pepper flakes. For a creamy, cooling element, there’s lots of fresh mozzarella on top.

What is it about the combination of squash, browned butter, and sage? It gives off all the fall feels. The three come together in this simple yet ultrasatisfying pasta dish. Don’t forget the grated Parm!

Fish probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about a fast fall dinner. It’s fast-cooking, sure. But where’s the fall element? Here it’s on the side in a wholesome salad of kale with pear matchsticks and small hunks of extra-sharp cheddar cheese.

Rich, cheesy polenta and a rosy-interiored medium-rare filet mignon is comfort food on its own, but then add thinly sliced mushrooms cooked with butter and fragrant sage, and it is just over the top. 

For this dish, earthy roasted sweet potatoes and seared steak tips get tied together with a sweet-spicy honey-lime and jalapeño sauce. A little cilantro on top adds freshness.

This dish leans on the go-to herb of fall: sage. Combined with lemon zest, salt, and pepper, the sage makes a nice rub for rib-eye steaks and cooks into a beautiful crust. A medley of carrots, red potatoes, and shallots brings the colors of fall to the plate.