Our 35 Favourite Super-Fast Meal Ideas From Joe Wicks

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We don’t have to tell you about Joe Wicks. Thanks to his PE With Joe series keeping the nation moving during lockdown he’s more popular than ever. But although Wicks’s workouts have been in the spotlight the past few months, it’s the Lean In 15 recipes he posts on Instagram and his best-selling series of recipe books of the same name that built his success.

The reason for the popularity of recipes might be that they’re quick and easy to make. Or that they’re delicious. Or that there are so many ideas that you’re bound to find one you’ll want to eat right now. But we think the real reason is that when people stop relying on ready meals and start cooking for themselves, they feel healthier and keep going.

If you want some inspiration to get you started, then browse through some of our favourite super-fast, tasty and healthy recipe ideas from Wicks’s Instagram below – but first, five recipes Wicks has shared exclusively with Coach. Cheers, Joe!

1. 10-Minute Halloumi Tacos With Peri-Peri Mayo

10-Minute Halloumi Tacos With Peri-Peri Mayo

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This recipe is from Wicks’s range for recipe box service Gousto and it makes an ideal working-from-home lunch. The ingredients are easily picked up from a nearby mini-supermarket, giving you an excuse to leave your residence after a morning spent grafting a metre or so from where you woke up. See the recipe

2. Lentil Bolognese Recipe

Lentil Bolognese Recipe

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You’ll need a little longer to make this beauty from Veggie Lean In 15, but we’d happily spare more than the 30 minutes needed for this tasty meatless spag bol. The lentils bulk it out, but it’s the walnuts and red wine that make it taste deliciously rich. See the recipe

3. Low-Carb Hoisin Turkey Lettuce Cups

Low-Carb Hoisin Turkey Lettuce Cups

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Another Gousto creation, this light summer bite uses a crunchy, fresh lettuce leaf as the taco shell. A great choice if you’re not exercising that day and don’t need carbs to refuel. See the recipe

4. Harissa And Tomato Chicken Recipe

Harissa And Tomato Chicken Recipe

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You’ll find plenty of smart shortcuts to big flavours by following Wicks’s feed, and one of the spiciest is harissa paste. Dollop on a bit more yogurt if you need to douse the fire. See the recipe

5. Chickpea Kofte Pitta With Sweet Potato Fries

Chickpea Kofte Pitta With Sweet Potato Fries

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Pittas are not appreciated enough in this country – fact. While we admit the presentation in the photo is very appetising, we’ve been known to draw the curtains, shove the salad and fries in the pitta and eat like no-one’s watching. See the recipe

6. Peanut Butter And Raspberry Flapjacks

Get the energy to exercise with these easy flapjacks, which contain a tasty mix of nuts, seeds, oats and fruit, as well as peanut butter and honey.

7. Frozen Fruit And Nut Yogurt Bark

Have you not tried bark yet? It’s all the rage. Mix yogurt, honey, seeds, nuts and berries, chuck it in the freezer, then pull it out when you’re in need of a crunchy sweet treat. No trees involved.

8. Egg And Pesto Breakfast Wrap

Upgrade your morning meal with this speedy tortilla recipe, which contains eggs, spinach, avocado, cheese and a smear of pesto.

9. Crispy Honey Sesame Chicken

This one might take you longer than 15 minutes unless you’re as much of a wizard in the kitchen as Wicks, but it’s worth the time for the sweet-and-savoury chicken you get to eat at the end.

10. Chicken Tikka Wrap

The stuff lunchtime dreams are made of.

11. Chocolate And Banana Overnight Oats

About as easy and tasty a breakfast as you’ll find, with a scoop of whey powder thrown into the mix to boost the protein content and keep you full until lunch – or elevenses if you like to work out first thing. The only hard bit is doing the prep the night before, but persist and that’ll quickly become a habit.

12. Veggie Stuffed Peppers

These spicy, hearty stuffed peppers make for a satisfying and healthy winter dinner. Keep in mind that you’ll need some prepared grains or some other microwavable rice pouch to keep the cooking time under 15 minutes – and no, it is not cheating.

13. Creamy Pesto Pasta With Broccoli And Sun-Dried Tomatoes

When you disappear into the kitchen and come back with this beauty after just 15 minutes you’ll attract admiration, wonderment and perhaps even a little fear. This creamy veggie pasta dish makes for a delicious and filling lunch.

14. Chilli Beef Nachos

Here’s a quick treat to whip up next time you fancy some comfort food. Or just any time you fancy nachos, which, let’s be honest, is all the time.

15. Curried Root Veg Filo Pie

There’s no way you can make a root veg pie in 15 minutes, you protest. And we didn’t believe it either, but Wicks is a man of his word. This healthy winter warmer can be ready to serve in a mere quarter of an hour, though it does require masterful levels of efficiency in the kitchen.

16. Salmon And Egg Baked Rolls

This is breakfast bliss and a surefire way to impress if you’re cooking for someone else. Normally we’d defend the delicious carby innards of a bread roll with our lives, but we’ll make an exception when they’re replaced with a baked egg and salmon.

17. Thai Green Fish In A Bag

Think of this dish as a foil-wrapped present to yourself. This technique doesn’t just mean all of the amazing flavours intermingle, but also makes the prep bit easy and the washing up even easier.

18. Homemade Baked Falafel With Honey Roasted Veg And A Tahini Dressing

It’s not hard to figure out where Wicks gets his energy from if he’s treating himself to healthy and wholesome dishes like this on the regular.

19. Roasted Red Pepper And Pesto Frittata

Remember, you can never have too many epic breakfast recipes up your pyjama sleeve, especially ones that don’t lean on processed pork.

20. Veggie Mac and Cheese

It’s the return of the mac – you knew that it’d be back – and we’re delighted to let you know that Wicks has brought more vegetables to the show with the addition of butternut squash and carrots. And the sprinkle of paprika? Come on! Oh my God!

21. Bye-Bye-Beef Spicy Prawn Burgers

We facepalmed when we thought how long we’d had a food processor but hadn’t thought to whizz up prawns, spring onions, coriander and Thai red chilli paste to make next-level patties. Genius!

22. Stupendous Spuds

Ahh, those magic words we dream of hearing in every recipe video. “More cheese”.

23. Very Veggie Pasta

Top marks to Wicks for making a vegetarian version of his 90-Day Plan, which includes this hazelnut pesto and courgette pasta. Roll on meat-free Monday…

24. Red Hot Stir-Fry

Fire up the wok and get your wrist warmed up – half the fun of stir-fries is showing off your flair with the wrist flicks. The other half is wrapping your laughing gear round this spicy number, obviously.

25. Simple Salad Sides And Chicken Thighs

Er, we’re not sure we’d trust chicken that’s been on the barbecue for just 15 minutes, but however you cook it (thoroughly, cook it thoroughly), the star of this plate isn’t the chicken – it’s the salad with wholegrains. You’ll want to make it a staple of all future barbecues because it brightens up a plate of sad-looking burnt meat no end.

26. Game-Changing Salmon Scotch Eggs

Just imagine the look on your colleagues’ faces as they glumly peel back the wrapper on another £3 meal-deal sandwich at their desk and you crack open your Tupperware box to reveal a couple of these healthy homemade beauties. Midweek lunchtime? You’ve just won it.

27. Quickfire Lamb Kofta Pittas

Even if it’s absolutely biblical outside, cling on to some al fresco BBQ vibes with these grilled meat bombs. Opt for wholemeal pittas and get a dose of iron from the grains.

28. Rockin’ Vietnamese Rolls

Enjoyed summer rolls in your local Vietnamese joint but thought you lacked the culinary chops to pull them off at home? Hoo boy were you wrong. Load up on sweet chilli dipping sauce and get to work.

29. The Big Boy Breakfast Burrito

Everything tastes better in wrap form, even your favourite protein-packed brunch staples. We’d slather this fistful of greatness in hot sauce too. Although to be fair we’d slather everything in hot sauce if it wasn’t frowned upon.

30. The Give-Meat-A-Break Stuffed Mushrooms

Here’s one for those whose carnivorous side refuses to relent, even for a day. Trick your inner flesh fiend into thinking it’s gorging on a slab of meat with this giant steaky mushroom, topped with tastebud-tingling feta and goodness-rich salad stuff.

31. Ridiculously Good-Looking Baked Egg Rolls

Oh, this? Only the best idea ever. Slice off the top of a roll, hollow it out, spread some pesto in there, layer in some ham, crack an egg in it and pop it in the oven.

32. Stack-’Em-High Fruity Protein Pancakes

You always mean to make them; here’s your justification. Consider this a big protein-packed push towards the frying pan.

RECOMMENDED: Chocolate Protein Pancake Recipe

33. Low-Carb, Big Heat Spicy Chilli Bowl

The archetypal winter warmer in a hurry. Whack up the heat and get this dish down to 15 minutes.

34. Killer Chicken Katsu Curry

Good luck getting this cooked in 15 minutes – and good luck not wolfing it down within five. All is forgiven, though, for getting the sweetness in the sauce from an apple and for instructing us to bash the chicken breast with a saucepan.

35. Turbo-Quick Tortilla Pizza

Done, quicker than you can say “just like Mama used to make”.

Nick Harris-Fry
Senior writer

Nick Harris-Fry is a journalist who has been covering health and fitness since 2015. Nick is an avid runner, covering 70-110km a week, which gives him ample opportunity to test a wide range of running shoes and running gear. He is also the chief tester for fitness trackers and running watches, treadmills and exercise bikes, and workout headphones.

With contributions from