No one wants to be slaving over a hot stove when it’s a sunny bank holiday weekend. So for the next three days, my rules for dinner are: quick to prep, delicious (obviously) and next-to-no washing up.

Traybakes are the perfect answer. Chop up some stuff, chuck it on a baking tray, and boom! Dinner is served.

Top tip! Line your baking tray with tin foil or a silicone baking mat to make clean-up so easy it’s ridiculous.

Here are five of my current favourites.

Greek Lamb Meatball Tray Bake, Garlic Yoghurt

This speedy, succulent tray bake only takes 30 minutes to throw together, and 20 of those minutes are spent roasting. Plus, if you close your eyes and focus on the flavours of parsley and minted lamb, and creamy garlic yoghurt, you can almost pretend you’re living it up on a sunny Greek island. What could be better?

If you’re cutting down on meat, you can make delicious vegan “meatballs” with Meatless Farm’s meat-free mince instead – it works like a dream!

Tandoori Paneer & Crispy Chickpea Tray Bake

The arguments for stocking your kitchen with cans of chickpeas are endless, but this recipe is definitely up there with the best of them. Chickpeas crisp up so well in the oven, providing a warming, crunchy contrast to the sweet jamminess of the peppers and the rich, marinated paneer.

For a vegan option, swap paneer for extra-firm tofu (dry it thoroughly with kitchen paper or a tea towel, so the marinade doesn’t slide off) and natural yoghurt for coconut (we love rich and creamy Coyo here at Gousto!)

Halloumi & Roasted Vegetable Tray

For the love of halloumi, give this recipe a go. I love that you don’t need to fry the halloumi separately to get a deep, golden colour, and the extra flavour and texture from the basil oil and pumpkin seeds takes this from ‘meh’ to amazing.

Easy Chicken Tray Bake

Next to no effort, and well worth the wait, this recipe has a bit of everything. Juicy chicken thighs, golden-brown roasted vegetables, sweet onion petals and plenty of fresh herbs. Plus, it’s the ideal crowdpleaser when you’ve forgotten you’re throwing a dinner party, and “I’m tired” isn’t a good enough excuse to cancel.

Quick-Prep Sausage, Gnocchi & Pesto Tray Bake

There is no higher calling for the humble Cumberland sausage than this hands-off, Italian-inspired supper. Complete with crispy-outside-tender-inside gnocchi, and the easiest homemade pesto to drizzle over the top. This is my favourite ‘dump it all on a tray’ kind of dinner.

Hungry for more?

For more weeknight meal inspiration, these easy one-pot dinners are perfect if you’re after something cosy, comforting and low effort. Or, browse The Gousto Cookbook for all our tried and tested, customer-approved recipes in one place.

Want to skip the dreaded ‘Big Shop’?

When wandering around the supermarket is the last thing you want to do, we’ll do the hard work for you. With Gousto, you can choose from over 50 new, delicious recipes from our menu every week, and we’ll deliver all the pre-measured ingredients to your door with easy-to-follow recipe cards. Check out our website for more details.