I’ve concluded that every couple needs regular date nights. But of course, going out often gets expensive, and it can be hard to find good paleo food at restaurants anyway! Luckily, it’s totally possible and fun to do date night in with these recipes. And if you’re single, hey, date night yourself!
1. Smoked Lamb Chops, Roasted Acorn Squash Salad, and Wine Pairing
This beautiful and romantic dinner is perfect for a date night in with your boo. The lamb chops are smoked with garlic, fresh thyme, sage, and rosemary. The roasted acorn squash is beautifully caramelized with butter and coconut sugar (use in place of brown sugar) and served with a simple balsamic salad (leave out the chevre).
Photo: Cotter Crunch
2. Maple Balsamic-Glazed Scallops With Pomegranate
If scallops don’t scream date night, I don’t know what does! These are perfectly seared with butter and a touch of maple syrup with balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, and a handful of gorgeous ruby-red pomegranate arils for both flavor and presentation.
3. Cauliflower Pizza Crust With Figs and Walnuts
If you love pizza but you still want something a bit fancy for date night, try this recipe. Figs on pizza automatically make it more elegant and sophisticated. Walnuts and spinach, too! You can ignore the call for gouda if you don’t eat cheese. This pizza has lots of flavor without it.
4. Ribeye With Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms
This dinner is a great date night pick because it’s romantic but also pretty simple to make, which means more time with your other half. You’ll need ribeye steaks, chopped rosemary, sliced sweet onions, baby Portobello mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a cooking fat of choice.
5. Romantic Steak Dinner For Two
A tender and herb-infused sirloin steak with a sautéed pomegranate kale salad? This will be a date night for the books when you’re through with it. You’ll need fresh herbs and garlic, olive oil, cauliflower, baby kale, pomegranate seeds, shallots, and almond slices.
Photo: Wicked Spatula
6. Roasted Duck With Cherry Sauce, Brussels Sprouts, and Fennel
Each layer of this dinner just gets better and better. You’ll start with gorgeous roasted Brussels sprouts and sliced fennel cooked with melted bacon fat or butter, chopped fennel fronds, salt, and pepper. Then roast your duck with rosemary and sage and top with a honey-sweetened cherry sauce.
7. Chocolate Coffee Rubbed Steak With Coconut
I can’t think of very much that’s more romantic than steak and chocolate. Add ground coffee and things go to the next level immediately. You’ll also use garlic and onion powders, chili, smoked paprika, coconut sugar, cinnamon, pepper, and coconut flakes.
8. Slow Cooked Moroccan Chicken
This chicken is cooked with tomato sauce, apricot puree or jam, lemon, cumin, ginger, sweet paprika, ginger, almond butter, cinnamon, and more. Most of us probably don’t eat Moroccan food on the regular, so that makes dinner feel extra special.
9. Date Night Chicken
With chicken thighs, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, rice wine vinegar, and fresh chopped herbs, where else could this dish possibly belong besides date night? Once you taste it you’ll want to have it every night of the week, I promise.
Photo: Healthy Seasonal Recipes
10. Maple Mint Vodka Spritzer
Let’s talk co*cktails, shall we? If you abstain you can skip this section, but for some of us, a perfect co*cktail completes any date night. This one is fresh and light with fresh mint, maple syrup, ice, vodka, and seltzer water. You could try making it without the vodka if you’d like.
11. Tangerine and Thyme Martini
This drink is made with vodka, tangerine juice, fresh thyme, and a homemade thyme simple syrup you can make with honey, water, and more fresh thyme. It has a lovely fresh garden flavor that’ll make you feel extra fancy.
12. Rosemary Grapefruit Margaritas
Margaritas are my favorite co*cktail, and this is one I’d love to try next. You’ll need tequila (blanco is best, and you’ll 100% agave for sure), grapefruit juice, lime juice, and a rosemary simple syrup made with coconut sugar or honey (follow the recipe but replace the sugar).
13. Watermelon Margaritas
These watermelon margaritas would go really well with an outdoor date night on a summer evening. Make them with silver tequila, freshly-squeezed lime juice, triple sec, watermelon puree, and garnishes like salt rims, watermelon wedges, and lime.
Photo: The Clean Dish
14. Cherry-Mint Sangria With Kirschwasser
I love a good yummy sangria, and cherry is one of my favorite fruits, so I’m all about this drink with rose wine, cherries, mint leaves, tart cherry juice, and Kirschwasser, which adds a rich cherry and slightly bitter almond flavor without extra sweetness.
15. Paleo Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet
Of course, date night wouldn’t be complete with the dessert. This delicious cookie skillet is rich with cashew butter, coconut sugar, melted coconut oil (you could also use butter), dark chocolate chips or chunks, and coarse sea salt for sprinkling on top.
16. 3 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse
No, none of the ingredients are coconut milk or avocado! This mousse is made with dark chocolate, bananas, and egg whites. You could also add a dash of vanilla if you want! It’s beautiful if you serve it in a coconut as suggested, but ramekins will do just fine.
17. Paleo Neapolitan Ice Cream Smoothie
This three-layer smoothie is for the ice cream lovers on date night. It’s made with three layers just like Neapolitan ice cream, but the middle is banana instead of vanilla. For the milk in the recipe, I’d use almond milk but coconut would work, too.
Photo: Coley Cooks
18. Turkish Coffee Flourless Chocolate Cake
I love the gorgeous, rustic-but-fancy look of this collapsed chocolate cake, and I bet it tasted even better with lots of butter, chocolate, espresso powder, vanilla, and ground cardamom. You’ll want to replace the sugar in the recipe with coconut sugar.
