In mid-2023 the concept of “girl dinner” entered the lexicon. A Tiktokker named Olivia Maher showed off her easy-to-construct dinner for one of butter, cheese, baguette, grapes and pickles and labelled it her “girl dinner”. While the idea of a random assemblage of items isn’t unprecedented (hello charcuterie plates, “nibbles” and antipasti), the trend has been viewed on Tiktok and beyond millions of times over the past year or so. Its appeal lies in its laissez-faire attitude: because it’s typically a meal for one, it’s built only of ingredients the solo diner wants to eat or has on hand – a few olives with bread and cheese on a plate; a couple of slices of pizza with a sliced-up tomato on the side; a handful of nuts and a boiled egg. The girl dinner is a judgement-free zone.
Whatever you call it, this is the ideal meal-prep mode for when the weather turns warm: low effort, little washing-up and minimal-to-no stove time.
We’ve rounded up a collection of recipes to inspire your next girl dinner – though some require a little bit of stove time initially, leftovers can be harnessed for tomorrow night’s girl dinner. (Because, if you abide by the term’s original meaning – that it’s a meal for one – you’re bound to have leftovers.) You could make a meal from one recipe, or combine multiple for the ultimate girl dinner. There are mortadella “party sticks”, a famous anchovy toast, a cracking take on the antipasto plate and more. As for boys? They’re more than welcome, too.
Girl dinner ideas
Cured meats, olives, cheeses, bread and jarred veggies all spring to mind when thinking about a girl dinner. But what if you smooshed them all together? You’d get this whopper – and while girl dinner is a celebration of solo dining, this one is just as good when shared with mates.
Give a girl-dinner fan a couple of dollars and she can buy a pot of supermarket guacamole. Teach a girl-dinner fan how to make guacamole, and you’ll feed her for a lifetime. It’s worth taking 10 minutes out of the beginning of your week to mash up this zesty guac, which can form the beginnings of many girl dinners over the following days.
Cross an Italian nonna with Tiktok and you get this spin on a girl dinner (or, as Embla’s Dave Verheul and many others would call it, an antipasto plate). Cime di rapa is cooked down with olive oil, chilli and garlic, then served alongside a walnut pesto, stracciatella and crackers for a dish good-looking enough to make it to the socials.
Every night can be a party thanks to these fun-size, low-prep sticks from Saturday Night Pasta’s Elizabeth Hewson. With thick discs of mortadella, guindilla peppers and cornichons, it’s a girl dinner in spirit; instead of the elements being artfully arranged on a plate, they’re threaded onto a skewer.
While most girl dinners tend to be randomly assembled bits and bobs, there’s no harm in adding a little bit of structure to the situation – especially if you’re making a dish as iconic as Napier Quarter’s anchovy and egg toast. It’s about as simple as it gets: grill a bit of bread, boil an egg, then layer on some anchovies and mayo with a spritz of lemon and you’re done.
Avocado toast is a classic lazy meal – it fits right in with the girl dinner ethos. Here, it’s livened up with cumin and chilli tempered in oil, and embraces the scattershot girl dinner approach with Erin Alderson’s suggestion of including a few “pickled items” on the side for extra oomph.
What is a salad, if not all the constituent elements of a girl dinner rolled into one? Here that involves peaches given a quick turn on the barbie before being topped with a blob of burrata – plus, Alice Zaslavsky offers a bunch of substitutions so you can swap many of the ingredients for whatever you have on hand.
