Quick answer: A high calorie dinner is an evening meal built from calorie-dense ingredients, so it delivers more calories from a sensible portion. The easiest way to make one is to build the calories in while you cook: use a generous cooking fat, make the sauce a creamy or oily one, and finish the plate with cheese, nuts or a drizzle of oil. Done this way, a normal-sized dinner reaches 700 to 1,000 calories without becoming a mountain of food. For the underlying principle, see calorie-dense foods.

Dinner is the meal where this is easiest, because you are cooking it. Breakfast and lunch are often assembled from whatever is to hand, but dinner is built from scratch on the hob or in the oven, and every stage of cooking is a chance to add calories that never show up as extra bulk on the plate.

Why is dinner the easiest meal to add calories to?

Because the calories go in during cooking, not at the table. The thing I learned from customers who eat the biggest dinners is that almost none of it comes from a bigger portion. It comes from the oil, butter, cream and cheese that go in while it cooks, none of which you can see on the finished plate.

A curry made with water and the same curry made with a tin of full-fat coconut milk look identical in the bowl, but there can be 300 to 400 calories between them. That is the whole game with dinner: change how it is cooked, not how much is served.

How do you make a dinner higher in calories?

There are three points in cooking a meal where you can add a lot without changing the size of the plate: the fat you cook in, the sauce, and the finish.

Cook in more fat

Fry in oil or butter rather than a splash of water. Softening onions in a tablespoon of olive oil adds about 120 calories before anything else goes in. A knob of butter (around 15g) stirred through mash, rice or vegetables adds roughly 110 calories. Roasting potatoes or vegetables in two tablespoons of oil adds about 240. None of it adds volume, all of it adds calories.

Make the sauce carry the calories

Sauces are the biggest single lever at dinner. Swapping a tomato-based sauce for a creamy one, stirring two tablespoons of double cream (about 135 calories) into a pasta sauce, or using 100ml of full-fat coconut milk (about 180 calories) in a curry, lifts the entire dish in one move. A spoon of peanut butter melted into a stir-fry sauce adds about 95.

Finish the plate

The last step is where you top up. Around 30g of grated cheddar melted over the top adds about 125 calories, a tablespoon of pesto about 90, a 30g handful of toasted cashews stirred through about 180, and a final drizzle of olive oil about 120. Small additions, but they land on top of everything already built in.

What are some easy high calorie dinners?

These are low-effort, mostly one-pot dinners for when you do not want to spend an hour cooking. Each shows the components and an approximate total. Adjust portions to suit your appetite.

• Creamy coconut chickpea curry with rice: chickpeas simmered in a tin of full-fat coconut milk with a tablespoon of oil, served over rice. Around 850 calories, and it reheats well.
• Cheesy pasta bake: a 75g dry portion of pasta in a tomato sauce made with a tablespoon of oil, topped with 40g of cheese and baked. Around 700 calories.
• Peanut noodle stir-fry: noodles with a sauce of two tablespoons of peanut butter and a tablespoon of oil, finished with a handful of cashews. Around 750 calories.
• Roasted sausage and potato traybake: sausages and potatoes roasted in two tablespoons of oil with whatever vegetables you have. Around 800 calories, one tray, no washing up.
• Lentil and bean stew with bread: a hearty stew built on a good glug of olive oil, with a crusty roll and real butter on the side. Around 700 calories.
• A loaded rice bowl: rice with black beans, half an avocado, 30g of cheese and an olive oil dressing. Around 750 calories, no cooking beyond the rice.

If you want the midday version of this, see high calorie lunch ideas. For most of these, the calories sit in the oil, cream and cheese rather than the size of the bowl, which is exactly the point.