Serves 1 – 2
Yet again in my house it’s time to start properly meal-planning and using up some of those ingredients in the freezer drawer – this occurs maybe 3 times a year and encourages me to get creative with store-cupboard/fridge/freezer ingredients and look up recipes online or in my many, dusty, mostly unused cook books! Quite often these are some of my tastiest creations and I feel inspired to get creative in the kitchen again – for a little while anyway!
High in Omega 3 with crispy skin to die for!
I had some whole frozen trout lurking in my middle drawer and so, using a recipe found online and adapting it a little for frozen herbs I had in storage, I got all chef-y and made myself some protein-dense, low-in-saturated-fats baked trout for tea!
Trout is one of those magical ‘oily’ fish we hear so much about – rich in Omega 3 essential fatty acids which have been found to have heart healthy properties such as decreasing triglyceride levels in the blood, slowing the growth rate of atherosclerotic plaques and lowering blood pressure. They have also been shown to improve the risk factors and heart health of those people who have already suffered from heart attacks or stroke.
I’d recommend serving this, as I did, with a fresh salsa made from a mixture of chopped herbs and salad ingredients. I used cucumber, tomatoes, sugar-snap peas, mangetout, radishes, celery, broccoli, green and black olives, coriander and parsley and a light dressing of white wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. The whole meal around 500 kcal. You could also add some delicious lightly buttered new potatoes or roasties too.
INGREDIENTS
1 whole trout, gutted and cleaned out
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped
1tbsp. fresh coriander, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. paprika
½ lemon, sliced
1 tbsp. olive oil or olive oil based frying spray
½ tsp. salt
1-2 cups white wine, for cooking (top up during cooking if needed – not you, the fish!!!)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 240C / 475F / Gas Mark 9 (very hot).
- Finely chop the herbs and mix in a bowl with the minced garlic and paprika.
- Stuff the trout with 2/3 of the herb and garlic mixture.
- Place the lemon slices inside the trout on top of the herbs.
- Put the olive or spray oil in your hand and rub both sides of the fish with it, then rub the salt into the skin.
- Top the fish with the remaining herbs and garlic and squeeze any remaining lemon juice onto the fish too.
- Place the fish, herb-side up, on a raised slatted tray (I used the tray from my grill pan) over a deep baking tray. Pour the wine into the bottom of the baking tray.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the skin of the trout is crisped up nicely.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Per Whole Trout (oven-baked with olive oil)*
Low in saturated fat and a great source of protein. This would make a great post-exercise meal if you prepped it before going out
Energy 287 kcal / 1200 kJ
Carbohydrate 0.4g
Fat 16.6g
Protein 33.8g
Total sugar 0.3g
Saturates 2.8g
Fibre 0.8g
Salt 2.7g
The above nutritional information is assuming that you used olive oil to bake the fish with. If you use spray oil you will save approximately 70 kcal / 293 kJ, 8.0g fat and 1.2g saturated fat.
Serves 4
Delicious, crunchy and packed with fibre, protein, iron and folate.
With the weather starting to turn warmer, even if only sporadically and for 2-3 days out of every month in the UK, this weekend was so beautiful that it just wasn’t soupy weather! I decided to make a nice salad instead – my staple lunch during the summer months being a plate of different mixed salads like those you might see in a health food/wholefood cafe.
You can use green or brown lentils in this salad and these types are especially good in salads and casseroles because they hold their shape well after cooking (yellow and red lentils or split peas have a tendency to go mushy making them better in soups and dahls). They also lend it a really nice crunchy texture and nutty flavour which goes beautifully with the crunchy fresh veggies and parsley.
I would eat this salad as a meal on its own, maybe with a tbsp. of low fat hummus, lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and ½ pitta bread. I have eaten it on the side of a main meal such as baked fish or chicken, lasagne, moussaka or as part of a salad plate with other salads in which case I would have 1-2 tbsps. of salad rather than a large plateful. I have included the nutritional information for the whole recipe here so that you can make your own calculations if you decide to portion the salad differently; e.g. if you were to eat it on the side of a main meal rather than as a salad meal in its own right.Lentils are high in fibre, protein and a multitude of vitamins and minerals including iron, folate and calcium. They are low in fat and, because of the high fibre and protein contents, they can really help your stomach to feel fuller for longer making them a great addition to a lunch time meal as this can curb those afternoon snack cravings.
Normally you would find lentils dried and sold in bags ready for cooking although some supermarkets and specialist food stores such as south Asian supermarkets sell them already cooked in cans. I have used dried lentils so I needed to cook them – if you used canned lentils just miss out the first step and be aware that the canning process probably added extra salt to the overall nutritional content as a preservative.
Ingredients
200g dried green lentils or 2 cans cooked, drained green lentils (480g)
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped (or equivalent amount of chopped spring onions)
1 garlic clove, finely diced
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
–
1 tbsp. olive oil
1.5 tbsp. white wine or cider vinegar
1 tsp. runny honey
2 tsp. lemon juice
Some grated lemon zest (optional)
Ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Place the lentils in a saucepan with 3 times the amount of cold water as lentils. Bring the water to a boil then reduce the heat and boil gently for 35 – 45 minutes, or until the lentils are soft but retain a bit of crunch. Remove from heat, drain off the water and allow to cool for later.
2. Finely chop the vegetables and parsley – these will stay raw so small is better unless you particularly like to eat large chunks of raw onion! Mix these together in a big bowl.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the oil, vinegar, honey, lemon juice, lemon zest (if using) and black pepper. Make sure the honey is well blended with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and add the cooked lentils once they have cooled sufficiently.
5. Stir everything together and put the salad in the fridge for an hour or two to allow the dressing to infuse the vegetables with flavour.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
per whole recipe
Energy 870 kcal / 3645 kJ
Carbohydrate 132.4g
Fat 15.4g
Protein 54.4g
Total sugar 31.7g
Saturates 3.4g
Fibre 26.0g
Salt 0.1g (check canned lentils for added salt)
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
per serving (if serving 4)
Energy 220 kcal / 911 kJ
Carbohydrate 33.1g
Fat 3.9g
Protein 13.6g
Total sugar 7.9g
Saturates 0.9g
Fibre 6.5g
Salt Trace (check canned lentils for added salt)
Relish Health 