Tag: Mediterranean Diet
Salmon Burgers with Lemon Tarragon Mayo
We’ve all heard by now that we’re supposed to eat more fish. The positive effects of its fatty acids on brain health, reducing risk of heart disease, and reducing inflammation are well established. Not to mention all those studies about the longevity of the Okinawans, who eat three servings of seafood a day on average and have more centenarians than any other people group on the planet. Whoa, whoa, whoa–three servings a day? Like breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Or maybe snack? I’m not sure how I feel about cracking open some Alaskan crab legs for my afternoon pick-me-up–although “Alaskan crab legs” is an anagram for “Large Basal Snack.” And, incidentally, “Ransacks a Leg Lab.” Coincidence? I don’t think so. So, okay, maybe crab legs for snack. But breakfast? I’ve got nothing. I’ll bet you there’s some food blogger out there who has gorgeous naturally-lit photographs of a superfood salmon-kale-peanut-butter-protein-powder smoothie all the healthy cool kids eat for breakfast these days, but whipping up a fish smoothie just isn’t my thing. So for my purposes, let’s stick with seafood at lunch and dinner.
These salmon burgers with their delicious zesty-herby sauce would be equally at home on your lunch or dinner table. They’re hands-down the best salmon burgers I’ve ever had: light, crispy, seasoned with an excellent combination of herbs, and–perhaps most importantly–containing a hefty dose of those helpful omega-3 fatty acids (especially if the salmon is wild-caught, not farmed). While it may seem counterintuitive if you’re a fish lover to stuff a pound of beautiful salmon fillet into the grinding jaws of a food processor, rest assured that the finished product is worth it. And if you’re not a fish lover, these burgers just may be a great way to trick yourself into upping your salmon consumption. So go ahead, give those Okinawans a run for their money and add some fish to your diet in a tasty way. Just, you know, maybe three times a week, not three times a day.
Salmon Burgers with Lemon Tarragon Mayo
(Adapted from The Cleaner Plate Club by Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin)
Ingredients:
For Salmon Burgers:
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. canola oil, divided
1 shallot, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1/2-2/3 c. Panko bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon (or 2 tsp. dried)
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
zest of 1 lemon
fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
1 lb. salmon, boned, skinned, rinsed, and patted dry
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted
For Lemon-Tarragon Mayo:
1/4 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon, chopped (or 2 tsp. dried)
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Directions:
1. Heat 1 tsp. canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, Add the shallot and green onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Reserve the skillet and scrape the shallots and onions into a medium bowl. Add 1/2 c. Panko, tarragon, parsley, Dijon, salt, and lemon zest to the bowl, as well as a few grinds fresh-ground black pepper.
2. In a food processor, pulse half the salmon until it begins to look like a paste. Add the crumb mixture and pulse again a few times until well combined. Add remaining half of the salmon and pulse until the mixture looks like you could easily form it into patties. If it still looks too wet, add more Panko until you reach a desirable consistency. Form into 4 patties and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. canola oil over medium-high heat in the large skillet you used for the onions. Add the salmon patties and cook for 4 minutes on each side.
4. Meanwhile, make the lemon-tarragon mayo: in a small bowl, combine all ingredients until well blended.
5. Serve salmon burgers on toasted hamburger buns, topped with mayo and any other fixings you like!
Serves 4.
Spiced Red Lentils
In my last post, I shared about what I had learned from writing a research paper on the multifunctional spice turmeric and its many potential medicinal uses. Today I thought I’d share a real-life example of how to incorporate turmeric into your diet. (Because turning research into dinner always sounds like a good idea.) This red lentil side dish was a real sleeper hit at our house. It’s a classic example of don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover–I mean, how often do we expect something that looks like a pot of rust-colored mush to turn out to be full of restaurant-quality deliciousness? Not often, yes? But that’s just what happened the night we gave this recipe a try.
As for myself, I would never have started cooking with lentils if it hadn’t been for a half-finished bag my vegetarian brother left at our house after one of his visits. Being a neurotic food-user-upper, I knew I had to find a purpose for the remaining legumes in the bag. But how to do so was kind of a mystery to me, because prior to that, my only mental associations with lentils had been the following:
1.) Thinking of them as “those tiny beans that people from other countries eat” (my inner ‘Murica coming out)
and
2.) The line in the musical Funny Girl: “When a girl’s incidentals are no bigger than two lentils, well, to me that doesn’t spell success.” (Don’t tell my husband that quote or he’s gonna start using it about me).
So figuring out how to cook and serve lentils was a real education. And as it turns out, a useful education, since turmeric is such a health-beneficial spice. (Again, see that last post.) As discussed in that post, turmeric is best absorbed by the body when paired with black pepper. This red lentil dish does so with a 2:1 ratio of turmeric to pepper.
In my research, I found out that a typical amount of turmeric in the dietary supplements people take to experience its health benefits is between 400 and 600 milligrams. With this in mind, I was curious–how much benefit would be gained from eating this red lentil dish with only a 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric in it? A half teaspoon doesn’t sound like a lot. Would it be at least the same as one dose of turmeric in supplement form? To find out, I had to do a little finagling involving my food scale. Since a teaspoon is a measurement of volume and milligrams are a measurement of weight, they don’t convert. The half teaspoon had to be weighed to determine how its content might compare to a supplement.
The verdict? One half teaspoon of turmeric is equivalent to 2 grams (my spoon weighs 18g–don’t get too excited), or 2,000 milligrams. So if you ate the entire batch of spiced red lentils (good for you in the turmeric department, bad for you in the bathroom department) you would get a whopping five times the capsule amount. But if you, like a normal person, eat a regular serving–say, 1/5th of the recipe–you’ll get about as much as if you took one turmeric supplement. As someone who would rather eat than take a pill, I call that good news. While I don’t expect it to keep me from getting cancer, it’s a nice way to incorporate a health-beneficial spice into my diet from time to time. Maybe over the long term, it will work some magic.
But I digress. The important thing is mainly that these lentils are incredibly, aromatically delicious. Served with a tortilla-crusted tilapia and a drizzle of red pepper-shallot aioli, they were HEAVEN. My husband talked about this dinner for days afterward. I could also see them pairing well with grilled chicken or pretty much any Indian dish. Give them a try even if you think you don’t like turmeric–your taste buds and your health will thank you.
Spiced Red Lentils
(Adapted from Myrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter (or olive oil, to make vegan)
1/2 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups red lentils, thoroughly rinsed
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. black pepper
salt to taste
Chopped basil for garnish, if desired
Directions:
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté about 6 minutes or until onion is tender. Add broth, lentils, turmeric, cumin, and pepper.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender and have absorbed the broth. Season with salt to taste and garnish with basil, if desired.
Makes 5 cups.
Fig, Pear, and Goat Cheese Salad with Toasted Cinnamon-Pecan Vinaigrette
Have you ever had a really unforgettable meal at a restaurant, then gone back anticipating having it again, only to find it’s been taken off the menu? Or worse yet, that the recipe’s been changed and what you order is not nearly as delicious as what you remember? There’s a popular restaurant in Phoenix called La Grande Orange I’ve been to only a couple of times and enjoyed. Once I got a salad there with a truly spectacular pecan vinaigrette. While nuts have been growing on me for the last few years (you know, figuratively, not literally), I have historically not been their biggest fan. This dressing, though, was a revelation. Sweet, rich, and complex–this dressing probably gets alllll the ladies. I’ve thought about it frequently since our last visit to La Grande Orange. Imagine my disappointment, then, looking up the LGO menu recently and not seeing it listed!
Well, I couldn’t let it go at that. I had to at least Google and tinker around to try to recreate a version of it (if not call LGO’s chef and tearfully beg for the recipe). The dressing on this salad is the result. Since I don’t actually remember LGO’s salad itself, just the vinaigrette, I chose ingredients I tend to like with sweet dressings: dried figs, pear slices, goat cheese, and arugula for a little spicy kick. I must say the whole picture of flavors came together dee-liciously. I might have even liked my homemade pecan vinaigrette with its touch of cinnamon even better than the restaurant version, if you can believe it. So here it is, the salad with the most delicious vinaigrette ever–and possibly the longest name ever. If this were in a cookbook, I’m pretty sure my editor would make me cut some words out of its 11-word title.
Fig, Pear, and Goat Cheese Salad with Toasted Cinnamon-Pecan Vinaigrette
(Dressing adapted from Food.com)
Ingredients:
Salad:
8 c. arugula
4 oz. crumbled goat cheese
1 ripe pear, thinly sliced
4 oz. dried figs, sliced in half
Dressing:
1 c. chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Cinnamon, to taste
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
Directions:
1. Assemble salad ingredients on a platter or in a large bowl.
2. Toast the pecans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread chopped pecans on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the 1 Tbsp. olive oil and sprinkle cinnamon over top. Bake 3-5 minutes, checking at 3 minutes for doneness. The nuts should look dark brown but not burnt.
3. To make vinaigrette, whisk together Dijon and honey. Slowly whisk in olive oil, then balsamic vinegar. Stir in cooled toasted pecans. If you like a more emulsified texture, give the whole thing a few pulses with an immersion blender.
4. Toss salad with pecan vinaigrette, or serve on the side.
Serves 4.
Chickpea Salad Wraps
Ah, the humble chickpea! The little legume that could. If you’re not familiar with chickpeas, you may have heard them called by their alternate name, garbanzo beans. You know, like Ronald Reagan’s lesser-known cinematic hit:
Or if that doesn’t ring a bell, they’re also called Bengal grams, Egyptian peas, cecis, ceces, or chanas. Having so many different names could have to do with the fact that they’ve been around for over 7,500 hundred years, making them one of the oldest cultivated legumes on earth. Take that, Ancient Grains Cheerios!
Fortunately for all of us, chickpeas were not lost to antiquity and have continued to be cultivated to this day. Now you can find them in the grocery store in cans and dried in bags, or in this delicious lunch entree. (Or quick dinner entree, depending on your day.) On my perpetual quest to find more hearty vegetarian meals, I count these chickpea salad wraps as a watershed discovery. They’re filling, flavorful, and pack a nutritional punch that is not to be trifled with. A half cup of chickpeas alone contains over 20% of your daily value of protein and an impressive 8 grams of fiber.
In this recipe, you can pretty much mess around with the ingredients in any amount you like. I am infamously gluttonous in my fondness for mayo, so I prefer to add that with a bit of a heavy hand, but you could always cut back. Same goes for any of the other ingredients–except the chickpeas themselves, and the lavash, assuming you intend to eat it as a wrap and not straight out of the bowl. Though I won’t say you won’t be tempted…
Chickpea Salad Wraps
(Inspired by Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. onion, diced fine
1/3 c. celery, diced fine
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. dried dill weed
salt and pepper, to taste
4 whole wheat pitas or lavash bread
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mash chickpeas until they reach a consistency you like. (I prefer them to still be a bit chunky, not too smooth.)
2. Add all remaining ingredients except pitas and mix, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve in pitas or lavash wraps.
Serves 4.
Herbed Stuffed Zucchini
What would you call these? Zucchini boats? Zucchini blades? Zucchini toboggans? Every time I make this herbed stuffed zucchini, I want to give it some cute, descriptive name that makes my kids more inclined to eat it. Not that my kids are very picky, I just think a dinner with such a unique shape deserves some fun imagery to go along with it. Often, the foods we eat for dinner come to us with no particular shape, kind of blobby. Don’t get me wrong, some of my favorite foods are blobby. Like mac and cheese, or soup, or ice cream. Blob, blob, blob. As a matter of fact,
There, I said it. Don’t tell my husband.
But, that being said,
I guess basically what I’m saying here is
Like you didn’t know that already.
These uniquely shaped zucchini skis combine savory herbs with ground beef on top of the tender-crisp crunch of the squash underneath. A sprinkle of Parmesan completes the taste profile for a delicious homemade dinner any night of the week. Round it out with a side of potatoes (garlic herb potato wedges, perhaps?) and you’re good to go.
Herbed Stuffed Zucchini
A Love Letter to Food Original
Ingredients:
4 zucchini
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic
3/4 lb. ground beef
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped fine
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped fine
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 c. fresh-grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and scrape out the inside, leaving about a 1/2 inch of flesh on the zucchini skin. Reserve 1 c. of the inner part of the zucchini you just scraped out and chop into 1/2 inch chunks. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes, then add the reserved 1 c. of zucchini chunks and cook another 3-4 minutes. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 7-10 minutes. Sprinkle in fresh rosemary and thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook and stir 1 additional minute to incorporate. Drain beef mixture if liquid is present.
4. Place zucchini halves on a greased baking sheet and stuff with ground beef mixture. (If you have extra of the beef mixture, you can either cook it alongside the zucchini or save it for another use, like shepherd’s pie.) Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes.
5. Sprinkle with fresh Parmesan.
Serves 4.