Cauliflower with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree and Pickled Okra | You've Got Meal!

Vegetarians out there, rejoice! You might make a meat free man out of me yet, but you still have a long way to go regarding dairy. This vegetarian combo was both light and fulfilling, which I can’t say about a lot of meatless meals I had. You can make this recipe vegan all the way, but removing butter from the puree wasn’t really an option for me.

You’re going to need: 

• 1 small cauliflower, broken into small florets, 
• cumin seeds, 
• chick peas, 
• parsley, 
• olive oil, 
• equal quantities of Jerusalem artichoke and potatoes (about 350 grams each), 
• butter, 
• salt, pepper
• (optional) goat cheese.

1. Mix the cauliflower florets with the cumin seeds, salt, pepper and olive oil and cook in the medium hot oven for 20 minutes. 
2. Add in a handful of chickpeas from a can and cook for another 5 minutes, just enough to heat through – careful here, the more you let the beans in, the drier they will get. 
3. Put the cauliflower and chickpeas on a plate and sprinkle goat cheese and chopped parsley on top.

1. For the puree, clean/peel the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes and boil them in some salted water. 
2. When boiled through, remove the water, add some more salt, a dash of pepper and about 50-75 grams of butter. 
3. Use a fork or a masher to make your mash – or a food processor.  

What can I say about the pickled okra, except the fact is awesome and it goes really well with the vegetarian feel of the whole dish. What’s not to love: okra pickled in apple vinegar with sugar, celery, bay leaves and lots of chili and just a hint of garlic.

Enjoy,

Fresh Sardines with Chickpeas and Beets | You've Got Meal!

Butterfly sardines roasted or grilled * Beets and carrots salad * Boiled chickpeas with yogurt-harissa sauce

There are so many advantages to cooking fresh sardines that it’s hard for me to start talking about those wonderful fish. Sardines are super healthy, rich in good fats, super cheap and easy to find fresh everywhere. They’re like the fast food of the seas, except the part with the health benefits. I’ve seen a number of people who only ate canned sardines and that’s a pity, because they are missing out on something great.

Cooking this tiny tasty treat is super easy and fast, it actually takes longer to clean and gut the sardines. For this recipe, we decided to “butterfly” the fish, it looks nice in the plate and cooks faster – even though this is not such a big issue when cooking sardines. In order to butterfly the sardine, cut off the head, clean the guts out, place the fish belly side up and use your thumb to press down, near the spine of the fish, length wise, up to the tail. Remove the spine carefully pulling it out from the meat. I’m not sure if my description helps, but give it a try, it’s actually a very simple and fun process. 

Simply grill the seasoned meat or cook it in the oven – we went for the 2nd one, cooking the fish for 5 minutes at 180 Celsius. 

To accompany the fish, grab 200 grams of canned chickpeas (or boil your own) and mix them with a couple tbs. of Greek yoghurt and 1-2 tsp. of extra hot harissa sauce or another variety of a more dense spiced tomato sauce. Sprinkle some crushed (and optionally toasted cumin seeds on top).

To add some crunch to the fish and vegetable, grate a small beet and 1 or 2 carrots, season with salt, pepper, olive oil (just a small dash), the juice of 1 lemon and a 4-5 finely chopped mint leaves for freshness. 

To keep in the healthy note of the whole dish, you can sprinkle some flax seeds in the beet salad- those tiny bastards are great for you, an amazing source of fatty acids.

So there you go, super easy, super fast and super fast. Just make sure you take out the trash after cleaning those sardines, those guts are not that friendly for the nose.  

Enjoy,

Fried Perch Fillet With Chickpeas And Spinach

This dish should be the picture front for the definition of light dinner. It’s subtle, light, flavorsome, super easy to make and a nice sight on the table. I used perch for this dish because I had it in the fridge, but feel free to substitute it with any fish at your convenience, be it fattier or not -  the side dish packs enough lemony, tangy taste to overcompensate for some salmon, for example.

The amount you use totally depends on how many people you plan on cooking for. For the side dish: chickpeas (for 4 portions I used around 100-130 grams of beans), 1 fennel bulb, 2-3 garlic cloves, lemon, 100 grams of baby spinach leaves, 1 chili, 1 tbs of sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil.

Boil the chickpeas, it helps if you keep it in water the night before. Remove the beans from water and put them aside. Slice the fennel, dice the garlic, slice the chili and pop them all in pan with some hot olive oil, cook on medium heat until the fennel softens. Add the chickpeas, sugar, salt, pepper and mix well to make sure the beans get coated in melting sugar. Add the juice of 1 lemon and, again, mix all the ingredients together, cook until all the liquid from the citrus has almost evaporated. You can now choose to mix the spinach leaves for a minute with the chickpeas still on the heat, thus mellowing the greens, or just mix them off the heat, keeping them crunchy (I prefer it that way). Sprinkle some more olive oil and lemon juice to the side dish if you feel the need to. 

To prepare the fish, just fry in it a pan with a couple tbs. of olive oil until cooked (the time depends on the type of fish and its thickness). Sprinkle some salt and pepper and place the fish on top of the chickpeas.  

Enjoy,