When Nick and I started dating he “hated” olives, but not anymore. Keep this in mind ladies (and gents); if your significant other claims to “hate something”, feed it to him or her anyway because if they are anything like Nick they will eventually learn that they actually don’t mind the food at all. Of course this doesn’t always work, Nick will never like yogurt, dried fruit or hummus. I’ve given up on those items. But there are a handful of foods (artichokes being another great example) that I know he hadn’t tried since he was very young and therefore he needed a “re-introduction” in order to be sure that he in fact “didn’t like” them. Anyway, as it turns out, he loves olives, and this recipe was a winner in this household.
Olive Crusted Cod in Foil
Author: Adapted from ProudItalianCook.com
Serves: 3
Ingredients
- 1 lb. fresh cod
- ¾ cup mixed olives (such as green, kalamata, black, nicoise)
- ½ cup sundried tomatoes, dried (not in oil)
- 2 small garlic cloves **
- 4 T chives, chopped
- ¾ cup parsley
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 large zucchini, shredded into ribbons or “noodles”
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rough chop the olives, sundried tomatos, garlic and parsley in a food processor.
- Use heavy duty foil and cut it large enough to enclose fish without any leakage.
- Drizzle bottom of foil with olive oil, divide zucchini ribbons among each of three pieces of foil and top each zucchini mound with ~ 5 ounces of fish (or ~1/3rd of the pound).
- Spread olive mixture all over the top of the filet.
- Whisk together the juice of 1 lemon and olive oil and drizzle that on top of the olive crusted fish.
- Crimp foil to enclose fish, loosely.
- Place the packets on a pan and bake in over for ~25 minutes, or until fish reaches internal temperature of 145 degrees.
Notes
** If you are following a low FODMAPs diet omit the garlic and use a garlic or tuscan infused olive oil to replace the garlic flavor.
NOTE: If you’re watching your sodium intake, you could reduce the amount of olives used, or rinse your olives in cold water before chopping and spreading onto the cod.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 piece of fish Calories: 276 Fat: 10.1 Saturated fat: 1.6 Carbohydrates: 9.7 Sugar: 4.4 Sodium: 614 Fiber: 4.4 Protein: 37 Cholesterol: 83
Nutrition Highlights: Under 300 calories, excellent source of vitamins A and C, plus iron. And of course let’s not forget that 10 grams of fat. Ninety percent of the fat in this recipe is from MUFAs and PUFAs (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, in case you were wondering) and that’s a really good thing, trust me. Today’s Dietitian Magazine recently wrote about the benefits of these heart-healthy fats and you can read about those benefits here (I would suggest looking at the chart on the right side of the page, as it sums up the benefits of replacing your saturated fats and your cabohydrates with the unsaturated fats found in fish, olives and nuts).
This is one of those recipes that looks prettier before it’s cooked. But of course, it tastes better after it’s cooked, and that’s all that matters really (did you know that heating your food actually does make the flavors more volatile and thus the food more tasty??).
The mediterranean flavors in this dish were just fantastic. I didn’t think the parsley would be as good as it was. Together with the tomatoes and olives, it was the perfect harmony. The original recipe called for the zucchini as an option, but I think the zucchini was integral because it added some more nutrition (you’ve got to have veggies somewhere, right? And no, the sundried tomatoes just don’t cut it) and they soaked up some of the Mediterranean flavors so it was almost like eating olive noodles. Sound strange? Try it. And yes, even Nick “the olive hater” enjoyed the “olive noodles”.
So today’s recipe may not be free of animal protein (you know, Meatless Monday….) but it is free of meat. It works, right? Oh, by the way, did you know that October 1st was National Vegetarian Day? I wasn’t at work to celebrate with the students, but next year I want to make them these tempeh sloppy joe’s .
QUESTION: Is there a food you know your significant other “hates”, but you feed it to them anyway, hoping they might start to like it?!
Thanks for reading, and Happy Monday (yes, I said happy, SMILE!)
The Candid Rd
