 |
| Spinach, tomato, onion, ginger, garlic...you could stop here and it would be good. |
Dinner tonight? Who has time to cook? (Oh, wait, if you’ve got 30 minutes, that would be YOU!)
I wanted to throw out a recipe today—something quick and easy, just to show my love. You see, even though I haven’t posted much food lately, I have been cooking without end. This is a good thing, but it does leave me in that funny position of having cooked for other folks all day and still having a family at home that needs to eat. This is an easy, forgiving meal that is highly adaptable for different tastes and eating restrictions. Best of all, it is extremely flavorful and absolutely nutritious.
 |
| The fish is ready for the oven. |
Here’s the basic recipe that I used (i.e., what is in the picture). To make this a REALLY fast meal, use a food processor from beginning to end—seriously, you can have this meal on the table within 30 minutes (most of that is oven time) if you let the machine do the work. Everything in this recipe is optional, but if you want a creamy and rich texture, be sure to include the onion and tomato—these two things make a huge difference to taste and texture. Have some leftover grains sitting in your fridge? This is a great sauce for reheating those. Don’t eat grains? Serve this over mashed sweet potatoes. Want some spice in your life? Throw a pepper or two into the processor with your garlic and ginger. And, of course, any protein source here works well, as do other greens (even the tough ones since this is going through the food processor anyway).
 |
| Sometimes you gotta let the machine do the work. |
2 8-oz portions of fish (any thick, oily fish will work)
1 lb. spinach (any leafy green will do)
6 roma tomatoes, quartered
1 large onion, roughly chopped 2-inch chunk ginger, cut into large chunks
3 cloves garlic, whole or halved
8 stems flat leaf parsley
Juice from one lemon
Olive oil for sautéing
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400. Put ginger and garlic in food processor and pulse a few times, just to break up.
Heat large sauté pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, ginger and garlic, sauté 3-4 minutes to soften. Add tomatoes, stir, add spinach and parsley, stir. Allow to cook together until spinach is wilted, another 4 minutes or so.
Place spinach mixture in food processor with salt and pepper and pulse until smooth. Add lemon juice to taste. Pour puree into baking dish, add fish. Cook in hot oven until desired doneness (15-20 minutes, depending on thickness and type of protein).
 |
| In case you're wondering, the health department says that the best ways to defrost proteins are (1) in the fridge overnight or (2) under cold running water. |
