Amongst my recipes you will always find dishes from the Mediterranean. There is an important reason for this, and it is because the traditional Mediterannean diet is still regarded as the healthiest in the world in numerous scientific studies.
When I work with clients to improve their health, the Mediterranean diet is my gold standard. I recommend a version of it with most conditions especially for heart health, diabetes, numerous digestive disorders such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, brain health, weight management and more.
There is a huge emphasis on including foods from the plant kingdom, including fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and wholegrains. With plant vegetables the main portion of a plate, the question of what meat, plant-based protein or fish is the side dish. This is quite different from how I see most people coordinate their meal plates.
Food choices are very low in processed foods and high in home cooked meals with seasonal, local produce used mainly due to the nutrient and antioxidant content. For me, I prefer local organic produce so that pesticides are also minimized, and the environment is considered.
Healthy fats are a huge part of this way of eating with olive oil as the poster child, olives, avocado, nuts and wild caught sustainable fish.
Whilst dairy is often part of the Mediterranean diet and I do include, I do incorporate other forms of calcium such as seeds, sardines, and plant sources as many of my clients with inflammatory conditions may find dairy is not helpful.
Eggs are consumed at 4-6 a week, fish several times a week, plant-based proteins have a big role and red meat and chicken once a week or even less.
Desert is often a beautiful piece of fruit with red wine in small amounts linked to good health.
I hope you enjoy my version of Mediterranean baked white fish. It has a scrumptious blend of sustainable Gurnard fillets which bake beautifully, cherry tomatoes from my local farmers markets, fresh basil, organic cold pressed olive oil, olives, capsicum and chilli.
I have this several times a week in my home. It is so easy to prepare, cooking time is short and cleaning up is easy. Another recipe for the time poor amongst you.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- Small handful of fresh basil leaves shredded
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 500 grams of NZ white Gurnard fillets or thick white fish such as Cod
- ½ teaspoon chilli flakes
- ¼ cup of sliced black olives or green (whatever you have on hand)
- 2 teaspoons of capers
- Small red capsicum, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup white wine
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons of marinated goat feta
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Place your olive oil in the bottom of your baking dish.
Add garlic slices, cherry tomatoes, olives, capsicum, basil leaves and wine.
Place your fish on top and mix well so ingredients and fish are spread evenly over the dish.
Sprinkle chilli flakes over the dish and season with freshly ground pepper.
Cook in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes depending on the thickness of the white fish you use.
When ready, stir through feta.
I will often cook this dish on a weekend and serve with crunchy roast potato pieces or a crunchy oven baked roll however I often opt for a healthy version and serve with steamed silver beet or roasted cauliflower.
The juices of this dish are lovely with many vegetable side dishes, and I have often added to a small amount of thin spaghetti as something a little different.
As you can see it is a really versatile dish and I invite you to experiment with it.
