(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
During warm-weather months, many families are more on the go than ever with jam-packed, activity-filled days. Quick, thrown-together, undistinguished meals often can be the solution. Sometimes, nutrition suffers, too.
If you think that the nutrient-filled, hearty dishes whose flavors meld for hours in quick-prep, low time-commitment slow cookers are only for winter, think again. Lighter, warm-weather fare is also an option that can cook to perfection for hours while you’re on the go.
Bestselling cookbook writer Judith Finlayson is the author of a number of nutrition-themed slow cooker books, such as ones on diabetes and the Paleo diet. In her second edition of The Healthy Slow Cooker, she incorporates nutritious ingredients, such as nuts and seeds, fresh leafy greens (like the watercress and walnuts in the following chilled soup), warm-weather seasonal fruits, like fresh apricots, barbecued foods, like grilled chicken, and lots of light seafood recipes, such as the following Mediterranean-style mahi-mahi.
Finalyson has given this healthful, seasonal slow cooker recipe concept a lot of thought and testing. Here are a few other ingredients she suggests you consider adding to your favorite slow cooker recipes:
Bell peppers (sliced; seeds removed)
Cherries (pitted)
Eggplant (sliced)
Green tea leaves
Kale
Lemongrass
Lime
Oranges
Pumpkin seeds
Salmon
Shrimp (shelled)
Sorrel
Spinach
Sprouts
Swiss chard
Sunflower seeds
Zucchini
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun – and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since, for many, there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you – or your kidlet helpers – choose to use can’t help but draw “wows” from family members and guests.
SLOW COOKER MEDITERRANEAN-STYLE MAHI-MAHI
- 2 pounds mahi-mahi steaks
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- 1 (28-ounce) can no-salt added tomatoes, including juice, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon (preferably sea) salt, optional
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Gremolata garnish, optional:
- 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
- 3 tablespoons drained capers, minced
- 2 whole anchovies, rinsed and finely chopped
- Chopped black olives, to taste
Yields 4 servings. (See Note.)
Use a medium to large (3 & 1/2- to 5-quart) oval slow cooker.
Place fish in slow cooker stoneware. Sprinkle with oregano and lay lemon slices evenly over top. In a bowl, combine tomatoes and juice, wine, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Pour over fish. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, until fish flakes easily when pierced with a fork. (It is difficult to be specific about the timing because of the fish, but you should begin checking for doneness after 1 hour. Be aware it may take up to 1 & 1/2 hours.)
To prepare optional gremolata garnish: Meanwhile in a bowl, combine parsley, capers, anchovies, remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Mix well and set aside in refrigerator until fish is cooked.
To serve: Transfer fish and tomato sauce to a warm platter. Spoon gremolata evenly over top and garnish with olives.
Note: This recipe can be halved. If halving, be sure to use a small (1 & 1/2- to 3-quart) slow cooker.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Lou Di Palo owns his family’s more-than-100-year-old food shop in the heart of Little Italy. His
Di Palo’s Guide to the Essential Foods of Italy is packed with recipes and helpful tips, like this one. “The first thing I tell people when they ask for good prosciutto --- and good prosciutto means sliced and sold by the pound, not prepackaged --- is to taste it…..The flavor and quality of prosciutto…can vary dramatically….[It] has to be aged a minimum of 13 months for San Daniele and 400 days for Parma….But you can age prosciutto much longer. The older it gets, the more concentrated, the more intense the flavor….The younger it is, the weaker the flavor, and to me 13 months is just not enough for full flavor and aroma. I think it is at its best aged between 18 and 20 months, with a minimum of 16.”
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling
The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and
Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
