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  • April 23, 2018

London Unattached - London Lifestyle Blog

Luxury London Lifestyle Blog for the over 40s with food, travel, diet and restaurant reviews - London Unattached

The Mindful Chef – Red Pesto Fish Skewers

August 12, 2017 by Fiona Maclean 10 Comments

Healthy Food to Cook at Home – the Mindful Chef  Red Pesto Fish Skewers:

I love the idea of recipe boxes as a way of inspiring people to cook new dishes.  There are various bits of research which suggest most of us never cook more than 9 recipes on a regular basis.  Think about it.  What do you generally cook at home?  Spaghetti Bolognese, a few casseroles and roasts, perhaps some pasta bakes?  We all have our favourites – and once we know we like something we tend to make it again and again.  As a food blogger, I do find myself constantly challenged to cook with new ingredients.  The Black Cod I was using a few weeks ago is an excellent example – it’s expensive and I might have never tried cooking it at home other than because I was asked to write about Alaskan Seafood.  Once I know that a recipe works, I’ll make it again and again – but, sometimes buying the basic ingredients to try just seems too complicated for something I might not like.  Something like these fish skewers with red pesto are a good example.

Fish and Pepper Skewers with Red Pesto

 

As a food blogger, I do find myself constantly challenged to cook with new ingredients.  The Black Cod I was using a few weeks ago is an excellent example – it’s expensive and I might have never tried cooking it at home other than because I was asked to write about Alaskan Seafood.  Once I know that a recipe works, I’ll make it again and again – but, sometimes buying the basic ingredients to try just seems too complicated for something I might not like.  Something like these fish skewers with red pesto are a good example.

Fish and Pepper Skewers with Pesto

The advantage of a recipe box is that everything comes so that you can try at home.  And, if you like the recipe you have the choice of ordering it again or going out and buying all the store cupboard ingredients you might need to make it when ever you fancy.  However, many recipe boxes don’t have a ‘one person’ option and I think that misses a huge number of potential customers like me – people who DO cook at home but generally only for themselves.  The Mindful Chef offers their meals in various portion sizes – from one person up to four and you can order up to five of their meals each week.  Their recipes are notably healthy – and each one comes with a calorie count and a macro analysis.  So, if you are on a weight loss programme, you can pick the meals that fit the diet you are following.

Fish and Pepper Skewers with Red Pesto

My first Mindful Chef meal was Red Pesto Fish Skewers with tomato cucumber and olive salad.  It weighs in at 546 calories and is a relatively high carb dish because it comes with a generous portion of brown rice.  In the interest of research and because I wasn’t on a 5:2 fast day, I made the recipe up exactly as described on the accompanying card.  I might have used cauli rice if I hadn’t been reviewing, just to keep the calories down under 500 calories.  But, this is exactly the sort of dish that I can see myself making again, with different variations – perhaps using a green pesto or even a fresh herb and chilli paste on the fish skewers and using all sorts of different fish – salmon, pollock and monkfish for example.

But, the Mindful Chef version was delicious so I’m sharing the recipe below.

5 from 5 votes
Fish skewers in Red Pesto
Print
Fish Skewers with Red Pesto
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
25 mins
 

A Mindful Chef recipe for Fish Skewers with Red Pesto served with brown rice and a tomato, olive and cucumber salad.

Course: Lunch, Main Course
Servings: 1
Calories: 546 kcal
Author: The Mindful Chef
Ingredients
  • 150 grams Ling fillet skin off
  • 15 grams Pitted black olives
  • 60 grams Cherry tomatoes
  • 1/4 Cucumber
  • 1/2 Red Pepper
  • 1/2 Lemon
  • 1 tbsp Red Pesto
  • 40 grams Brown rice
  • 1 handful Flat-Leaf Parsley
  • 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
  1. Rinse the brown rice and place in a pan with 200ml of boiling water and a pinch of salt.  Simmer for 25 minutes until cooked, then drain

  2. Cut the pepper into bite-size squares.  Cut the ling into similar sized pieces.  Thread two skewers with alternate pieces of ling and pepper, ideally ending with a piece of pepper.  

  3. Mix the pesto with half the oil and season with salt and pepper.  Spread over the fish skewers and set to one side

  4. Chop the cucumber into 1cm cubes.  Quarter the cherry tomatoes and half the black olives.  Remove the stalks from the parsley and chop the leaves roughly.  Mix all the salad ingredients together and dress with the remaining olive oil and half the lemon juice.

  5. Pre-heat a griddle or heavy based frying pan and cook the skewers for 8-12 minutes.  Turn occasionally and remove from the heat once the fish is cooked through and the peppers are soft.

  6. Drain the rice.  Put the rice on the plate with the skewers and salad.  Dress the skewers with the remaining lemon juice.  Enjoy!

The second recipe and set of ingredients was for this burger with a portobello mushroom and caramelised red onion served with carrot fries and rocket salad.  Again, it’s a healthy recipe with around 538 calories.  The macro analysis is slightly lower carb (36g carb, 28g fat and 38g protein) .  I’ve made recipes like this before and was impressed by the use of carrot fries rather than potato to improve the nutritional balance of the dish.  And of course, it was delicious.  The chopped rosemary garnish worked well to soften the sweetness of the carrot fries.

Burger and Portobello Mushroom - Mindful Chef

So far I’m very impressed.  The ingredients were all excellent quality, the recipes were healthy, gluten free and well balanced.  And, nothing too complicated to make!  Next, we will be reviewing some of the extensive range of vegan meals offered by the Mindful Chef.

If you’d like to try these recipes at home you can order meal boxes from The Mindful Chef online

And why not pin this post for later

Fish Skewers with Red Pesto - Easy Summer Recipe - Fish Skewers with Pesto (1)

Disclosure:  I have been provided with The Mindful Chef recipe boxes to review.  This post contains affiliate links.

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Filed Under: 5:2 Diet Recipes, Fish and Shellfish, Lunch, Mains, Recipes Tagged With: 5-2, diet recipe, fish, healthy

About Fiona Maclean

London based freelance writer and marketing consultant. I edit London-Unattached.com and write for a number of other publications

Comments

  1. Hayley says

    August 13, 2017 at 9:10 am

    Mmm these recipes look & sound really nice!

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      August 14, 2017 at 1:34 pm

      They are genuinely very good – and it’s so easy to have all the ingredients sent to your doorstep!

      Reply
  2. Lisa Orchard says

    August 13, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    Yum! This looks so good! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Janice says

    August 13, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    Those skewers look so good. I love to be challenged to try new recipes and get bored quickly of making the same thing, but I do have few old favourites I keep making. Recipe boxes are a great way to try new things with very little risk, The Mindful Chef sounds like it is good quality and great recipes.

    Reply
    • Fiona Maclean says

      August 14, 2017 at 1:37 pm

      The nice thing is that all the recipes are carefully thought out and nutritionally balanced. And, because you are making them yourself you get to see what goes into the dish on your plate. They are west country sourced – there should be a Scottish version methinks!

      Reply
  4. Emma @ Adventures of a London Kiwi says

    August 14, 2017 at 8:30 am

    This sounds SO yummy – and would make such a healthy addition to our kitchen!

    Reply
  5. Elinor Fisher says

    August 14, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    Would never have thought of putting red pesto with fish- but it works and is a great way to make fish more interesting!

    Reply
  6. Anthea Holloway says

    August 15, 2017 at 6:42 pm

    This looks a very interesting recipe and would certainly liven up the fish a little!

    Reply
  7. Heidi Roberts says

    August 17, 2017 at 11:14 pm

    I would like to eat more fish but am always put off not knowing what to buy. The red pesto fish skewers look delicious!

    Reply
  8. Kristin Burdsall says

    December 15, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    wow this looks yummy. Look forward to making this

    Reply

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  • April 12th  - National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

    The USA celebrates National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day on April 12th.   Well, why not?   Regarded as one of the top comfort foods in America, the version we eat today originated in the 1920s when sliced bread and American cheese became easily available.  

    image

    Of course, those of you from the USA and those of you wishing to join the celebrations can do so in London!  Head for the glamorous art-deco inspired Colony Grill at the Beaumont Hotel and you’ll find the menu offers a Grilled Cheese sandwich with Dill Pickle, perfect for National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.  While you are there, enjoy a cocktail or three - and perhaps a couple of other American classics - we love the Buttermilk Fried Chicken and perhaps Bananas Foster flambeed in dark rum for dessert. 

    Enjoy!

    Colony Grill
    The Beaumont  Brown Hart Gardens
    Mayfair  London  W1K 6TF 
     

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