Ready to Eat Salad with Anchovies

I’m calling this ready to eat salad with anchovies because all the ingredients are from packets or jars. And you don’t really need to do much to them. And there are anchovies.

Time to get back to some food blogging. So this is a new recipe. It’s very simple. I’m feeling really lazy – or rather I just don’t have much energy. So I haven’t been doing too much cooking. I am determined though to be reasonably healthy. So I’m making convenience health food sorts of things.

What is convenience health food?

It’s stuff that requires little more than dumping into a bowl and mixing it around. Like the lazy pickled beetroot and goats cheese salad.

This is like that. Well, it’s another salad. And it has anchovies. They now sell tins of anchovies in olive oil in Lidl for – I think they’re 95¢. I love them. If you don’t like anchovies you will not like this salad. They are what make this good.

Are anchovies good for you?

Apparently yes they are. Are they on the endangered list and ethical shoppers should avoid them? According to a quick search there, yes since 2008 they have been added to the endangered list. So am I still going to go ahead and post this? Ah … yes. Am I still going to continue buying and eating anchovies? … Um … well…

Have I started cycling to work yet – like I mentioned in another post? Man, this post is not going well…

O.K. I haven’t started cycling to work yet. But I think I need to get a different bike first. And yes I agree with stricter fishing quotas when necessary to ensure long-term supply. But it’s unreasonable to expect individual shoppers to change the supply of a food product. Especially when it is very cheap and highly nutritious.

It’s not so difficult to boycott something produced by companies or countries whose policies you disagree with. But asking consumers to stop choosing to buy cheap and nutritious food because that food source is endangered is much harder. You think – will my stopping buying this make any difference? Should I just continue to buy it while I still can? If it really is endangered then why aren’t governments imposing stricter quotas?

So apart from the controversial anchovies what else is in this salad?

Peppery salad leaves. Today I used a mix of watercress, rocket and spinach leaves – just the bag that was there in the supermarket. Usually I use a bag of rocket leaves. I’ve made this salad with gem lettuce. It’s not as good. This salad is full of loud bright flavours that are competing with each other. And I think the peppery taste of rocket or watercress is needed to balance the sourness and sweetness of the other ingredients.

I usually top with shavings of Parmesan. But I didn’t have any today so I used Manchego cheese. I’ve still put Parmesan as the topping in the ingredients.

Apart from that I use some roasted tomatoes or sundried ones, some roasted red pepper, some boiled potatoes and some walnuts.

The dressing is just the oil from the tin of fish, a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar and a shake of ground pepper.

Good for your gut?

Since I’ve discovered that you can microwave those little bags of new potatoes in a few minutes, dry them off, let them cool, store in the fridge and then use them as needed over the next few days, I’ve been doing this. Also, I read a short little book with recipes about how to encourage and improve the your gut flora and according to that book cold cooked potatoes contain “resistant starch” which your digestive system finds easier to move along – I think that’s the idea.

I haven’t tried the gut makeover diet yet. Ever feel like you need to first get a bit healthier before you try to be properly healthy? That’s where I’m at. Nice thing about this salad is it’s quick and easy. It does seem to follow the rules for a gut-flora friendly salad. It’s low in sugar, has some fibre, resistant starch, it’s got vitamins and minerals and good sources of fat – and requires very little effort to assemble.