Pan fried sea bass, turmeric rice and Thai themed salad

Fish Friday with a twist. Who said healthy has to be boring??

Sea bass, turmeric rice and Thai themed salad

Sometimes, like everyone else, we get a little bored of eating the same things all the time. We eat a pretty good balanced diet but can get stuck for creative ideas - with vegetables in particular. We tend to go for the easy options and broccoli and spinach get consumed in huge quantities in our house.

This week, having a little time on my hands, I thought we'd try a "Fish Friday" with a little twist. This is a really fresh tasting Thai salad, which leaves a little tingle on the taste buds. Aside from the chopping (which does take a little time) it is a really simple meal to make.

My inspiration is derived from Olive Magazine and a little googling/customisation.

This version of the Thai salad also had swede in as an option

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SALAD;

1 carrot, shredded

1 green apple, shredded or thinly sliced (I did mine in neat little strips)

Spring/sliced greens - 2 large handfuls, shredded

1/2 cucumber, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 green pepper, finely sliced

1/2 red pepper, finely sliced

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

Mint -a bunch of, chopped

Coriander - a bunch of, chopped

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SALAD DRESSING;

1 red chilli finely chopped

1 green chilli finely chopped (I used medium heat chillis)

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

3 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp fish sauce

METHOD;

Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl. Simply put all the chopped salad ingredients in a large salad bowl, pour over the dressing, mix well and serve

Turmeric rice (the cheaper option to saffron)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE TURMERIC RICE;

2 cups basmati rice (or one tea mug in this house)

1 lime juiced

2 tbps fish sauce or soy sauce

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Vegetable stock cube

500mil of water

METHOD FOR THE RICE;

Put all of the ingredients in a pan

When it begins to bubble cover tightly with a lid and reduce heat to low. I used brown wholegrain Basmati so allowed it to cook for 25-30 mins - if you use white Basmati it should take around 15 to 20 mins - or until all or most of the liquid has been absorbed.

You could add peas to the rice, or get creative with some other additions!

SEABASS (SKIN ON)

What a beautiful piece of fish - one of my favourites.

I had never cooked it before so was a little nervous, but it's so simple.

METHOD;

Brush the skin side of the sea bass fillets with oil. Heat a frying pan until very hot and add the fillets skin side down.

Cook for 3 minutes and then put them under a grill to finish the tops. This took approx. 4 minutes for our fillets - cooked through with crispy skin.

Obviously if you don't eat fish you could add a different protein source, but overall this offers a very tasty, simple and balanced meal.

Enjoy!!!