26 September 2023

One-Tray Dinner

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By Christine Salins.

www.foodwinetravel.com.au

It’s the perennial quest – to eat well and to eat healthily, and preferably to get it all on the table in minimal time.

There’s no shortage of cookbooks that aim to help us accomplish this. The three books here are all variations on this theme.

Donna Hay’s cookbook, WeekLight (Fourth Estate, $45), is subtitled “super-fast meals to make you feel good” and in it she presents family-friendly recipes that predominantly feature vegetables (with a few meat options thrown in).

She explains how to whip up a quick broccoli dough to make a pizza base, flat bread or tart shell, and offers her recipe for a crunchy raw pad Thai that is apparently her boys’ most-often-requested dish.

She updates recipes for schnitzels, tacos, spaghetti bolognese and other old favourites, loading them up with vegetables and completely transforming them. As always, the photography and the food styling is mouth-watering.

The CSIRO seems to be producing cookbooks at a prodigious rate: it’s only a couple of months since we looked at their book, CSIRO Protein Plus. This latest one is the third volume in a series on low-carb eating.

The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet Quick and Easy (Pan Macmillan, $34.99) features low-carb recipes that can be cooked in 20 minutes or less. Once again, it’s written by highly regarded CSIRO scientists, Professor Grant Brinkworth and Dr Pennie Taylor.

They espouse the benefits of a higher protein, low-fat, wholefood diet with a moderate amount of low-GI carbohydrates.

They provide meal plans, recipes and even shopping lists, and their recipes are always incredibly easy, from Tex-Mex Baked Salmon (which cheats by using a jar of chunky tomato salsa) to a Ginger and Lime Pork stir-fry, and Portuguese Chicken Salad.

And finally, a book that is as much about living a healthy and happy lifestyle as it is about cooking and eating. Nutritionist and author Michelle Chevalley Hedge pays a nice tribute to her brother who died at the much too young age of 43.

In Eat Drink & Still Shrink (Plum, $34.99) she admits that life is too short to drink a green smoothie if you don’t want to. At the same time, there’s room for a glass of wine if you wish.

Chevalley Hedge says deprivation is not the answer to losing weight, “a balanced diet of nourishing wholefoods – with the odd treat thrown in” is.

About two-thirds of the book is taken up with this cheerful nutritionist’s good advice and suggestions, along with eating plans and tips for a four-week reset.

It’s only then that she continues with recipes to carry you through 28 days of eating, recipes that are flavoursome but fast, like Miso-Glazed Salmon, Pistachio Crusted Pork and this Beef Fillet Traybake.

Chevalley Hedge loves a one-tray dinner because she loves cooking but doesn’t love cleaning up. She usually prepares the marinade the night before so the flavours can really soak in while she is at work.

Beef Fillet Traybake

Serves 4

1 x 650 g beef fillet, sliced into thin strips

1 red onion, sliced

1 large sweet potato, quartered and cut into thin wedges 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 red capsicums, seeded and cut into strips

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped

1 zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 teaspoon freshly ground

black pepper

Marinade:

½ cup balsamic vinegar

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary leaves

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

To make the marinade, blend the vinegar, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and mustard until combined. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and whisk until emulsified. Divide the mixture in half and set aside.

Place the beef strips in a bowl and pour over half the marinade. Turn to coat and set aside. (If you are marinating the beef for a few hours or overnight, cover the bowl with plastic film and place in the fridge.)

Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced). Oil a large roasting tin and place in the oven to preheat. Coat the onion and sweet potato with 1 teaspoon olive oil and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Roast in the preheated tin for 10 minutes.

Coat the capsicum, asparagus and zucchini with the remaining oil and season with pepper and the remaining salt. Add to the tin and roast for a further 10 to 15 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked.

Preheat the oven grill to hot. Move the vegetables to the outer edges of the tin (making sure there is still space between them so they become crisp and caramelised; it’s better to use two tins if you don’t have one tin large enough). Arrange the marinated beef in a single layer in the centre and place under the grill for 5 minutes, then turn the beef and vegetables over and grill for a further 3 minutes.

Allow the beef to rest for 5 minutes, then serve with the vegetables and the remaining marinade on the side.

From: Eat, Drink and Still Shrink by Michele Chevalley Hedge, published by Plum, RRP $34.99, photography by Cath Muscat.

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