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Herring with Warm New Potatoes, Quick-Pickled Red Onion and Dill

Pickled herring on warm sliced new potatoes with quick-pickled red onion, olive oil and lots of dill, in the Baltic and Nordic style. A lunch rich in omega-3 fats, ready in 30 minutes.

Lunch

30

Serves 2

A white fish-shaped dish of silver herring fillets on sliced boiled potatoes, topped with bright pink pickled red onion and chopped dill

Ingredients

  • 400g/14oz new potatoes, scrubbed
  • 4 pickled herring fillets or rollmops in vinegar, not in a sweet, cream or mustard sauce (about 200g/7oz drained; check the label if you need it gluten-free)
  • 1 small red onion (about 80g/3oz), very thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp (30ml) red wine vinegar and 1 tsp (4g) sugar, for the onion
  • A small bunch of dill (about 10g), chopped
  • 2 tsp (10ml) extra virgin olive oil
  • A pinch of black pepper (no salt needed; the herring is salty)
  • About 1.5 litres/6 cups water, for the potatoes

Method

  1. Put the onion in a small bowl with the vinegar and sugar, stir and leave for at least 15 minutes while the potatoes cook, stirring once. It turns bright pink and softens.
  2. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling water for 15 to 18 minutes, until tender when pierced with a knife. Drain, leave to steam dry for a minute, then slice into rounds about 5mm/¼in thick.
  3. While the potatoes are warm, toss them with the olive oil, half the dill and some black pepper and divide between two plates.
  4. Lay the herring fillets on top, drain the onion and pile it on, then scatter with the rest of the dill.
  5. Opened herring keeps in its jar in the fridge as the label says. Keep leftover potatoes covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Why it works

A plate gives you about 17g of protein for 388 calories, with plenty of omega-3 fats from the herring.

Why herring. Herring is an oily fish rich in the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA and one of the best food sources of vitamin D. Ready-to-eat pickled herring makes it a no-cook way to get a portion of oily fish.

Why it is tagged for testosterone and sleep. Low vitamin D levels have been linked to lower testosterone in observational studies, although supplement trials in men without a deficiency show mixed results. A small trial found that eating oily fish (salmon) three times a week over the winter was linked to better sleep, but the evidence is limited.

Why it is tagged for blood sugar. The potatoes and the sweet pickling brine bring 46g of carbohydrate, inside our limit for the blood sugar tag, balanced by the protein and fat from the fish.

Contains fish; may contain sulphites and mustard depending on the brand, so check the label. Pickled herring is very salty (up to about 4g of salt a serving), so no salt is added. By law, herring that is marinated or salted rather than cooked must be frozen during processing to kill parasites, but this does not remove the listeria risk. Pickled herring is cured, not cooked, and the NHS advises that cured fish must be cooked until steaming hot if you are pregnant, so this dish is not suitable in pregnancy as written. For another oily fish lunch, try the mackerel and avocado bowl.