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Whole Baked Trout with Lemon, Crispy New Potatoes and Courgette Ribbons

Whole trout baked with lemon, garlic and parsley, served with crispy roasted new potatoes and fresh courgette and carrot ribbons. A simple weekend lunch with 37g of protein and plenty of omega-3 fats.

Lunch

55

Serves 2

A whole baked trout with crisp golden skin on a pink plate beside roasted new potatoes and rolls of courgette and carrot ribbons, with a halved lime

Ingredients

  • 2 whole rainbow trout, gutted and cleaned (about 300g/10½oz each; ask the fishmonger to do this)
  • 400g/14oz new potatoes, halved
  • 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp (20ml) olive oil, divided
  • 1 lemon: half thinly sliced, half juiced (about 1 tbsp/15ml juice)
  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 10g), roughly chopped
  • 1 medium courgette (zucchini, about 200g/7oz)
  • 1 medium carrot (about 100g/3½oz)
  • ¼ tsp salt and a pinch of black pepper
  • Baking paper, for lining a second tray if needed

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan), gas 7. Toss the potatoes with 2 tsp of the oil and a pinch of salt on a large baking tray and roast for 15 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, pat the trout dry with kitchen paper. Make 3 shallow cuts on each side, then season inside and out with the rest of the salt and some pepper. Fill each fish with the lemon slices, garlic and half the parsley, then rub with 1 tsp of the oil.
  3. Turn the potatoes, push them to the sides of the tray and lay the trout in the middle, or put the trout on a second tray lined with baking paper if they do not fit. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, checking at 18 minutes, until the potatoes are crisp and golden and the fish flesh is opaque all the way through and flakes easily from the bone at the thickest part, near the head (63°C on a probe thermometer, if you have one).
  4. While the fish bakes, use a vegetable peeler to shave the courgette and carrot into long ribbons. Toss with the lemon juice, the remaining 1 tsp oil and a pinch of pepper. Roll some of the ribbons up if you like, as in the photo.
  5. Serve each trout with the potatoes and ribbons, scattered with the rest of the parsley. To eat, lift the top fillet off the backbone, then pull the bone away from the lower fillet, and watch out for small bones.

Why it works

A plate gives you about 37g of protein for 496 calories, most of it from the trout.

Why trout. Rainbow trout is an oily fish, rich in the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA, and one of the best food sources of vitamin D, which few foods contain. The NHS advises at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily. Whole trout is usually cheaper than fillets, and baking it on the bone keeps the flesh moist.

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. One small trial in men found that eating salmon, another oily fish, three times a week over the winter improved some measures of sleep, but the evidence is limited.

Why it is tagged for blood sugar. The potatoes bring most of the 38g of carbohydrate, balanced by plenty of protein from the fish and fibre from the vegetables.

Contains fish. Free from gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, soya and sesame as written. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying for a baby, the NHS advises no more than 2 portions of oily fish a week. For a quicker trout dinner with fillets, try the pan-fried trout with almonds and green beans.