Adding seafood to your weekly meals is one of the easiest ways to improve your cooking while also keeping things nice and healthy – as well as exciting. After all, most people don’t eat all that much fish, do they? And the good news is there’s something for everyone, even if you don’t think you’re much of a seafood fan. Plus, incorporating seafood into your menu and weekly meals doesn’t have to be time-consuming, complicated, or expensive, which is often what people assume will be the case. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how you can do it – you’re sure to find a tip that will work for you, so keep reading to find out more.
Why Seafood?
Before we look at the ways you can add more seafood to your diet or what you can do to make it happen, it’s important to understand why seafood is so important and why we should all have more of it – especially if you currently don’t really have any at all (which isn’t as unusual as you might think).
The important thing about seafood is that it’s absolutely packed with crucial nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and essential vitamins and minerals, so that’s got to be a good reason to have more of it. But on top of that, it’s just so versatile that it can fit into basically any type of cuisine, from Italian pasta dishes to Asian stir frys, and that’s exciting – just think of all the new and delicious food and flavors you could be trying just be adding more seafood to the mix (literally in many cases). In the end, you’ll never run out of tasty things to try, so if you’re getting a bit bored with the standard meat and veg, it’s got to be time to try more seafood, hasn’t it?
Start With The Basics
If seafood feels a bit intimidating to cook with, which is sometimes how people feel, especially if it’s not usually a part of their diet, then why not just start with something easy and go from there? As we said, it really doesn’t have to be anything complex and tricky.
You could use ingredients like pre-cooked prawns, canned tuna, or frozen fish fillets to make prep easier, and if you’re using convenient items like these, a lot of the pressure will be off when it comes to cooking with seafood – and you’ll still end up with delicious dishes. Even tossing some shrimp into a salad or mixing tuna with some mayo, lemon, and pepper for a sandwich filling is better than nothing!
Make Seafood A Snack
Who says seafood has to be reserved just for main meals like dinner? It can actually make an ideal snack for any time of the day (or night, come to that), and things like smoked salmon and mackerel are perfect examples of the kind of fish you could use.
How’s this for a tasty idea? Spread some cream cheese on a cracker (ideally whole grain if possible as it’s healthier) and top it with a slice of smoked salmon sprinkled with dill. It’s so easy but it looks pretty fancy and it tastes amazing, plus it’s full of protein. Or what about making (or buying) seafood dips like crab or prawn to serve with some veggies? It’s all delicious and healthy – not to mention easy.
Elevate Your Dinners
When you think about the kinds of dishes you can make, it’s easy to see that seafood is something that can turn any dinner into something special, but it can do it without a lot of effort, which is ideal. A lovely seafood pasta tossed with garlic, olive oil, and a little squeeze of lemon, or a platter of grilled shrimps and vegetables are a lovely, quick, and ultimately lovely weekday meal, for example, but of course, if you want to be a little more indulgent, you can go for other ideas instead.
For example, if you want to make a special meal – perhaps you’re hosting a dinner party – something like garlic butter scallops or lobster tails would be perfect. Or how about exploring further? You might discover succulent king crab legs that can really impress your guests and take your dinner food to the next level – and you can prepare them in a variety of different ways to cater for all your guests, like steaming, baking, or grilling; they’re a fantastic ingredient.
Swap Favorites For Seafood
If you’re not sure how to get started when it comes to seafood or what type of seafood is really going to work, how about taking a favorite dish that you know how to cook really well and that everyone likes and swapping just one ingredient for seafood? In that way, you’ll already be most of the way there when it comes to preparing and cooking the food, and you’ll only have to learn how to cook one new thing, so it saves a lot of time and worry.
A good example is if your favorite dish has chicken in it, because that’s quite easy to switch and have fish or some other kind of seafood instead. However, you can also substitute fish for beef in tacos, or you can add scallops to a risotto, and so on. Don’t hold back and just see what happens – maybe it won’t work, but what if it does and you end up with a new version of a well-loved dish? In either case, you’ll get the confidence you need to keep trying and experimenting, and that’s the really important thing when it comes to cooking and improving your skills.
Freeze For Convenience
Although it might not be as expensive as you initially imagine when you start to look into it, it’s true that seafood does tend to be more expensive than meat and definitely more than vegetables.
However, the good news is that you can freeze seafood, so if you find it on offer or you’ve got a little more money to spend one month, you can stock up and then you’ll always have the perfect ingredient ready to make something delicious and healthy with. Why not see what’s around?
For more on the latest in luxury lifestyle and gastronomy reads, click here.
