This is a crowd and cook pleaser because:
- It’s delicious, tastes gourmet, provides solid nourishment, satisfies many diet types, and there’s a lot of food.
- It takes like 15 minutes to prepare, then the oven and pot do the cooking for you.
If you follow a pescaterian, vegan, vegetarian, or paleo diet, please scroll down to our Savvy Alternates table!
Veggie Hodgepodge! lonely leftover fix 
Rice & Peas + Rosemary, Garlic, Olive Oil 
Use What You’ve Got!
A trend you’ll see in a lot of my recipe instructions is multi-task cooking.
Looks like: “While ABC is cooking, begin to prepare or cook XYZ”. (Or something to that effect.)
This saves a lot of time. Don’t worry if you’re new at this endeavor, you too will pick it up and create your own groove.
I learned it from watching my mom cook growing up and you guys – SHE IS SO FAST! I remember she’d easily make 3 large meals (gourmet, mind you) in 90 minutes that would last us two meals a piece — for a family of FIVE.
Serving 4 – Pan 2 
Serving 4 – half of Pan 2 
Serving 4 – Pan 2 – Cod + Salmon
Easy Gourmet A-List Meal
Equipment
- cookie sheet(s), 9×13 ovenware dishes, rice cooker or lidded pot, measuring cup, fork, knife, cutting board, oven, spoons
Ingredients
Dish One
- 3 lbs Sweet Potatoes cubed
- 1 lbs Large Carrots sliced
- 4 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Garlic Powder or crushed garlic
- 2 tsp 21 Seasoning Salute all purpose seasoning
- 3 oz Goat Cheese
Dish Two & Three
- 20 oz Wild Salmon
- 8 cups Organic Broccoli
- 5 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil California Ranch brand
- ½ Lemon squeezed/juiced (after cooking)
Spices (use half in each pan)
- 2 tsp Thyme
- 4 tsp Crushed Rosemary
- 4 tsp Black Peppercorn fresh ground
One Pot
- 2 cups White Basmati Rice from India
- 1 cup Frozen Organic Peas
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil California Ranch brand
- 1 tsp Black Peppercorn fresh ground
Paleo Sub (nix the rice n peas dish)
- 1.5 lbs Rutabagas
- 6 tsp Ghee
Vegan Substitutions (for ghee, salmon, cheese)
- 1.5 Walnuts shelled, crushed
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Vegetarian Substitution (for salmon)
- 5 oz Goat Cheese (add 5 more ounces of cheese)
Instructions
Dish One Prep
- Preheat oven to 425°F
- Wash and Peel Sweet Potatoes. Cut them into 1/2" chunks or 1/2" medallions.
- Wash and peel the carrots, cut into 1/2" slices (or smaller).
- In medium bowl, roll the carrots and sweet potatoes in the coconut oil and HALF of the "spices", plus the garlic powder and all-purpose seasoning blend.
- Place on baking sheet in preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then stir.
- After "Dish One" has cooked for about 20-25 minutes, add "Pan Two" to the oven (keep pan one in) and decrease the temp to 350°F.Continue cooking BOTH pans for another 15 minutes or until the fish is done.
Dish Two + Three Prep
- Grease the bottom and sides of two 9"x13" or 9"x15" pans.
- Ideally, the fish is thawed. No worries if not – I cook it from frozen at least half the time.
- Place three 6-8 oz pieces of fish on one dish. Brush heavily with olive oil.
- On the other dish, add the frozen broccoli cuts. If you use fresh, you might need to microwave it for a couple minutes before adding it to the pan.
- Drizzle olive oil over the broccoli (similar to the fish) and sprinkle the remaining HALF of the "spices" on the broccoli and fish. Add more spices as desired.
- Place in oven with the sweet potato/ carrot pan per above, and bake 15-20 minutes or until the fish is done. Start cooking the Rice when Pan 2 goes in the oven.
Done Baking
- Remove from the oven and squeeze lemon over the fish (optional). Ready to Serve.
Rice & Peas – Cook these when Pan TWO + THREE go in the oven (or before).
- Cook the White Basmati rice per package instructions.
- When finished, mix in frozen peas and 1 tbsp olive oil, spices, and cover until warmed.*omit the peas for a lectin free meal.
Paleo Sub (nix the Rice n Peas)
- Wash and cube the rutabaga. Steaming: Place in a pot with a steamer insert or into a steamer with 1" of water. Cook on medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes or until done.Oven Roasting: Toss rutabaga in 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, herbs + black peppercorn, and place on greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 425°F oven for 20-30 minutes or until done to your liking.
- Optional: toss oven roasted rutabaga with ghee instead of olive oil, or serve the steamed variety with ghee.
Notes
- If you have 9×9″ pans only, then use both for broccoli and one extra cookie sheet for the fish.
- For paleo, vegetarian, or vegan sub calculations, see the “Savvy Alternates” table below.
Nutrition
Make what you can with what you’ve got.
Travelling? That’s when I made the pictured version. The only real diet restriction anyone needed was gluten free – which worked here. We ended up with two different kinds of fish because there was a shortage of sames.
I shrunk the recipe to feed 4:
Wild Salmon and Wild Cod, Organic Broccoli, Baby Red Potatoes, Organic Carrots, and Organic Brown Rice.
*Note on potatoes: they’re on the 2019 Dirty Dozen list. Read this for more details about the Clean 15 and Dirty 12. Red Potatoes are also more expensive from a cost per kcal perspective than sweet potatoes! (Which are not technically on the Dirty 12 so you can feel better buying inorganic sweet potatoes.)
Need a Vegan or Vegetarian Meal? Eating Paleo? Cheaper Dinner? Here you go…
Did You Know?
$ – SAVVY: From a cost per Calorie comparison, Rutabagas earn a “C” grade at $0.009 / kcal or $1,080/month* versus Turnips, which earn a “D” grade at $0.013 / kcal or $1,556/month*. That said, you can still incorporate them (as above) in a meal with higher calorie, lower cost foods and come out with an A grade meal! We’re all about upping diversity in a cost-savvy way.
* = monthly cost calculated if TWO PEOPLE, eating (cumulatively) 4,000 Calories per day, ate only this food to meet all of their Calorie needs for the entire month. Divide this number in half if you’re running calcs for one person.
Rutabagas are a more nutrient dense food for less $ than Turnips!
Here’s a table with external links for each recipe ingredient (plus a few alternate ingredient ideas). As previously mentioned, prices vary per region, season, city, store and personal preference for brand or specific type of food item.
| Wild Salmon (Costco or TJ’s or sales) | Organic Large Carrots (Clubs = huge bulk) In Fall I use TONS of carrots = Costco/Sam’s. soups, sides, snacks, this dish, appetizers… | White Basmati Rice or TJ’s or other |
| Wild Cod (Costco or TJ’s or sales)) | Parsnips | Organic Frozen Peas |
| Organic Broccoli Cuts or Costco or Sam’s (Clean 15) | Sweet Potatoes | Organic Brown Rice |
| Cauliflower Florets (clean 15) | Red Potatoes or (Organic – dirty dozen) | Goat Cheese (Costco= best deal, otherwise: Sam’s or TJ’s) |
| Extra Virgin Olive Oil | Crushed Rosemary | Garlic Powder or (organic) |
| Coconut Oil (extra virgin) | Thyme | 21 Seasoning Salute (TJ’s) or THIS (2x the $) |
| Lemon Pepper or Salt-free | Black Peppercorn | Lemon |
| Rutabagas | Ghee | Walnuts |
*TJ’s = Trader Joe’s . Sam’s = Sam’s Club
