Smoked Salmon, Raw Courgette (Zucchini) and Spearmint Cannelloni Bites

Tags

courgettes, feta, Greek yogurt, herbs, lemon, nuts, pasta, salad, smoked salmon, spearmint, zucchini

Last Saturday it was The Mister’s birthday, so I decided to throw him a surprise party. I had been thinking of doing this for a while now, but I just couldn’t believe I could pull it off. But I did! Boy was it hard work, and nerve wracking and complicated. But so worth it. He was truly gobsmacked!

As you can imagine, I went a bit overboard with the food. I started preparations on the Wednesday, with the first step being the menu, the shopping list and the schedule. Yes, like the one I mentioned in my post on preparing ahead. Thursday morning was supermarket time, and from then on I spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen, cooking up all sorts of goodies. I was expecting about 20 people, so a buffet style dinner was the best option. For a peek at the menu take a look at the bottom of the post. It might seem a strange assortment of dishes, but I wanted to include some of The Mister’s favourites as well as some slightly more adventurous recipes. One of which is the dish featured in this post, Smoked Salmon, Raw Courgette (Zucchini) and Spearmint Cannelloni Bites.

You are probably wondering what I did for a birthday cake. Well, you will be surprised or maybe even shocked to hear that I let go of that part and allowed The Mister to blow out candles on a store bought cake. Was it a terrible thing to do? Well, time-wise it would have been a struggle to make it myself (it might have even ruined the surprise as he decided to come home early on the day of the party – yeah, I have a couple more gray hairs thanks to that – and he would have more than likely found me icing it). Plus, Greek store bought birthday cakes are delicious (they are patisserie style, creamy affairs with whatever decoration you can imagine – in this case The Mister’s football team emblem). And sometimes, you just have to accept that you can’t do everything. So I’m glad and grateful to The Mister’s sister for taking care of it!

Moving on to our recipe. A couple of weeks ago I saw that this month’s “Swallow’s Recipes for Life” challenge on Bangers & Mash is a recipe using salmon, courgette (zucchini) and pasta. I knew I wanted to participate, as these are favourite ingredients of mine. I had recently made a gorgeous pasta salad with raw zucchini (recipe by Elena’s Cooking) and thought I could use that as a base. It’s so summery and fresh tasting. I did however, want to make it a bit different to your average pasta salad. The original idea was to make a filling and stuff large pasta shells with it; that didn’t work out though as this particular type of pasta seems to have vanished from supermarket shelves in Athens. The only other alternative I could think of was cannelloni tubes. I wanted something that could be eaten as finger food, so it had to be large enough to accommodate a bite size portion of filling. This was the result. It was impressive and pretty, but also a little faffy! So you will find two versions here, one for the bites as shown in the picture and one for a regular pasta salad.

Makes 30 – 40 bites

Ingredients

300g courgettes (zucchini) (approx. 3 medium sized)
salt for helping courgettes to release water
200g smoked salmon, cut into chunks
140g Greek yogurt
20g (about 2 tsp) mayonnaise
80g feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces
2 Tbs spearmint, finely chopped (measured after chopping)
3 Tbs olive oil (plus more for pasta)
1 lemon, zest of
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp white pepper (or more to taste)
1 Tbs pine nuts (optional)
1 box (250g) cannelloni or 250g pasta (penne, fusilli or farfalle)

Instructions

1. Coarsely grate courgettes and place in a colander over a bowl. Sprinkle lightly with salt, shake/flip in the colander and sprinkle again. Set aside for at least 30 minutes so liquid is released.
2. If you are making the pasta salad, boil your pasta according to package instructions. Drain and return to the pan (off the heat) with a bit of olive oil so the shapes don’t stick together. Shake it all up once in a while. For the cannelloni bites boil the tubes till tender but be careful not to overcook. After about 10 minutes taste one to be sure. When ready drain them and return to the pan with olive oil.
3. Put salmon chunks in a big bowl.
4. In a smaller bowl mix yogurt, mayonnaise, feta, spearmint, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, pepper and pine nuts if using. Mix well with a fork, breaking up any feta lumps. Taste and adjust to your liking. Add to the salmon but don’t mix yet.
5. After about 15 minutes you will see that the courgettes have started to “sweat”. When the half hour is up, help them along by squeezing a bit with your hands being careful not to mush them. Add to the bowl with the salmon and yogurt mix.
6. For the pasta salad, add the pasta to the bowl and toss well but carefully. Let it cool completely and refrigerate till a couple of hours before serving.
7. If you are making the cannelloni bites, toss the courgette, salmon and yogurt mixture carefully. Place the bowl with the filling and the pan with the cannelloni near you. Bring out the serving dish and place that near you as well. Take a tube, cut it into three smaller tubes, and peel the first one open with your fingers. (Make sure they have cooled enough, but don’t let them get completely cold as they will stick.) Fill the little tube with a teaspoon or two of filling (place your fingers at the bottom to keep the filling in) and quickly stand it in the serving dish, open sides up and down. Be gentle and fairly quick so the filling doesn’t plop out of the bottom while being transferred. Keep going till your filling is finished. I garnished with tiny bits of dill weed, but they are just as pretty without. Refrigerate till a couple of hours before serving.

Notes:
– I used between 10 and 15 cannelloni tubes. Unfortunately it is necessary to boil more than you will use so that you can allow for some to split during boiling or filling. I kept the rest, filled with leftover meat sauce from the lasagna, put them on a layer of tomato passata in a baking tin and froze the whole thing. I am hoping that I can pop that in the oven with some béchamel on top and get a good result. I will let you know!
– If you can find the large pasta shells they might be easier and prettier to use.
– There are a lot of different tastes in this dish so you could definitely omit the pine nuts without compromising the result.
– For a more conventional flavour you could substitute the spearmint with dill weed. But the spearmint is so summery and fresh; I think it makes this dish special.

Our party buffet offered the following:
Lasagna (The Mister’s favourite. I promise I will share my recipe soon)
Gorgonzola Gnocchi Bake (will share recipe when I make it again)
Chickpea and Avocado Salad (based on this recipe by Kalyn’s Kitchen, but I used leafy greens and parsley instead of coriander. The chickpeas were cooked on Wednesday night using my slow cooker recipe)
Green Salad with Sundried Tomatoes and Walnuts (which my friend kindly made)
Tabbouleh (bulgur wheat salad made by my Mum)
Potato Puffs (recipe on The Kitchn)
Spanakopita Muffins (recipe coming soon)
Cheese and Rosemary Corn Muffins (recipe coming soon)
Corn and Capsicum Muffins (recipe by My Favourite Pastime)
Cheese Platter with Naxos Island Graviera, smoked Regato and mild Cheddar
Marinated Mini Mozzarellas (based on this recipe by The Kitchn)
German pork sausages, Greek pork sausages and beef sausages (thrown on the BBQ after the party got started – enjoyed as hot dogs by the kids)
Farmhouse Pickle to go with the corn muffins and cheese

Simple Salmon Frittata – For Dukan Protein Thursdays or Any Thursdays

Tags

dukan, egg, frittata, salmon, smoked salmon

You may recall that during the summer I went on the Dukan Diet. This diet consists of four stages, the last one of which is “the rest of your life”. Scary sounding or what? It’s not that bad really. Dr. Dukan makes you promise that after you’ve lost the pounds and stabilized your new weight, you’ll stick to three rules. For ever. These are:

• Eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran per day (it’s got magical powers!). Not oats mind you, oat bran. It’s different. Oat bran is the outer layer of the oat grain and contains loads of good stuff. See this and this for more info.
• Walk at least 20 minutes per day and never use lifts or escalators again. Gulp.
• Once a week on a day you’ve set, go back to the Attack phase (1^st stage). That means eating only protein. Lean meats, fish, seafood and fat free dairy. Dr. Dukan calls this Protein Thursday.

Another thing you’re supposed to stick to although not actually mentioned in the rules, is drinking 2 litres of water a day.

To be honest I’ve broken 2 out of the above 4 rules. I can’t keep up with the water and I can’t deal with the metro station stairs at 8:00am. I know I know, water is vital, I’ve read all the same magazine articles as you. But I just don’t get thirsty enough to guzzle that much, plus the loos at work are on a different floor (sorry, too much info). Anyway. I try. As regards the walking, I figure since I ride twice a week I can get away with not walking that often. Or, ahem, not walking at all. Moving on.

Oat bran and Protein Thursdays are a different story. These I have stuck to religiously. My Thursdays are actually Mondays, but you’re allowed to switch. Mondays are crap anyway, so how much worse can they get? To be fair, eating pure protein (even back in the diet days) wasn’t as hard as I had expected. I’m lucky because I like all the allowed foods – and really love cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs, which are stars in this particular show. The only really hard part was, still is, thinking up creative and exciting meals for those times when a plain chicken breast just doesn’t cut it.

Last Monday I decided my dinner was going to be smoked salmon and eggs. Now normally I would scramble the eggs and have them on the side, but I was in the mood for something different. And I’d already had one scrambled egg for lunch! So I went with a frittata, which I think is one of the most versatile dishes you can bake up. The proper way to make it is start it off like an omelet in a skillet, and finish cooking it under the grill. But you can also just bake it (less washing up).

It’s a great “clean out the fridge” dish, as you can throw in a number of veggies or leftover meats. This one is of course pretty basic, as veg is not allowed on Pure Protein (PP) days, but if you’re on the Cruise Phase (or not on a diet at all) some chopped red pepper, or cooked broccoli florets, or spinach would work well. Cooked chicken, bacon, sausage or deli ham and turkey are also great in frittatas. Since PP days allow a little greenery as flavouring, chopped chives and dill were what completed my version. I could have also added some capers but I, um, just thought of that now. Just so you know, I ate the whole thing all on my own which upped my intake to a total of 5 eggs that day. I’m on the side of those who say the egg/cholesterol thing is a myth.

Another cool idea is to put the mixture into silicone muffin cups (don’t use your muffin tin. Egg sticks. Trust me.) and make egg muffins. Perfect to keep on hand for snacking as the protein will keep you going for much longer than a carb-loaded regular muffin, or sandwich, or bag of crisps. Unless it’s one of those days when only crisps will make you feel better!

Simple Salmon Egg Frittata – For Protein Thursdays or Any Thursdays

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 Tbs milk (0% fat for Dukan)
200g smoked salmon, cut into small pieces
2 Tbs chopped fresh dill
2 tsp chopped chives (or some chopped spring onion, according to you taste)
pepper to taste (don’t add salt as the salmon is salty enough)
Sprinkle of chili pepper flakes or paprika
Low fat cooking spray

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a small baking pan with the cooking spray. Don’t skip this step!
2. In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and milk.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir.
4. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until the egg is set and cooked through.

Note: Stabilisation (4^th) phase Protein Thursdays are stricter than Attack and Cruise phase PP days, so by rights I shouldn’t have eaten 200g of smoked salmon – max is 125g for oily fish I think. Just FYI.

Other eggy bakes from around the web Kalyn’s Kitchen (I didn’t need to look further, check out this fab collection of egg recipes)
Breakfast Casserole with Spinach, Leeks, Cottage Cheese and Goat Cheese by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable to Dukan Diet Cruise Phase by omitting oil and goat’s cheese. Sautee leeks in a non-stick frying pan with a tiny bit of water and use more low fat cottage instead of goat’s cheese)
Roasted Green Bell Pepper and Roasted Tomato Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Oregano by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable to Dukan Diet Cruise Phase by omitting oil and substituting feta with rinsed low fat cottage cheese)
Egg Muffins with Ham, Cheese, and Green Bell Pepper by Kalyn’s Kitchen (easily adaptable by omitting cheese (try rinsed low fat cottage cheese if you want) and using low fat ham. I’ve also made them with leftover cooked chicken chunks and they were great)

Baked Fish in Lemon Mustard Sauce – Healthy, Easy, Quick and Tasty!

Tags

dukan, fish, lemon, perch

Wow, two posts in two days! I’m proud of myself.

For a while now, and especially during the Dukan Diet I was on during the summer, I’ve been conscious that I don’t eat enough fish. The Mediterranean diet calls for fish twice a week and I really want to start keeping up with that. Fish is a fantastic food. It’s full of protein and any fat it has is the good kind, it’s quick to cook and it’s tasty. The only down side is that is a bit costly, but it’s worth every penny when you consider the benefits.

At some point I will start experimenting with the more demanding types of fish, the ones that still have heads and tails and backbones even after arriving in one’s kitchen. Here in Greece it would be inconceivable to serve fish without the head, unless of course you’re having a fillet or “slice” as it’s called, of a large one such as swordfish. For many people (I’m not one of them) the head is the tastiest part and they’ll take their time dismantling it to get to the little bits of meat and juice inside. For now, I stick to cooking filleted fish and enjoy the whole ones when they’re cooked by someone else (and in someone else’s kitchen).

In seafood restaurants, more often than not you go and choose the fish you want from the “catch of the day” which lies on a bed of ice. Making the right choice, in a restaurant or at the fishmonger’s, is important and you need to know what to look for in order to get the freshest and most delicious of the catch. Here are some tips:

At the Market:

Check the eyes; they should be shiny and bulging (never buy a fish that’s had its eyes removed – some fishmongers do that so you can’t tell whether it’s fresh – which means it’s not!).
The gills should be deep red or pink, and moist not dry. If they are brown and dull move on.
The skin should be shiny and should spring back when pressed with a finger without leaving a mark.
The body should be firm and slightly arched and should stay like that when held on an open palm (head and tail pointing upwards). However, the ice the fish lies on helps keep it firm, and apparently some clever fishmongers put salt on the ice which helps with firmness even more.
Fresh fish doesn’t smell at all. Don’t expect to smell the sea, if you do, it’s about a day old. If it smells fishy it’s about 2-3 days old.

In the Kitchen:

The scales should be shiny and should come off easily without the skin becoming damaged.
The insides should also come out easily and in one piece. If things disintegrate during cleaning you should be wary.

At the Table:

When grilled, fresh fish “opens” and comes off the bone.
The bones should be white (except for garfish which has a green backbone) not dark.

I found this recipe on the website of a major frozen fish company in Greece called Kallimanis. It’s very lemony, but that’s more than ok with me. I didn’t use wine because I didn’t want to open a bottle for ½ a cup, so I used a little bit of white wine vinegar instead. It made the sauce really tangy and yummy. If your palates are sensitive use a little less vinegar and lemon juice.

Baked Perch in Lemon Mustard Sauce

Serves 2
What you need:
500g perch fillet (fresh or frozen and defrosted according to package directions)
Salt & black pepper
3 Tbs olive oil
4 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 ½ Tbs white wine vinegar (or 5 Tbs white wine)
1 Tbs parsley, chopped
4 tsp Dijon mustard
6 Tbs water
Pinch of chili flakes

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Rinse the fish and pat dry with kitchen paper. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
3. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake to mix well.
4. Place the fillet in a smallish, lightly greased baking tin. Don’t use a big one so that the fish is at least partly submerged in the sauce.
5. Pour the contents of the jar over the fish.
6. Bake at 200C for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet.

Notes: You’ll get quite a bit of sauce but it will be runny. You could thicken it if you want and pour it over the fish when served. I’d transfer the sauce to a small pan, heat it to boiling point, take it off the heat, add a slurry of 1 tsp corn flour/3 tsp water, mix well and return to the heat for a few minutes till it thickens. Now that I’m thinking about it a teaspoon of capers might work quite well in the sauce.
You can of course use any firm white fish you like.
To make it Dukan Diet friendly omit the olive oil.

Other tasty looking recipes for baked fish:
Baked Fish with Spring Onion and Orange, by Inspired Taste
Baked White Fish with Pine Nut, Parmesan, and Basil Pesto Crust, by Kalyn’s Kitchen
Algerian Baked Fish by 64 Sq. Ft Kitchen
Baked Fish Sticks by A Recipe A Day

5RWDB7U8GKUM (ignore this, it’s code – ooh does that sound exciting?!)

Greek Green Bean & Tomato Stew – Shark is Optional!

Tags

dukan, Fasolakia, Greek, green beans, stew, tomato, tomato sauce, vegetables

One of the traditional Greek dishes my mum learnt and used to make often when we were kids, is Fasolakia. The word translates to “little beans” and refers to the long green ones. The way they are cooked here in Greece is in a tomato sauce, often with potatoes and carrots. It can also be made with beef but we never had it that way in our house. This was a great kid-friendly meatless dish, always eaten with loads of feta cheese and bread to mop up the sauce! It’s very good.

The other day I thought I’d make us some Fasolakia as it’s so easy and healthy, and Dukan friendly too (if made without potatoes). Following a recent success, when I decided to serve fish alongside a tomato based dish, I thought I’d try this out paired with the leftover shark in my freezer. My intention was to make the Fasolakia and then fry the fish lightly and serve them together. When I got the packet out of the freezer I glanced at the recipe on the back and saw that it was for something quite similar cooked in a saucepan. So I decided I would experiment some, and lay the fish on top of the beans half way through cooking. Since fish cooks so quickly and easily I thought the steam and heat from the veg would do the trick. Sure enough, the fish cooked beautifully and gave lots of flavour to the beans beneath it.

The resulting dish was definitely not traditional, but it was tasty nonetheless. Next time however I’ll be sticking to the original green bean stew, but that’s purely because of objections from a certain Mister, whose favourite food was apparently vandalized by this foreign concept of experimenting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, that’s his motto!

Greek Green Bean & Tomato Stew (Fasolakia) – The Original
Serves 3

What you need:
3-4 Tbs olive oil (if you’re on the Dukan Diet use a tiny bit of low calorie non-stick spray)
1 small onion, finely chopped
500g frozen green beans (you can use fresh if you can face prepping them!)
1 carrot, sliced
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 Tbs tomato paste diluted in 3-4 Tbs of water
1 tsp sweet paprika
Salt & pepper to taste (I use about a tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper)
½ tsp sugar (or sweetener of choice)

What you do:

1. Add the oil to a medium-large size saucepan (that has a good fitting lid), and warm it over medium heat (or just heat the pan and then add the spray if you’re using that). Cook the onion gently, until translucent. If you want you can sprinkle some salt on it to prevent it from browning.
2. Add the carrots and stir until coated with oil. Cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the frozen beans (no need to defrost), turn the heat up to medium high, and stir well so they all get coated in oil. Cook until the beans have become shiny and wet looking, about 4-5 minutes. They should now have started to soften.
4. Add the tomatoes (with juices from the tin) and tomato paste mixture. Don’t worry if the beans aren’t completely covered by the liquid.
5. Add paprika, salt & pepper and sugar. Give it a good stir and wait for it to come to the boil.
6. When it boils, turn the heat down low, cover the pan, and simmer for about half an hour, stirring a few times. You might find that it’s simmering pretty wildly (mine does even on the lowest setting), in which case after the first 20 minutes tilt the lid to the side leaving a small gap, this helps.
7. From now on you want to be checking the liquids fairly frequently. If it’s looking very soupy, leave the lid off. If it’s more saucy looking and thick, leave the lid on with the gap and add a little water if and when necessary (no more than a ¼ cup at a time). Cook for approximately another half hour, stirring well once in a while.

Note: Here in Greece most people like the beans very soft, almost falling apart. If you prefer they have a bit of bite, start taste testing them after about 45 minutes of total cooking time.

Shark Infested Variation

What you’ll need:
All the above plus 3 pieces of white fish. Choose a sturdy one that won’t disintegrate in the pan, Blue Shark is what I used, Cod and Swordfish fillets might also be good options. Or any other type of fish fillet you feel would hold well.

What you do:

1. If you want to try this variation, start with steps 1 to 5 as above.
2. While the beans are simmering, rinse and pat dry your fish pieces, using paper towels. Sprinkle them with some salt, and pepper if you like it.
3. At step 6 open the pan, take some beans and tomato sauce out and pop them on a plate. Make sure the bottom of the pan is still completely covered with veg and sauce. Gently place your fish on top of the beans, and cover with the rest of the beans from the plate. Stick the lid back on the pan (no gaps).
4. Let the fish cook like that (with the lid closed) for about half an hour. Check once in a while to see what’s going on under there. If it’s looking short of juice add some hot water carefully, trying to miss the fish. It shouldn’t need it since the lid will be on and the steam will stay in.

Whichever variation you choose, make sure you eat this with lots of crusty bread. Unless you’re on the D word diet. Then just be patient because the day will come again…

Other recipes using green beans:
Green Bean, Tomato, and Feta Salad Oreganato {by Kalyn’s Kitchen}
Roasted Parmesan Green Beans {by Skinnytaste}
French Onion Green Bean Casserole – It’s Soupy! {by Food Wishes}
Green Beans with Almonds and Thyme {by Simply Recipes}

Salmon Burgers with Fake Mayonnaise – Not Just for Dukan!

Tags

burgers, diet, dukan, mayonnaise, oat bran, salmon

I’ve now reached the next phase of the Dukan Diet. Yesteday The Mister and I went out for a casual souvlaki dinner, and I literally kissed the mini whole weat pitta bread that came with my kebabs. I am happy. I can eat cheese. I can eat pasta (ok, once a week, but I can!!) and I can eat bread.
In all honesty though the past month hasn’t been that hard. Although I am a bit worried about the amounts of meat I’ve been eating, and how it might be affecting my kidneys (there’s a bit of controversy surrounding this diet), I can’t say it has been particularly difficult. I’ve not felt hungry, and I never felt any faintness or lack of energy. In fact, I’ve been feeling better than I have in ages. It must be that I’ve cut out all the junk food!
During this whole time I’ve been keeping an eye on a few of the food blogs I normally follow. Not all of them mind you, the ones with the cookies and cupcakes I’ve chosen to ignore for the sake of my sanity. One blog in particular saved me from the boredom of plain turkey and cottage cheese dinners, and gave me a number of ideas for some more exciting options. The Perfect Pantry has a whole load of recipes that can easily be adapted for the Dukan Diet. One of these is a gorgeous Salmon Burger recipe. Yum. These are really good, whether you’re on a diet or not. They are delicious, healthy, and not at all fattening! Can’t really go wrong can you? These can easily be prepared to suit the Pure Protein + Vegetables days on the Cruise or Consolidation phases, just by substituting panko with oat bran.
The Fake Mayo was an experiment I undertook a few days before seeing the burger recipe. I threw together some ingredients in order to make a sauce to accompany some slow cooked turkey breast, or some smoked salmon – I don’t remember which. It’s a yogurt sauce, but for some reason it tastes like a kind of mayonnaise to me. Maybe it’s the vinegar from the capers, or the mustard? I’m not sure. But I do know that it’s yummy. Then I saw the Green Yogurt Sauce in this recipe and had to laugh at how similar they are! I thought, no one’s going to believe I didn’t copy this! But I didn’t, promise.

Salmon Burgers (adapted from The Perfect Pantry)
Serves 2 hungry people if eaten with salad or veggies, 4 if eaten in a bun with fries (*sigh*)

What you need:
400g skinned salmon fillet, cut into pieces
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Greek yogurt (0% for Dukan)
2 tsp chopped chives
2 Tbsp chopped red bell pepper
1-1/2 tsp capers, drained
2 Tbs oat bran
1/4 tsp freshly ground white pepper
a tiny bit of low calorie spray oil for the frying pan

What you do:
1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times. Mix it up a bit with a spoon so some of the bigger salmon pieces move to the bottom of the processor and get chopped up. Pulse again till the mixture is sort of like a lumpy paste.
2. Shape the mixture into 4 burgers and put on a plate. Cover with cling film and put the plate in the freezer for about 10 minutes. This will help the burgers stay together in the pan.
3. Spray a frying pan with the oil and heat on medium. Place the burgers on the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the burgers.

Note: Lydia’s instructions involve processing some of the ingredients into a paste first, then adding the rest. I used a stick blender that you put on a sort of jug thing with a metal blade, and it made the paste stick to the bottom and didn’t really chop the ingredients on the top. If you have a decent blender however, you might want to follow that method instead, just click here.

Frying ’em up!

Fake Mayonnaise
Serves 2

What you need:
3 Tbs plain yogurt (0% for Dukan)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp chopped parsley
2 tsp capers
Salt & freshly ground white pepper
Pinch of sweet paprika

What you do:
1. Throw everything into a clean jam jar and shake it all up! Tastes better after a couple of hours in the fridge.

Note: You could also try adding some fresh coriander. Just chop and add to taste! Chopped gherkins also work nicely. And, this can be used as a salad dressing as well. Versatile, no?