Alton Brown's sardine and avocado toast, please, but hold the toast.

October 18, 2015 1:08 PM

I would like to eat canned sardines and/or anchovies at least 4 times a week, totaling 12oz total, mainly for the omega-3 benefits. Issues: I am not a big fish lover, and I do not eat carby foods. Help?

I saw this question, but the asker buried his carb restrictions in the explanation and a lot of people recommended crackers, pasta, etc.

Sardines and anchovies are my main focus because they're cheap and easy to acquire at a regular grocery store - I do not want to head to the smelly Chinatown fish markets to get fresh fish after work. If I were made of money I'd just eat lox and salmon roe all the time, which I love, but alas! And fish oil may not cut it either, apparently, though I still take supplements.

Some recipes I am going to try: sardine curry, sardine and tomato soup (replacing canned sardines with fresh, an approved swap in the questions), and sardine-stuffed avocados. I also just dump a can of sardines and half an avocado into a bowl with sriracha and cilantro on top, which has sufficed for a quick lunch. A bonus of these recipes is that the fishy taste seems to be somewhat masked by other flavors.

I welcome other suggestions! Spicy, savory, comforting, and anything without starches.

posted by zoomorphic to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

Check out the canned tuna salad recipe in the Pok Pok cookbook. It's spicy and flavorful, and you can easily vary it by adding different vegetables (pretty much anything crunchy works well).
posted by yarntheory at 1:19 PM on October 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dried anchovies are my main way of eating anchovies. Koreans stir-fry them (myeolchi bokkeum) to make a crunchy spicy salty snack (my parents like to add nuts to add even more crunch.) People stirfry tiny ones (1 cm) and bigger ones (3 cm). Because of the other flavors, I don't notice much fish taste at all. Typically I would eat it with rice, but there's no reason why you would have to.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:57 PM on October 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

I love sardines mashed with green onions and mustard. I find it especially good with whole grain mustard. I spread it on crackers.
posted by FencingGal at 2:10 PM on October 18, 2015

I'm diabetic and the other day I was hungry but my blood sugar was too high to eat carbs, but I felt like having a tuna melt. So I wrapped the tuna and cheese with a sheet of nori—the seaweed stuff used to make sushi—slightly moistened the nori, microwaved it for a few seconds, and then cut it into eight pieces. (Which produced small flat fig-newton-shaped pieces as opposed to cylindrical sushi-maki.)

It was surprisingly good. Tuna doesn't have the omega-3s but perhaps you could add in the sardines or anchovies.
posted by XMLicious at 2:21 PM on October 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm not very interested in recipes involving tuna due to the high mercury content. I'm pregnant and trying to build a kid's brain with the best nutrients available, which means I need low mercury, high omega-3 fishes. Tuna is fine in moderation, but I'm not going to be incorporating it into my diet on a large scale like sardines and anchovies.

Again, nothing with crackers, bread, rice or sugar. If I could make myulchi bokkeum without the sugar or corn syrup, that would be a cool new option.
posted by zoomorphic at 2:32 PM on October 18, 2015

Some people use crisp lettuce leaf segments as substitutes for crackers, or use soft lettuce leaves as wraps -- so if you have recipes for spreads, that's one option for how to serve them.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:41 PM on October 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

In Mexican food stores you can buy sardines in tomato sauce, or tomato chili sauce. These are large cans, I make patties out of them. I use some egg, chopped onion, oregano, lime or lemon juice. It takes about half the tomato sauce to make patties. I do use some whole wheat flour, or pre cooked corn cereal to bread them. The ratio of carb to protein is low. The cans are large ovals from La Sirena. These patties are delicious. You can add what you like to make them good.
posted by Oyéah at 2:42 PM on October 18, 2015

Best answer: The Trader Joes near us sells sardines packed in harissa. I don't eat oily fish, but my spouse does, and he really likes these. He eats them wrapped in a leaf of romaine, sometimes with other things, but usually just by themselves. I imagine they'd taste great with avocado or hard boiled egg. If you aren't near a Trader Joes, or yours doesn't have them, you could add harissa or another strong-flavored sauce.

I like a good, complicated tuna salad with lots of crunchy veggies in. I bet you could use sardines in a similar fashion.
posted by linettasky at 2:43 PM on October 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Alton's base mixture (which he didn't eat on toast either when he lost all that weight, he just had to put it on something for TV purposes) is actually really good on crudite - celery sticks, radish slices, cucumber rounds (peel it to remove most of the minimal carbs). It makes a good lettuce wrap too, and you can mix in diced water chestnuts, a few peanuts, mushrooms etc.

Depending on where Quinoa (and/or lentils) fall in your carb restrictions, avocado + protein + drizzle of ponzu or soy sauce and sesame oil tossed with quinoa/lentils is good hot or cold. (Based on this recipe.)

Over shirataki noodles (properly prepped to take the fishy smell off), or zoodles or spiralized cucumber. You could go either Asian or Italian with the sauce there.

This is not a thing I've ever tried but it might be a good topping on zucchini or cauliflower fritters. I use coconut or almond flour + egg for my low-carb binding agent but I think you could get away with just egg, maybe plus optional green-can parmesan powder, which is what I like to use in my zucchini fritters. I might actually make that in the next few days, now that our weather has broken and pan-frying something doesn't seem like the worst idea.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:45 PM on October 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I looove the Trader Joe's sardines packed in olive oil. A totally different product to most sardines; please give them a try and see if you don't agree. My lunch most days is a tin of these and crunchy fresh vegetables. On the sardines I put either mustard or lemon or sherry vinegar. Extremely satisfying, fast, low carb, and hardly any mess. (Tip: put the smelly tin in a used ziplock to throw it out without stinking up the house or office.)
posted by HotToddy at 3:16 PM on October 18, 2015 [8 favorites]

If you google sardine sandwich recipes, you will find a lot of interesting suggestions for spreads and fillings. Most of those would adapt really well to being the filling for lettuce wraps (or other large leafy greens). This Malaysian style one would probably work with just leaving out the bread.

Also, lemon herb sardine salad.
posted by gudrun at 3:47 PM on October 18, 2015

Best answer: Based on your specifications, I would suggest making a 'sardine salad' with mayo/relish/whatever you would usually put in a tuna or chicken salad and then adding chopped jalapeños, sriracha or whatever spicyness floats your boat in order to overwhelm the fish flavor. Then serve that either over a salad or in a large romaine leaf like a lettuce wrap to avoid carbs, and there you go. They also sell low carb/high fiber/high protein tortillas at many grocery stores, if that's something you're interested in.
posted by bracems at 4:32 PM on October 18, 2015

Zoodles (zucchini noodles) with anchovies from the can, some garlic, olive oil and maybe halved cherry tomatoes if I have them. If I have the time and inclination maybe some chopped herbs and a topping of ground almonds, nutritional yeast, salt and lemon zest (or parm if you do dairy).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 4:34 PM on October 18, 2015

You could try adding hot sauce to the sardine/avocado combo. A hefty spoonful of grated parmesan cheese can help cover the taste of the sardines too.
posted by oiseau at 4:38 PM on October 18, 2015

Caesar salad -- blend the anchovies into the dressing.
posted by melissasaurus at 6:28 PM on October 18, 2015

Best answer: I just love this recipe for zucchini noodles with sardines, tomatoes and capers. So delicious! And very easy to keep the ingredients around.
posted by peacheater at 7:00 PM on October 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

I didn't like sardines at all until I tried them grilled, Portuguese style (e.g.). I'd only do it with fresh sardines, though.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:41 AM on October 19, 2015

A family I lived with in Guatemala for a few summers used to cook tiny dried fish into something like an omelet. Toast them in a dry pan on medium heat for a little while, beat together two eggs and a bit of oil, pour the egg mixture over the anchovies, and cook it a bit like a pancake — wait until it's pretty well set, then flip it over. They'd eat it with hot pepper sauce, or with a really thin tomato sauce that was basically just stewed roma tomatoes, or both. I don't know if the fish they used were technically anchovies, but it works with Korean dried anchovies too.

Also: roasted cauliflower with anchovies, garlic and lemon. The recipe has bread crumbs but it would work okay without them.

Also: have you tried white anchovies (a.k.a. boquerones)? They're packed in vinegar rather than salt or oil, and to me they taste fresher and less fishy than standard anchovies.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:49 AM on October 19, 2015

(Super interested in this thread! I bought a ton of sardines recently, knowing how good they are for me, but shied away when I remembered eating a tin of them last time. Maybe I will put them in a calzone with sausage, or with tomatoes and onions. Thanks for asking!)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:58 AM on October 19, 2015

Best answer: One of my favorites growing up: canned sardines in tomato, sauteed in a pan with chopped onions and lots of pepper.
posted by thirteenthletter at 10:12 AM on October 20, 2015