This post is my contribution for Weekend Herb Blogging - onew of the longest running food blog 'events' on the web. This week it is being hosted by Yasmeen from Healthnut. Started by Kalyn and now conducted by Halo (who whipped up an amazing Kangaroo pie this week!), WHB is now in its 4th successful year of showcasing every week ,food prepared using herbs,fruits and vegetables by bloggers around the world.
This week I'm featuring Parsley - I know that you likely are thinking . . . . 'Parsley? That is a garnish . . . has he lost what little of his mind he had left?'
Behave, yee of little faith.
At the end of the post I shall fill you in on Parsley.
This recipe is from the March 2009 Cooking Light Magazine. Paul wanted to make some fish the other day and I suggested tilapia because we had lots on the freezer. When we saw this recipe int he magazine we decided that it was the one for us - there was something really appealing (no pun intended) about the orange and the roasted fish.
The oranges and parsley make a lovely counterpoint to the fish. It all tasted very springy - something we can sure use around these parts right now.
Paul found this to be an easy recipe - good for a weeknight. The orange-scented rice was probably the biggest hit with us - it would be a good side dish with other fish dishes as well. We only used one large navel orange to make the salsa and that made more than enough for us.
The best thing - 423 calories (including the rice, fish, and salsa)
Enjoy!
Roasted Tilapia with Orange-Parsley Salsa
3 oranges (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
2 cups hot cooked instant white ricePreheat oven to 400°.
Grate 2 teaspoons orange rind. Peel, section, and chop oranges. Combine rind, chopped orange, parsley, and ¼ teaspoon salt in a bowl; toss well.
Sprinkle fish evenly with ½ t salt and ½ t pepper. Place fish in a glass baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 14 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.
Serve fish with salsa.
The picture above is of Italian parsley. Italian parsley (sometimes known as flat-leaf parsley) is a green herb with serrated leaves and a clean, slightly peppery taste. Its flavor is stronger than that of its ruffled cousin, curly-leaf parsley. It is often used as a garnish but is showing up more and more as an integral part of a recipe.
Usually sold in bunches, Italian parsley should be bright green with no wilting. At the market, it is easy to confuse Italian parsley with cilantro (we've done this many times!). Italian parsley has leaves that are larger and a fresh, grassy smell.
This is what the fine folks at World's Healthiest Foods have to say about parsley . . .
The delicious and vibrant taste and wonderful healing properties of parsley are often ignored in its popular role as a table garnish. Highly nutritious, parsley can be found year round in your local supermarket.
Parsley is the world's most popular herb. It derives its name from the Greek word meaning "rock celery" (parsley is a relative to celery). It is a biennial plant that will return to the garden year after year once it is established. Health Benefits A sprig of parsley can provide much more than a decoration on your plate. Parsley contains two types of unusual components that provide unique health benefits. The first type is volatile oil components-including myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. The second type is flavonoids-including apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin. Promote Optimal Health Parsley's volatile oils-particularly myristicin-have been shown to inhibit tumor formation in animal studies, and particularly, tumor formation in the lungs. Myristicin has also been shown to activate the enzyme glutathione-S-transferase, which helps attach the molecule glutathione to oxidized molecules that would otherwise do damage in the body. The activity of parsley's volatile oils qualifies it as a "chemoprotective" food, and in particular, a food that can help neutralize particular types of carcinogens (like the benzopyrenes that are part of cigarette smoke and charcoal grill smoke).
A Rich Source of Anti-Oxidant Nutrients The flavonoids in parsley-especially luteolin-have been shown to function as antioxidants that combine with highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules (called oxygen radicals) and help prevent oxygen-based damage to cells. In addition, extracts from parsley have been used in animal studies to help increase the antioxidant capacity of the blood.
In addition to its volatile oils and flavonoids, parsley is an excellent source of two vital nutrients that are also important for the prevention of many diseases: vitamin C and vitamin A (notably through its concentration of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid, beta-carotene).
Vitamin C has many different functions. It is the body's primary water-soluble antioxidant, rendering harmless otherwise dangerous free radicals in all water-soluble areas of the body. High levels of free radicals contribute to the development and progression of a wide variety of diseases, including atherosclerosis, colon cancer, diabetes, and asthma. This may explain why people who consume healthy amounts of vitamin C-containing foods have reduced risks for all these conditions. Vitamin C is also a powerful anti-inflammatory agent, which explains its usefulness in conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. And since vitamin C is needed for the healthy function of the immune system, it can also be helpful for preventing recurrent ear infections or colds.
Beta-carotene, another important antioxidant, works in the fat-soluble areas of the body. Diets with beta-carotene-rich foods are also associated with a reduced risk for the development and progression of conditions like atherosclerosis, diabetes, and colon cancer. Like vitamin C, beta-carotene may also be helpful in reducing the severity of asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. And beta-carotene is converted by the body to vitamin A, a nutrient so important to a strong immune system that its nickname is the "anti-infective vitamin."
Parsley for a Healthy Heart Parsley is a good source of folic acid, one of the most important B vitamins. While it plays numerous roles in the body, one of its most critical roles in relation to cardiovascular health is its necessary participation in the process through which the body converts homocysteine into benign molecules. Homocysteine is a potentially dangerous molecule that, at high levels, can directly damage blood vessels, and high levels of homocysteine are associated with a significantly increased risk of heart attack and stroke in people with atherosclerosis or diabetic heart disease. Enjoying foods rich in folic acid, like parsley, is an especially good idea for individuals who either have, or wish to prevent, these diseases. Folic acid is also a critical nutrient for proper cell division and is therefore vitally important for cancer-prevention in two areas of the body that contain rapidly dividing cells-the colon, and in women, the cervix.
Protection against Rheumatoid Arthritis While one study suggests that high doses of supplemental vitamin C makes osteoarthritis, a type of degenerative arthritis that occurs with aging, worse in laboratory animals, another indicates that vitamin C-rich foods, such as parsley, provide humans with protection against inflammatory polyarthritis, a form of rheumatoid arthritis involving two or more joints.
The findings, presented in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases were drawn from a study of more than 20,000 subjects who kept diet diaries and were arthritis-free when the study began, and focused on subjects who developed inflammatory polyarthritis and similar subjects who remained arthritis-free during the follow-up period. Subjects who consumed the lowest amounts of vitamin C-rich foods were more than three times more likely to develop arthritis than those who consumed the highest amounts. So, next time parsley appears on your plate as a garnish, recognize its true worth and partake of its abilities to improve your health. As an added bonus, you'll also enjoy parsley's legendary ability to cleanse your palate and your breath at the end of your meal.
Jerry I really like this new set up to link to other posts, "you might like these stories". Very cool and I love looking at the photos. Your blog is so great.
Posted by: barb cabot | March 20, 2009 at 12:31 AM
Thanks Barb. I grabbed the 'you might like these stories' from Sandi. It is really easy to do. Lots of blogs seem to be featuring it these days.
Posted by: Jerry | March 20, 2009 at 09:28 AM
This does look very good and easy...perfect for a weeknight, like you say. Orange rice...I am forever making lemon rice, but I have never once even thought of orange rice, thanks for the idea...sounds perfect for a lot of things around here!
Posted by: Kayte | March 20, 2009 at 04:43 PM
Parsley has such a fresh taste to it as well. We use flat-leaf parsley for most of our cooking.
Kayte, isn't it amazing how you can mix up the flavour of plain rice so easily? Just mix it with a bit of herb, some juice and there you go. I guess that is what 'Alice' was telling us in those Minute Rice commercials all of those years! LOL
Posted by: Jerry | March 21, 2009 at 05:39 AM
We got a bag of navel oranges recently,and it never occurred to me to make salsa with oranges,what a brilliant idea.Flavoring it with fresh parsley only makes it better.Thanks for sending this over to WHB:)
Posted by: yasmeen | March 22, 2009 at 05:28 PM
Thanks yasmeen - great job on the round up!
Posted by: Jerry | March 24, 2009 at 08:26 PM