Easy warm beef tomato dish

I’m joining Paul on his 500 calorie diet day

A happy and healthy no oil recipe

Grilled tomatoes for lunch, and boosting the immunity at the same time with an easy ginger and garlic combo on top. Large beef tomatoes, or any style of firm tomatoes will work here. We tend to have 1.5 large tomatoes each.  

Just add some seasoning, chilli flakes, and garlic… and no oil !

Ok we would normally add oil and grill, but with no oil they have to be roasted ( about 20mins 180℃ till they’re cooked a bit and browned on top ) .

Cooked tomatoes are such an immunity boosting food, and we’re trying to get healthy during this covid 19 lockdown !
Let’s see how it goes. 

Eat well, at only 85 calories each !

So this is how it worked out. Lemon zest and coriander added at the end. Paul decided to micro grate some parmesan on his. I had a taste and yes, it adds a certain extra umami-ness.

I got him this micro-zester for his birthday. It’s nice and light but sturdy. He said it’s the best present ever because he uses it every day. Believe me, I don’t find it easy to buy gifts for him so this pleases me no end !

Preparation tips

Use a micro grater / zester like this microplane

It is brilliant for zesting lemons, limes, ginger and garlic. The garlic crusher here in our rental packed up so we use the micro grater a lot for garlic now too.  And it’s way better. It give a much finer mush than a crusher and there’s no waste and no messy clean-up after either.

Another reason we love this micro zester is that it makes the parmesan go a lot further. It comes out light and fluffy, and feels like you’re getting a lot more than you actually are, so it helps us not over do it if you’re counting calories too.

In this recipe, Paul wanted to finely chop the garlic and ginger to give the meal a bit of texture and oomph so we only used the grater for the lemon peel and parmesan here!  If you microplane the garlic it comes out like a purée and that’s how I like to add it to sauces and vinaigrettes( it does the same with frozen ginger by the way.)

Just a quick rinse when you’re done, and it’s good to use again.

Variations

No lemon zest or parmesan this time…  you need just little oil ( a teaspoon each !) in a frying pan over medium heat to pre-cook a clove each of minced garlic, 1cm of ginger each (minced), and a pinch of chili flakes.

Cook them in the oil in a frying pan on medium heat for about 5mins.

Meanwhile chop a bunch of fresh coriander, and half 3 large tomatoes.

Add the coriander stems to the frying pan after the first 5mins and cook slowly for a further 5mins. Then take off the heat and drain off the aromatics.

Use the oil from the pan to brush the tomatoes and add a generous sprinkle of sea salt flake and some cracked black pepper. Then pop half tomatoes under the grill for 10-20mins.

When the tomatoes are cooked,  top the tomatoes with the aromatics, sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and serve.

( I’ve just written this after having it for lunch… next time I’ll take a picture for you ! It looks similar to the non oil version but is just less dry and more juicy and unctuous. )