Fast Roast Trout with Almonds

This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver years ago and I’d forgotten about it until only recently when I happened to pick up a lovely whole plate sized rainbow trout at the fish markets. Cranking the oven to the max is a brilliant way to cook whole fish as quickly and mess-free as possible.

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Fast Roast Trout with Almonds

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

• 2 whole fresh water trout
• 2 lemons thickly sliced
• 1 small bunch sage leaves picked
• handful flaked almonds
• 1 bag salad leaves

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to its highest setting.
• Line a baking tray with foil. Place lemon slices on the tray in two lines and then trout on top of the lemon. Drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
• Pop trout in the oven. Set your timer for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes scatter over the sage and almonds and pop the fish back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
• When the second time is up, check the fish. If the flesh flakes easily when pushed with a fork and it looks cooked. You’re done. If not pop back in for another few minutes.
• When the fish is cooked serve on 2 plates with the lemon, sage and almond and salad leaves on the side.

Variations

fish fillets – you could use fish fillets, just be prepared for them to be cooked after 5 minutes. So probably best to add the sage and almonds at the beginning.

other whole fish – feel free to use other whole fish. Anything larger than a plate sized fish will of course take longer to cook.

carnivore – roast pork sausages instead.

vegetarian – the sage and almonds would be lovely with whole roast mushrooms. I’d add some butter to the mushrooms before cooking and skip the lemon. Depending on how large your mushies are it will probably take about the same amount of time to cook.

nut-free – you can easily skip the almonds.

more substantial / carb lovers – serve with roast potatoes or crusty bread and lashings of butter.

more veg – add any of your fave chopped salad veg to the leaves such as snow peas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, grated beets. You could also add chopped red peppers and/or zucchini to roast with the fish.

dressed leaves – the lemon from cooking the fish does make a bit of a dressing but you could toss your leaves in a lemony dressing if you prefer (1 tablespoon lemon juice + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil should do the trick).

Waste Avoidance Strategy

whole fresh water trout – freeze it.

lemon – whole lemon will keep wrapped in a plastic bag in the fridge for months.

sage – best to use for another meal.

almonds – keep them in the pantry.

salad leaves – are highly perishable. My first path would be to use them for another meal (salad for breakfast!) but if that isn’t possible you can pop them in the freezer. They will wilt down but can then be used anywhere you’d use wilted greens. At least this way they wont go slimey.

Prepare Ahead

No.