Delicious and Nutritious: A Mediterranean Diet Recipe the Whole Family Will Love (Part 1)

So many family memories are made through the preparation of meals and the conversations had while enjoying food.  As we discussed in our last blog, Cooking with Heart: Unlocking Family Wellness and the Power of the Mediterranean Diet, our family adopted the Mediterranean diet to cook and eat quick and healthy meals together on busy weeknights.

Continuing this topic, our children have chosen two recipes from a few of our favourite Mediterranean recipe bloggers, and we’ll be trying to make the meals and evaluating them based on several key factors including affordability, availability of ingredients, ease of preparation, and most importantly - TASTE!

Choosing the Recipe

We always find that our kids are more willing to help and try new things when they are involved in menu planning decisions.

Our sons selected the Spanish Chickpea Stew recipe from Spain on a Fork to try.  They said the reason this recipe stood out to them was that, “because it looked colourful and yummy and looks like it has a variety of flavours.” 

Availability of Ingredients

Once the recipe was chosen, we headed to our local grocery store to get the ingredients. Most of the items were easily available, but saffron threads and smoked Spanish Paprika were not at our store so we made some substitutions. 

We used regular smoked paprika instead of the Spanish variety which is sweeter in flavour. 

Instead of saffron threads, we were able to find safflower threads. Saffron is sweet, but a bit pungent in flavour, while safflower is sweet, but milder and has a bit of a nutty aroma (Source: Herb Stop). Safflower is also a less expensive alternative.

Tumeric is another substitute to saffron; however, we opted not to use it for fear that it would change the colour too much.    

Ease of Preparation

This was a very easy recipe for the kids to help out with.  The recipe method was very straightforward and easy to follow.  On a busy weeknight, it is great not to have to work with a ton of ingredients. 

The chickpeas were canned which was convenient, and the vegetables were easy to clean and roughly chop for a nice rustic feel.  The kids enjoyed practicing their knife skills along with using other kitchen tools like the potato peeler and can opener, which can be tricky sometimes for us adults even.  

We found the initial preparation took a little bit longer than the 10 minutes estimated on the recipe, but this could have been because the kids are not as fast at chopping – and it was certainly not enough to deter us from making this recipe again.  Overall, we had dinner on the table in about 45 minutes!

For our tastes, we did make some adjustments to the recipe.  We love garlic so we added a full bulb of garlic instead of the four cloves he called for.  We also added a full red and green pepper instead of the half suggested in the recipe.  

Additionally, we opted to add some chicken bouillon powder to the water when adding it to the pot for additional flavour. We also doubled the amount of thyme and used a tablespoon of the paprika instead of a teaspoon which amped up the flavour and made for a really nice, brightly coloured dish.

The beauty of making soups and stews is that you can easily adjust the ingredients to your tastes with little worry about ruining it because you can see the proportions of veggies to broth, etc.

The Verdict

Overall, this stew was an absolute hit with our family!  Honestly, we’re probably going to add it to our rotation of recipes.  The combination of flavours and proportions of ingredients worked well together.  The colours were bold, and the dish looked really appetizing.  The addition of the fresh parsley on top as a garnish adds a nice touch of crispness.  We were so impressed with the depth of flavour from a simple set of ingredients!  

The stew could be served on its own, or with a nice thick slice of rustic bread.  We made a quick salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, capers, chickpeas, and the rest of the parsley we bought with a nice dressing with fresh lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil.

This recipe is a great example of how simple using whole foods can be for families with busy schedules to make a delicious dinner.  You should try it!   Add to the fun by listening to some Spanish music to set the mood.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our blog series where we’ll be sharing and reviewing another great family-friendly recipe! 

Let us know in the comments if you tried this recipe and what you think!