Sardines - food of the gods - best recipes - post pictures!

[CzechCzar]

I have recently come across this amazing superfood. I last had it years ago as a kid. It is delicious, healthy, filling, and easy.

What are some of your favorite recipes? What are some of your favorite brands? Post pics if you have them!

 

[Scarry Knight]

Brain food!
Straight out of the can with a home made mustard usually.

a sardine side note: this was the first in my fifty some years of eating them, that I have encountered sardines with roe. We had several cans last fall.

 

[thegreatswalmi]

i like the ones packed in mustard...or hot sauce. Both straight up on crackers, maybe with a little cheese. yum.

 

[Billski]

Sardines ? I also love them. I’ll be watching this thread.

 

[kelbro]

I get some with jalapeños packed in the tin with them. On a saltine cracker. That's my recipe!

Also plain with a couple of shakes of Cholula or Texas Pete's Pepper sauce. Also on a saltine cracker.

Dump the can in another location because our housekeeping team is not that reliable about daily trash emptying.

 

[DoctorShavegood]

I eat sardines every week. Super healthy and low on the food chain thereby a lot less mercury. I like the ones in water because I have no idea what kind or quality is in the olive or cottonseed oil. Hot sauce and cracked pepper on top. Sometimes a splash of my favorite vinegar. No crackers or bread. I know it seems like a waste, but one sardine placed in the bottom of a hole for your tomato plant brings very good results.

 

[CzechCzar]

DINES DIET DAY 1

Currently working on some Season Sardines, boneless and skinless, that I bought from Costco.

These are great. My favorite is atop a saltine, but on bread with hot sauce works great too. My wife has made a stir fry that is essentially rice, sardines, and Asian oil, with green onion caramelized and soy sauce. Delicious.

Do you guys like your sardines with or without bones?

 

[OldSchoolYoungin]

Sourdough bread, toasted, mashed avocado, topped with sardines and a little hot sauce.

 

[CzechCzar]

ARTICLE: THE DINES DIET
http://www.mendosa.com/blog/?cat=421

THE SARDINE DIET

November 25, 2008 by David Mendosa

A diet limited to sardines might sound somewhat too restrictive. It is.

Even the most ardent health food fanatics don’t go that far. As much as I love the health benefits and taste of sardines, I almost never eat more than two cans of sardines a day. Even Keri Glassman, who wrote The Sardine Diet, is using hyperbole to make her points.

Her points are that sardines are not only delicious but also have unique properties that help us lose weight and improve our health. Food doesn’t come any better than that.

Keri is president of A Nutritious Life, a nutrition counseling and consulting practice in New York City. Her practice focuses on weight loss/maintenance, pediatric nutrition, lifestyle/wellness/beauty, pre/post natal nutrition, cardiovascular health, and sports performance. A registered nurse and Certified Dietitian Nutritionist, Keri is the Nutrition Contributor to the CBS Early Show as well as a tri-athlete.

In 2006 Downtown Bookworks published The Sardine Diet: Lose Weight, Fight Disease, and Stay Healthy for Life. I just obtained one of the last available copies of this 128-page paperback (unless you are willing to pay $195 for a used copy) and have studied it carefully. I also interviewed Keri by phone at her New York practice.
Calling it The Sardine Diet is a great attention getter. Punningly, she admits in the book that it is “really a ‘fishy’ name for a high-fiber, reduced calorie diet that’s high in omega-3 fatty acids.”

The sardine diet involves eating a wide variety of foods. “Sardines simply make it easy to follow, even on a hectic schedule.”

That’s because sardines are the best combination of healthy and convenience food. Keri notes that they are so popular for desktop lunches because all you need to do it flip open the lid.

For me they are my favorite trail food. I take two cans of sardines and a spoon on every long hike.

Sardines come in a variety of flavors, including mustard sauce, tomato sauce, salsa, and pesto. The purest form comes packed in spring water, but I prefer the taste of those packed in organic olive oil.

I almost always eat my sardines straight out of the can. But lots of people add a splash of lemon (or the more convenient TrueLemon), a slice of sweet onion, or a dollop of mustard or mayo or miso. They are a great addition to salads too.

The term “sardine” is surprisingly vague. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization say that canners can call any of 21 species as sardines. Usually, however, the are pilchards, a small fish related to herrings, or sprats, such as brislings.

Keri prefers a brand of brislings and I prefer a brand of pilchards. But, “the best sardines are your personal preference,” she told me.

The brand that she recommends in her book is King Oscar. These brisling sardines “are good because of the cold, clear Nordic water they come from,” she says. These mild sardines are available in many supermarkets, including Safeway.

They are too mild for my taste. I prefer the richer taste of the VitalChoice brand of Portuguese pilchards — and not just because half of my ancestors came from Portugal.

“I love VitalChoice as a brand,” Keri told me. “I like their salmon as well. They are a great company.”

Besides the choice of brand, I wondered about how important it is to eat whole sardines — skin and bones and all — compared to skinless and boneless. While I prefer whole sardines, I realize that some people might be put off by them.

“It doesn’t matter too much,” Keri told me. “You are getting a little more calcium in the bones, but you get most of the nutrients either way.”

What about fresh versus canned sardines?

“In New York City a lot of Greek restaurants have them,” Keri said. “That’s the place to get them.”
I’ve never seen fresh sardines here in Colorado — until yesterday evening. The local Whole Foods store now has them.

Then I told Keri that I prefer the taste of sardines in olive oil, and the problem is that olive oil is omega-6. Are sardines in water better for us than those packed in olive oil?

“That depends on what else you have in your diet the rest of the day,” Keri says. “If you are not getting any other fat in your diet, then sardines in olive oil are a fine choice. But if you are getting olive oil five other times a day in other places, you probably don’t need it with your sardines.”

All sardines are very low in mercury, which is the biggest problem with much seafood. Generally speaking, the bigger the fish — the higher on the oceanic food chain — the more the mercury. Shark, tuna — and yes, salmon too — are all high in mercury. As befitting their name, sardines are small. About the lowest on the food chain, they are also among the fish lowest in mercury.

And they are among the very highest in the best kind of oil, omega-3. I have written several times about the importance of omega-3 oil in our diet, including the importance of increasing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 oil. In September my most recent article emphasized the importance of increasing our omega-3 consumption.

Wild Chinook salmon seems to have a bit more omega-3 oil per 100 grams than canned Atlantic sardines, according to my analysis of the USDA National Nutrient Database. The sardines have a total of 1.5 grams of the different omega-3 oils, which the USDA calls “n-3,” and the salmon has a total of 2.1 grams.

But besides the mercury issue, salmon isn’t available all year around. And salmon is much more expensive.

“Sardines are cheap!” Keri concludes. “They are a great power food.”

True Lemonade - Diabetes Developments

These days I’m drinking lots of lemonade for you. I’m testing all the brands of lemon juice that I can find. Actually, drinking lemonade on the job is one of the best things that I do for myself. It’s both the healthiest and tastiest drink I know. Using acidic foods, like lemon and vinegar, is...

www.mendosa.com

 

[Mick]

One necessity.

Everything about them is wonderful.

 

[MntnMan62]

I like them as they are. My favorites are the small ones, Season brislings packed in olive oil. I like to toast some multigrain bread and just lay them on the toasted bread open faced right out of the tin and eat them like that. Yum.

 

[gstriftos]

Sorry to ask guys but you only eat canned sardines?

 

[trentr]

i like the ones packed in mustard...or hot sauce. Both straight up on crackers, maybe with a little cheese. yum.

Yup.
Prepare for others to be appalled at your meal and afterwards, your belches haha

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

CzechCzar:

...although I like tinned sardines and saltine crackers, I really like King Oscar sardines tinned w/ jalapeños...on toasted Jewish Rye Bread w/ mayo, capers & minced onions.

"Hard to call it a party without sardines". Brandon Mull

PS Fresh Sardines are 'da bomb'!

 

[thegreatswalmi]

Yup.
Prepare for others to be appalled at your meal and afterwards, your belches haha

those sardines were the bane of my college roommate's existence.

 

[MntnMan62]

Yup.
Prepare for others to be appalled at your meal and afterwards, your belches haha

Yes. I've never had them any other way. I like this thread because you guys are giving me ideas about other ways to eat them. I'm liking the idea of some mayo and onions and hot sauce. And the Jewish Rye sounds great as well. Not a big capers fan.

 

[trentr]

Yes. I've never had them any other way. I like this thread because you guys are giving me ideas about other ways to eat them. I'm liking the idea of some mayo and onions and hot sauce. And the Jewish Rye sounds great as well. Not a big capers fan.

I have tried them in recipes. I honestly prefer to just eat them. The mayo would not be a far stretch. And granted I am very lazy when it comes to food prep sometimes (drink a glass of eggs instead of cooking them), but I seem to prefer sardines just as they come.

 

[thegreatswalmi]

i bet a little batter on them and they'd make delicious deep-fried sardine tacos.

 

[danek]

Use sardines in lieu of canned tuna for salad, sandwich, etc. 100x better

 

[decraew]

They should only be eaten fresh from the BBQ.
With some salt, pepper, olive oil and bread.
It doesn't get any better !