Mediterranean Diet Weight Loss Recipes | Quick and Easy Healthy Meal Ideas | Summer Meal Prep

Ciao! My name is Caroline. I share all things modern Mediterranean living and today I'm sharing a delicious Mediterranean diet recipe video featuring three incredible, super quick and easy, fresh and seasonal Mediterranean summertime salad ideas. I'm still trying to figure out so much as far as how to film in my new kitchen. It's still not there yet and I thought something was better than nothing so this is a very informal kind of different style of recipe video because I just am not fully prepared to give you guys what I envision as a true Caroline Alfranco modern Mediterranean diet recipe video. I really, really wanted to start off my return back to recipe videos with something so many of you guys have been asking. All three of these are absolutely incredible for weight loss. I feel like salads get a bad rep because always leafy greens. That's not the case. A salad does not always have to be leafy greens. While those are incredible and highly, highly recommended on the Mediterranean diet, salads don't necessarily in my mind have to be leafy greens. What a salad is to me is a high volume, so you get to eat a lot of it, veggie packed dish and it can be filled with so many different things so you feel super satiated and it doesn't have to be served right away. It doesn't have to be hot. It can be room temperature. Another question I have gotten so much of is variations which I've always tried to show so many variations in all my recipe videos. I am including gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-based, focused, high protein of course. I'm including everything in all of these different types of salads today so hopefully you can find something that works for you. If not, I'll share how you can adjust it to make it work for you. There are so many options on the modern Mediterranean diet. I also really wanted to try hard. I don't think I did an incredible job, but I really tried to pick what corners I could cut today in these recipes because I know a lot of you don't like that I make like all of it from scratch and I like to make so much of it from scratch because that's true Mediterranean cooking is cooking as much as you can from home, but we live in a modern world where that is just not always the option and I get that. I get that you want convenience, but everything is way, way, way too much convenient here in America. We have to prioritize starting to cook more food at home in America. I know it's time consuming and it sucks, but it just needs to be done because that's what separates us from the blue zones. That's what separates us from the Mediterranean diet is the Americans do not cook enough at home. That's my little summary to intro this video. I just wanted to share a few little notes before we hop into making some delicious fun summertime salads that are inspired by the Mediterranean diet. Recipe number one is going to be a sumac spiced or blackened salmon harissa farro salad. So let's start off with the first thing that I said, the delicious salmon. Now you can use any fish. You can use a vegan source of protein, maybe tofu, sauteed beans. America loves a good blackening seasoning, basically just a bunch of spices on a piece of fish. And so inspired by that, I kind of took all my favorite spices that I feel like would be really good on fish and did my own sumac seasoning, blackening seasoning. Sumac is one of my favorite spices of all because it is this like peppery, lemony, really vibrant red, beautiful spice. And I tried to put as many spices as I could in there that would compliment sumac. And this could be used for so many other things than fish. Use it on meat. You can use it on a lot of things, but this was once a cinnamon jar and I just saved it instead of going on Amazon and buying like a 30 pack of aesthetic spice jars. Don't need to do that. Just save what you use, reuse it, and make your own little spices when you want to. How I like to do my salmon, you never ever want to get salmon with any dyes in it. You want wild caught salmon. The Mediterranean diet is all about seafood, as much as possible. I mean, the Mediterranean diet really emphasizes seafood because, oh yeah, it's about being by the sea. So my favorite way to cook salmon, avocado oil, nice little fat, nice little crispy oil, does really, really well in high heat. I did the blackening seasoning. I have a tray here with foil on it just because of easy cleanup. And we're just going to broil it and broil it till it's nice and looks cooked. In my opinion, fastest way to cook it, easiest way to cook it. You can put it on the grill on a cedar plank. That would be delicious. You could saute it. Just going to pop it into the oven to broil. And as I wait for it to broil, we're going to talk about all the other things going into the salad. I love me some farro. One of the best whole grains ever. If you're gluten free, rice would work absolutely incredible. Quinoa would work incredible here. But if you can't have gluten and you haven't tried farro, you're missing out. It's chewy. It's nutty. It's thick. It's al dente, super satisfying texture. So I made some farro. I did it in a little bit of broth. You could use water, but we're always looking to amp up the flavor in easy ways. So having chicken broth and vegetable broth on hand is always really nice. It has protein in it. It's a great carb, loaded with fiber. It's whole grain, very unprocessed. She's a beaut. And so she's going to be the base of the salad. So next going in the salad is roasted red peppers. I cheated. I used easy jarred roasted red peppers. Why the roasted red peppers? So we have that really spice filled spice rub. So I thought of something to really compliment it would be harissa. So harissa is a Tunisian, which don't forget Africa is part of the Mediterranean. Everyone always thinks it's all Italy or Greece or Spain. Mediterranean is huge. It's a lot of countries. I talk about this in my Mediterranean diet guide. So Tunisia has a beautiful spicy sauce called harissa and she's spicy. She's too spicy for me, but I try to cater to everybody. So I have a homemade harissa sauce on my website, but picked up some harissa. Did it have canola oil in it? Yes. We have to pick and choose our battles. It really is not the end of the world to eat, you know, something that doesn't have olive oil in it. It's still a product of Tunisia, which I really liked that it was still three ingredients. I could read all the ingredients, such minimal ingredients. So I was like, Hey, let's cut this corner, pick up this harissa paste, mixed it with tahini and a little bit of water. And then I was like, eh, there's not enough flavor for me because my mind had a little more flavor. So I put a few spices in it. I feel like that kind of helped. But what I'm saying is, so we have the spiciness complimenting the spiciness here. I know that harissa is made with peppers. So I was like, okay, let's balance out all the spicy with a little bit of sweet. So we have the roasted red peppers. And then I was like, well, I need more veggies. So let me pick a spicy veggie, arugula, and then some chopped almonds. I try to always get them toasted because if I could amp up the flavor, put a little bit of broth, add a little bit of toast, you could use raw red peppers, but instead of raw red peppers, add a little bit of smoky charredness that complements all the spices that complements the spiciness. If you can add a little zhuzh to every ingredient you're using, that's Mediterranean cooking because you want minimal ingredients. It looks like I have so many ingredients in my recipes because I'm making everything from scratch, but at the end of the day, we're using such wholesome ingredients. And how do you make a recipe absolutely delicious with such minimal, wholesome ingredients? You find a way to amp up the flavor wherever it's possible. So I'm going to combine everything while we wait for the salmon, and then we'll plate it up. I have water ready because it's just too spicy for me. That harissa is way too spicy, but I know if you like spicy, which I know a lot of people do, they're gonna love it. I need to try the salmon on its own, but oh my gosh, that's so good. That sumac and za'atar on the salmon is so, so, so good. The salmon alone is loaded with so much flavor because of that delicious spice rub. This is so good. The flavors are so amazing. It's very spicy, but very good. I love the kick. I love the sweet peppers, the crunch of the toasty almonds. Everything complements each other so well. I think I need one more bite, and then we can move on to recipe number two. Recipe number two is a total Caroline recipe. A marinated bean salad. Beans, legumes, high and mighty on the what to eat for the Mediterranean diet. Incredible plant-based amazingness as far as protein, vitamins, minerals. Cheap. We love cheap. You can use any beans. I have great northern white beans because they're quite sturdy, or so my research has said they're quite sturdy. These are quite mushy. You could even throw in half beans, half lentils, whatever your heart's desire. So marinated means classic Caroline combination here. We have olive oil, red wine vinegar, a whole lemon, zested and juiced, salt, pepper, garlic. Simple. The good stuff. The highest of quality. Good extra virgin fruity duty little beauty of an olive oil. Don't know what I just said there. When you think marinated, I think soaking up this gorgeous liquid gold for days in the fridge, and it just develops that flavor, and it gets more and more delicious as it sits in the fridge. So what are things that really soak up a good dressing really really well? Artichoke hearts. I have artichoke hearts here halved. Sun-dried tomatoes. Salty, chewy, kind of fruity, pungent flavor. Also salty and great texture. Olives. My favorite are Castel Veltrano olives, but you can use whatever olive you love. Some shallots because we're not cooking the onion in this, but I feel like this dish really needs onion. That will develop a lot of flavor, but I don't love a lot of robust onion-y flavor. So I love shallot because they're so mild. Green onions would be incredible in this as well. Of course herbs. Herbs are so important on the Mediterranean diet. We should be eating herbs like we eat vegetables. Parsley. A lot of parsley is going in. We want it to be salad. We want it to be veggie loaded. I got a beautiful medley of gorgeous heirloom cherry tomatoes. I would say these are actually grape tomatoes because they're like the longer kind, but I wanted to add some color, some juiciness, because again we're making like a marinated salad, so it's going to be drippy and juicy. That could go on any protein with some chicken. It could go with your like grilled protein of choice. You could make a bed of greens and plop it on that or just any veggies because you'll have this extra liquid heaven that these marinated beans and veggies are all in and that's kind of nice to like drizzle on things. It is time to try the incredible bean salad with artichokes, loaded with herbs, so many tomatoes. Chewy sun-dried tomato and olive. Oh my gosh guys, this is bursting with flavor and I can't even express to you how flavorful. This is going to be the next day and the day after that. Oh my gosh, it's so good. The creamy beans, the bursting juicy sweet tomatoes, the chewy sun-dried tomatoes, the buttery Castelo Beltrano olives. I really love these olives because they're mild and buttery and delicious. Okay, one more bite, one more bite, and then I'm putting this down. You can't see it, but at the bottom there's a ton of liquid, so that's why I'm saying like make sure you give it a super great stir and then also this is so great on top of a bed of rice or farro, quinoa, pasta. This would be so good as a pasta salad. You could put this on top of a bed of greens, any leftover veggies, just something so it can soak up the delicious like sauce that it creates over the few days. I had to have one more bite. It's so good. So much flavor in every bite. Marinated bean salad is what's up. All right, I think it's time for the third and final recipe. For the third and final recipe, we are going to be doing a little bit strange of a salad, but I promise it's delicious. I didn't get to do very many spring recipes because I was rather busy this spring, if you've been catching up on my vlogs, but something about the Mediterranean diet, more specifically something about eating seasonally, is there's a lot out there of the produce that's in season each month, but it just depends on the weather, it depends on where you live, it depends on a lot of factors, so you can't say for sure that strawberries are a summer fruit. Strawberries were where I am in Ohio in season all May long, so that's why I am a huge advocate for going to your local farmers markets and seeing what the vendors are growing because that is a great indication of what's in season. For example, I could redo this whole entire recipe video, salads, in August and be using totally different veggies. By then, zucchini will be incredible, eggplant will be incredible, there'll be so many other veggies and produce in general to pick from. Right now, where my mom goes to pick all these incredible ruby red, gorgeous, not the white strawberries we get in the grocery store, where she goes to pick these strawberries, they're also still growing an abundant amount of asparagus, and most people would say asparagus is a spring vegetable, but this is a great transition because strawberries are summery, we have asparagus, which is more spring, but it's still in season. I really like this salad because it's fresh and vibrant and zingy and sweet, I love a good sweetness to anything, as we transition from spring to summer kind of salad. So the base, the bulk of the salad is going to be broccolini, which is one of my all-time very favorite vegetables, and then asparagus. I did a really simple blanching, so you just boil some water, add the veggies in, let them get nice and bright green, put them in a nice bath, make sure they're nice and well dried off. Blanched veggies, delicious, super healthy, not overcooked, and then I'm just going to add a nice, gorgeous amount of strawberries. So strawberries and asparagus and broccolini, I'm begging you to keep your mind open with this one. Pistachios, I mean, is it a Caroline recipe video without pistachios? I doubt it. Feta, feta and strawberries and pistachios and then the asparagus and the broccoli, like, just trust me. Also, protein. I'm a huge advocate for protein, I don't think it's a complete meal without protein. Your dairy and the Mediterranean cheese is a good protein. This is more of a side salad or like a lunch salad, it's definitely the lightest one here as far as keeping you full, I would definitely suggest eating this with something, and then something super special is a strawberry rose dressing. You could use just regular vinegar, I have strawberry vinegar from Costa Rica, it's so incredible, and do you know what it made me want to do? When I was cutting the strawberries up, I saved all of the stems and like the top bits of the strawberries, I didn't throw them away, and I just coated all of them in a jar of vinegar, and so I think I'm going to try to make my own strawberry vinegar. So how fun is that? But anyways, if you don't have strawberry vinegar, champagne vinegar would be delicious in this, white wine vinegar, olive oil. I wanted the strawberry vinegar to really shine, so I didn't add any citrus, but citrus would be delicious in this, and then I did a little bit of rose water because strawberry and rose, and then I feel like rose is springy, and I don't know, maybe I'm making all this up, but I thought a little rose water would be nice. Rose water is such a popular ingredient in the Mediterranean, a lot of desserts use rose water, and I just thought it would be good to add a little floral touch, and so once again, dump everything in a bowl, stir it up, and enjoy. I am most excited for this right here. I love the flavors, I think it's so refreshing, it's so different. I think the broccolini and the asparagus are like a perfect vessel to soak up this sauce. There's just the slightest hint of rose to anyone who wouldn't know there's rose in it, they'd just be like, oh there's something, I can't put my finger on, but it's not like you're eating perfume. I added a few dried rose petals to the top. I'm going in for a big bite of feta, which is so beautiful because it kind of turned pink from all the strawberries. Salty briny feta. The veggies, when you shock them in the ice water, they stop cooking, so they stay nice and crispy and crunchy, but like cooked all the way through of course, so they have great texture. Pistachios is just the right amount of crunch with saltiness, roasted toasted nuttiness, and then that amazing strawberry vinaigrette that just rounds everything out. Oh, I could go on and on eating this and talking about it, it's just so good. For sure my most favorite of this entire video. Wow, I think we're gonna, I think we're gonna have to, I think we're gonna have to, it's Friday night, I just spent the entire day in the kitchen doing this recipe video. This is my favorite wine right now, Arne's Grapes, so good. Italy wine, of course. D-O-C-G. Caroline, wine isn't healthy, alcohol is not healthy, the Mediterranean diet, I thought it's only red wine. I don't drink to drink, I drink to enjoy. I drink with food, I drink on a gorgeous Friday night, and I usually have one. Not that I'm justifying myself, you're like trying to tell you what to do, whatever. Alcohol is never good in the health world, no for sure, but oh, enjoying yourself is, indulging in life is, alcohol is never good, but one glass to make a beautiful evening even more crisp and live a beautiful 100, 100 plus years, chin chin. So anyways, I think I have to drink some delicious, ice cold, refreshing, beautiful white wine, and go have the rest of this salad out on my patio, and have a absolutely zestful evening. That wraps it up, thank you so much for watching, you know the drill, leave a comment below, which one are you most excited to try, what did you love from this video, what did you not like, but in a nice way, what would you like to see from me, what are your suggestions, like I said in the beginning, I don't need a reader, I have myself, but this was a little test, this was a little bit of figuring it out, finding out what lights, what angles, you know, I was just sick of not trying, I was scared to jump back into recipe videos, I was definitely nervous today, I'm like I haven't done a recipe video since February, and it's May 30th, but I think we did it just fine, you know, I'm only here because of you, so drop a comment below, like this video, if you like the modern Mediterranean vibe, and creating a zestful day, then go ahead and subscribe, and I think that's it, thank you so, so, so much for watching, I really, really hope you enjoyed this video, and until next time, I hope you create a very, very zestful day, ciao!