Avocado & Sardine Toast

Avocado & Sardine Toast

The theme for Recipe Redux for this month is "Sea what you've been missing." We've been given the creative challenge this month of using the more obscure treasurs of the sea, such as sardines, anchovies, smelts, kelp or seaweed.

I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of sardines. I remeber eating them as a young girl, but haven't touched them in decades. I know they contain healthy fats and are an inexpensive source of protein. So, when I learned the theme for Recipe Redux this month, I promised myself that I would figure out a tasty way to add sardines to my diet.

I did some recipe searching and came across a recipe by Alton Brown (2009) for sherried sardine toast. That started me thinking. Avocado and sardines didn't sound bad. I veered from Brown's recipe in that I substituted cilantro for parsey and used twice as much, I used balsamic vinegar instead of sherry vinegar, and I used an artisan loaf of garlic bread.

Here is the complete recipe.

Avocado & Sardine Toast

Ingredients:

1 4.3 oz. tin sardines in soybean or olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Lemon zest from ½ lemon

4 thick (1/2-inch) slices crusty bread, such as artisan garlic or sourdough

1 ripe avocado, pitted & peeled

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Directions:

Drain 1 Tbsp of oil from sardines and set aside. Place remaining oil in small bowl. (There should be about 3 Tbsp). Add cilantro, vinegar, and lemon zest; stir. Add sardines that have been broken into ½-inch pieces (and remove bones if desired). Let sardines marinate in oil mixture for 30 minutes.

Preheat broiler to high. Brush one side of each slice of bread with reserved 1 Tbsp of oil. Place the read, oil side up, on baking sheet and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Meanwhile, mash the avocado in a small bowl with fork. Stir in lemon juice and pepper.

Equally spread the avocado among the 4 slices of toasted bread. Then top each with ¼ of the sardine mixture. Garnish with sprig of cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information per Serving:
398 calories, 10 g total fat,2 g saturated fat, 44 mg cholesterol, 5 g dietary fiber, 20 g protein, and 260 mg sodium. One serving of this low cost recipe provides an excellent source of protein, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine and folate.

Cost per Serving: $0.78

Pricing Note: all ingredients were at “regular” prices except avocados were on sale for $1 each and cilantro was on sale for $0.79 a bunch.


Click here to download and copy of the recipe.

Here are a couple of prep pictures:

Left: sardines marinating in cilantro mixture; Right: garlic bread, toasted under broiler

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