5:2 Hot smoked salmon, avocado and asparagus salad

You might well have wondered what happened to the 5:2 diet which has been conspicuously absent from the blog lately?

Well, I'm still on it. Sort of. Six months on it's not as regular as it was - I've been busy and travelling a lot but have also found ways of keeping my weight under control without it simply by skipping the odd meal. However I managed to have a fast day last Sunday (no, not ideal) and again today as I'm off to Holland for 5 days next week. Which is bound to mean loads of cheese and Dutch baking.

Anyway if you're going to fast on a Sunday you might as well have something nice and this was tonight's supper, built around some leftover asparagus and some other bits and pieces in the fridge and storecupboard (See! Frugal habits die hard!). I made double the quantity but always think it's more useful to have quantities for 1.

Hot-smoked salmon, avocado and asparagus salad (275 calories)
Serves 1

75g cooked asparagus spears (trimmed weight) - or steam, simmer or microwave it and cool it. No oil or butter, obviously.
20g cooked fresh or frozen peas. Again, NO butter!
A good handful of rocket (about 30g)
A spring onion, trimmed and very finely sliced (optional - just flung it in 'cos I had some)
Half a small avocado (mine weighed 45g) roughly broken up
50g hot-smoked salmon fillet, flaked (I got mine from the Co-op*)
A few torn mint leaves. Not essential. Just because I had them.
1 tsp olive oil
A good squeeze of lemon

Cook the asparagus and peas if you need to and cool. Arrange the rocket on the plate, top with the spring onions and avocado. Arrange the asparagus on top and flake over the salmon. Tear over the mint leaves and scatter with the peas. Season with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. and drizzle over the oil (which I left out when I made it because I thought it might take the day's intake over the 500 calorie limit. I needn't have worried.)

*In the mis-named Truly Irresistible range. I could have resisted it if I'd wanted to. I'm hard after months of 5:2!

Thai trout and cucumber bake

I hesitate to put Thai recipes in this blog because they involve a significant outlay on ingredients but chances are if you're into Thai or other spicy food you'll have a fair number of them already. And if you haven't you can pick them up reasonably cheaply at an Asian store or stall.

I hesitated even more this time with cucumber in the spotlight over the recent e-coli scare but at the time of writing the connection has not been proved and so long as you wash and peel the cucumber there shouldn't be a problem. There's been absolutely nothing to link British cukes with health scares.

Trout I admit doesn't sound as nice as salmon (the very word is offputting) but it's generally quite a bit cheaper than salmon fillets. They do have a slightly coarser flavour but one you don't notice with the zingy marinade.

It's also low fat, low calorie and so long as you don't overdo any accompanying rice, low carb. Hooray!

Serves 4
350-400g trout fillets or salmon tail fillets
Juice and rind of a lime, preferably unwaxed
1 crushed clove of garlic
A small cube of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp each water and sunflower or vegetable oil
1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)
A handful of fresh coriander + a bit of chopped mint if you have some
1/2 a cucumber

Rinse the fish fillets and lay them in a single layer in a lightly oiled baking dish. Mix together the lime juice and rind, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and soy sauce and whisk in the sunflower oil and water. Add the chilli, if using together with the coriander stalks, washed and finely sliced. Pour the mixture over the fish and leave to marinate for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Peel the cucumber, cut lengthways and scoop out the seeds with the tip of a teaspoon then cut each half into little half moon shapes. Chop the coriander leaves and mint if using then scatter the cucumber and herbs over the fish, spooning over a little of the marinade (See pic for what it looks like just before it goes into the oven) Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 15 minutes until the fish is cooked. Serve with boiled rice. (Also surprisingly nice cold.)

Do you ever use trout and if not what puts you off? Is it the T-word or the bones (not obviously a problem with this recipe) or don't you like salmon either?