Cod with tomatoes and olives

This cod simmered with tomatoes and olives brings a Mediterranean touch to cutting: 31 g of protein for 307 kcal and 12 g of fat. Cod, a very lean white fish, simmers in a tomato sauce fragrant with garlic and herbs, lifted by the olives. A tasty, colourful dish that breaks from steamed fish while staying light.

Olives bring a lot of flavour for little volume, but they also concentrate fat and salt: 40 g is enough to flavour the whole dish. When cutting, don't overdo it. The tomato sauce, meanwhile, is nearly free on calories and brings lycopene and lots of flavour. For a fuller meal, serve with rice, couscous or whole-grain bread.

First make the tomato sauce (onion, garlic, oregano, basil) and let it reduce, then lay the cod fillets on top and let them poach gently, covered, for 8-10 minutes, without stirring: cod is delicate and falls apart if handled too much. It is ready when the flesh turns opaque and flakes. Add the olives at the end.

This dish belongs to the Mediterranean diet, often cited as one of the healthiest in the world — and it has a lot to offer a lifter. Lean protein-rich fish, tomato packed with antioxidants (lycopene), olive oil and olives for good fats, herbs and garlic for flavour without excess salt: it is a way of eating that is both tasty and perfectly compatible with body-composition goals.

This model rests on whole, colourful, minimally processed foods, with fish given pride of place. Working one or two fish meals a week into your diet, like this cod, diversifies your protein sources and brings nutrients (iodine, selenium, omega-3s for oily fish) that meat alone doesn't cover. Eating 'healthy' has never meant eating bland.

The tomato-olive-garlic base adapts easily without changing the macros. Add a spoonful of rinsed capers and a strip of orange zest for a Nice-style version, a pinch of chilli for warmth, or a few halved cherry tomatoes tossed in at the end for bursts of freshness. Half a diced red pepper, melted down with the onion, sweetens the sauce and bulks up the dish for almost no extra calories.

For sides, it depends on your phase. When cutting, keep the dish as it is with green beans or a fennel salad. For a meal around training, add 150 g of cooked rice, couscous or polenta, which soak up the sauce beautifully. Chickpeas stirred into the sauce add extra fibre and plant protein; a handful of fresh spinach wilted in just before the fish boosts iron and volume.

The classic mistakes: a sauce that is too watery and dilutes the flavour (let it reduce until it coats a spoon), heat that is too high and dries the fish, a fillet still frozen that releases water into the sauce, or cod stirred constantly until it breaks up. Also remember to pat the fillets dry before adding them and to salt sparingly: olives and canned tomatoes already bring plenty of salt.

For storage, the dish keeps 24 hours in the fridge in a sealed container and reheats gently, over very low heat or in the microwave on low power, so the fish doesn’t turn dry. If you meal prep, the best strategy is to make a big batch of sauce for the week, freeze it in portions, then poach a fresh fillet each evening in ten minutes. Raw fish itself freezes very well, as long as it is thawed in the fridge.