By Danielle French

Every day marinade

Spring cooking

This is a tasty and fresh every day marinade, so easy and versatile. Use it with just about anything. I love it over my lunch of leftover veggies or marinating on a flank steak.

The weather is changing and I feel like cooking. I’m thinking bbq, spring, fresh and healthy. I’ve been cooking a lot with citrus this winter. Oranges in salads with red onions, orange zest atop olives, meyer lemons roasted atop fish or chicken, in salad dressing. Why change a good thing now? Love it and so good. 

Citrus on everything!

Limes are a little more complicated – less juice, spicy zest and the flavour I find more subtle. I use it at the end of cooking like a coconut shrimp and then juice a lime over the dish just before serving. 

orange salad

Quick, last minute dinner

Some days I plan my meals ahead and shop properly. Other days, I do not and just fly with whatever I have in the fridge that fits in between my pickleball schedule. I was off to an afternoon game and hadn’t had lunch and was starving. I have been trying to be more cautious of food waste and spied 1/2 an eggplant just about completely dead and 1/2 a sweet potato in the fridge. Oh no. Time for the bin. Unless I just slice, toss  quickly in olive oil in a cast iron pan and roast in the oven at 400 for 15-20 minutes while I get dinner organized? Done. 

Marinades are a good solution for me as they make everything taste better generally, and as long as they are easy to whip together, I can let things meld away with flavour for the afternoon while I do something else like play pickle ball. 

I am terrible at measuring, it really take discipline for me to do it so this marinade is a free style attempt. However, I assure you – it’s hard to make a mistake with any one ingredient with this easy marinade. 

In a shallow bowl

Juice of 2 limes
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 orange
3 finely chopped green onions
1 tablespoon of honey
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce 
1/2 tsp kosher salt and several grindings of fresh pepper
1/4 cup of fresh herbs – hard to go wrong with either parsley, cilantro or mint
Optional: 1/2 tsp of dried chili flakes

Mix together. 

Lunch topping

I had a flank steak on hand that I was planning on marinating in this mixture but chicken thighs or breasts, shrimp, salmon or pork chops or tenderloin would all be great. By the time I finished the marinade and tidied up – my veggies were done. They looked a bit forlorn in the pan, not very tasty. I piled them up on a plate and tossed a couple of tablespoons of marinade on top. Of course, salt. So good! 

There was still lots of marinade for the steak. I tossed the steak in the shallow marinade dish and really massaged the marinade into the meat. I left it in the fridge for a couple of hour (could be overnight) and then let it come to room temperature again massaging the meat with the marinade. Grill on the bbq or saute in a pan for a few minutes a side. It’s nice because of the honey, the meat caramelizes at the end.  If you were making fish – I would put it in the oven at 400 for 15 minutes or again – on the grill works too. It was seriously good. So easy. Great for company too! 

Spring is coming!

With spring coming and asparagus season not far away, this marinade will be great atop grilled asparagus or green onions roasted in the oven or on the grill or roasted salmon. There are endless possibilities. 

Pottery by cupstudios.ca 

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