Recipe Review: Cod with potatoes, peppers and saffron

I often make recipes from the Food Network magazine not because they sound like they’ll be delicious, but because they tend to be reasonably healthy and they don’t use a ton of ingredients. But every time I’m surprised by the results, which make me think that there is some America’s Test Kitchen-esque witchery going on at the magazine.

The recipes seem designed to coax maximum flavor from few ingredients, and I’ve never gotten a bad result.

I highly recommend the recipe above–it’s a healthy one-pot meal that comes together in less than hour and has a surprising depth of flavor.

NOTES: I think I might bump up the flavor in this even more by gently infusing the garlic and saffron into the oil at the very start.

Because there are so few ingredients in this, I would recommend using at least decent olive oil, saffron, pepper flakes, etc. I used homemade chicken broth, but if you don’t have it on hand, I wouldn’t worry. The (1/3 CUP!) of olive oil will add a lot of body and richness to the stew.

Speaking of stews, as this–essentially–a very simple seafood stew, I think it would benefit from the addition of, say, tomatoes and/fennel. So I will probably add those next time, though I would have to par-cook the fennel, because it takes so long to break down.

I cannot recommend this recipe strongly enough. I immediately texted it to my parents and in-laws, because it is just really good fuss-free cooking.