a quick thursday night skillet dish

Last night I had planned to make roasted vegetables with couscous and goats cheese. But, as ever, things change – and therefore, so does dinner. First, I remembered I had no goats cheese. Secondly, and more crucially, I realised I just did not fancy couscous.

Mushrooms, red peppers and red onions sat patiently though, waiting for me to make something wonderful with them. Passing through Lower Marsh market in the afternoon, I quickly decided to pick up two potatoes to make a quick, easy and very pleasing skillet dish.

Potato, mushroom, red pepper and red onion skillet
(serves 2)

2 large potatoes (about 500 g), peeled and cubed
1 medium red onion, sliced
2 red peppers, deseeded and sliced
250 g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
Olive oil spray (about 40 sprays)
½ ball of reduced fat mozzarella, sliced
Creole seasoning or other all-purpose seasoning

Place the potatoes in a small pot covered with cold water and par-boil.

Meanwhile, add the onion, peppers and mushrooms to a hot pan with half of the olive oil spray. Use sprinkles of water to add moisture if necessary. The mushrooms and onions will sweat on their own, so there’s no need to add more oil. Cover and sauté for about 6-7 minutes

Once the potatoes are done, drain and add to another hot pan with the creole seasoning and the rest of the olive oil spray. Allow them to sauté on their own for about 5 minutes, and then add to the pepper-onion-mushroom mixture. Allow to sauté for a further minute.

Place the thin slices of mozzarella on top of the mixture and cover so that the cheese melts quickly. Use a spatula to dish it out into shallow pasta bowls. Serve immediately.

Calories per serving: 338 (which is quite low calorie really). The carbohydrate/fat/protein balance is about 65%/20%/15% though, so the dish will be quite filling.

An easy way to bulk this up for someone who’s in training – or just hungry – would be to add more potatoes. But these two even-sized servings were plenty for the two of us.

The mozzarella could be substituted by parmesan or cheddar; it just happened that mozzarella was all I had in the refrigerator.

These skillet-based dishes work well with most substitutions, though onions (and maybe potatoes) are the most crucial ingredients.

Play around with this idea: Experiment with a leek-new potato-soft goats cheese skillet in the spring. Or try a sweet potato-red onion-aubergine combination now that it’s autumn.