Big-batch recipe · Mediterranean
Sheet-pan salmon with chickpeas
4 portions, about 42 g of protein in each. 10 minutes of hands-on work and 32 min of cooking.
Where it sits in the week
What this one is for
On the mediterranean track this is a Wednesday cook — the shorter mid-week top-up, which covers Thursday to Saturday. Cooked once, portioned hot, and eaten across the days that session covers — on the seven-day plan it turns up at Wednesday dinner.
Two portions is about 84 g of protein — our own arithmetic on the figure above, not a separate measurement. Protein targets on this site are computed against goal weight or lean mass rather than scale weight, which is the whole of Real Fuel.
Part of the mediterranean meal plan, cooked in the two-session prep schedule.
What goes in
- 4 salmon fillets, 6 oz each
- 2 cans (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and dried
- 2 red peppers, 1 red onion, sliced
- 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 tsp smoked paprika, 2 tsp cumin
- 1 lemon, a bunch of dill
How
- Chickpeas, peppers and onion tossed in oil and spices, 425F for 20 minutes on their own first.
- Push them to the edges, salmon into the middle, back in for 10 to 12 minutes.
- The chickpeas should have split and crisped. That is the texture the dish is for.
- Lemon and dill at the end.
Keeping it: Fridge 3 days for the salmon — shorter than everything else here, and worth respecting. Eat it cold in a salad rather than reheating it.
Nothing on this page is medical advice. It is a plan written for general strength training in healthy adults, and any condition or medication you are managing outranks it.
Doing it cheaper
Swaps that apply to this one
From the mediterranean track's budget version, filtered to the ingredients this recipe actually uses.
| Instead of | Use | Why it is worth it |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh salmon | Tinned sardines, mackerel and frozen white fish | A fraction of the price, and the small oily fish carry more omega-3 per dollar than the fillet does. |
| Small bottles of olive oil | The three-litre tin | This plan uses a lot of oil. Buying it in a small bottle is the quiet way this track gets expensive. |
| Out-of-season tomatoes and peppers | Tinned tomatoes and frozen peppers | Better flavour for a stew than a pale winter tomato, at a third of the price. |
The prices behind these swaps, with sources, are in the protein-per-dollar table.
The rest of the mediterranean week
3 more big-batch recipes on this track, plus the seven-day plan they feed.