Sweet gochujang salmon

If you meal prep, you probably already have 69% of the ingredients to make this dish.

The difference between you and professional chefs?

Chefs use the ingredients you forgot about in your fridge or pantry, like:

• Tart jarred pickles

• Sweet maple syrup

• Spicy dijon mustard

• Rich extra virgin olive oil

• Pungent Vietnamese fish sauce

To create the mouthwatering sauces, aromatic marinades, and sweet/spicy glazes you crave at restaurants.

The fitness meal prep crowd?

They play it safe.

Ask most personal trainers how they "jazz up" their meal prep, and they'll sing praises of:

• Reduced-fat ranch

• Frank's Red Hot sauce

• Bottled red curry sauce

• Lite balsamic vinaigrette

Sure, those are sauces.

In the same way that pugs are dogs.

[Sigh]

Look, if you enjoy these items, eat them.

All I'm saying is if you're busting your ass in the gym, you deserve to eat better at home than the average Guantanamo inmate.

Where to start?

Use the same flavorful staple ingredients that chefs use.

In the right quantities, using the classic flavor combos, a quick sauce makes your meal prep come alive with REAL ingredients...

Not a jar full of preservatives that nobody can pronounce.

Today in the Science-Integrated Meal Prep Lab, I'm sharing my method to create this 41g protein entreé using several ingredients you already have on hand.

Let's dive in:

Do sauces belong in healthy meal prep?

You bet they do.

Whether it's in the form of a meat marinade, a glaze, a vinaigrette, or a dip, sauces always enhance the flavors of a meal.

Adding a sauce is the easiest way to fire up your tired, disappointed taste buds.

It can even rescue a bland dish that you weren't looking forward to eating.

But won't it add extra calories to the dish?

Yes, it will.

But calories come in many forms.

They're in sauces, but they're also in your meats, your fish, your potatoes, squash, quinoa, and peppers.

Conveniently, you can adjust the portion size of your sauces just like the portion size of your protein or vegetable component.

But doesn't sauce just equal extra fat?

It could, depending on the type of sauce.

Cream sauces like Alfredo and oil-based sauces like vinaigrette and aioli add a significant amount of fat to the dish.

But that doesn't mean you have to rule them out of your meal prep rotation.

It just means be aware of the calories, and base your portion size around what's appropriate for your body's needs.

Light sauces for meal prep

Some of the tastiest sauces are heavy on flavor, but surprisingly light in calories.

They take advantage of the elements of taste, combining them to bring a harmonious balance of flavors.

The four elements that I use over and over are:

• sweet

• salty

• sour

• rich

Sweet

It's not just for dessert; there's sweet elements in many healthy foods.

With a light touch, you can turn carrots peppers, tomatoes, and onions into the base of a sauce simply by cooking and pureeing them.

But a simpler way to sweeten a dish is by adding a natural sweetener.

In small amounts, I like to sweeten dishes with ingredients like:

• agave syrup

• brown sugar

• maple syrup

Salty

Naturally salty ingredients in cans, bottles and jars are more interesting to cook with than salt itself.

A salty main ingredient steals the show when it's balances out with acidic, rich complementary ingredients in a sauce.

I incorporate these salty ingredients into sauces all the time:

• parmesan cheese

• capers

• anchovies

• soy sauce

• Vietnamese fish sauce

• miso paste

Sour

Sour flavors have the natural effect of making your mouth water, while stimulating your appetite.

Mexican cuisine makes the best use of this element, and that's why you often see sliced citrus served with Mexican food or even Mexican beer.

When I taste a dish that's too rich, sweet, or salty, I often add things like:

• lemon juice

• lime juice

• red or white wine

• rice vinegar

Rich

Fats and oils have their place in cooking.

But in healthy meal prep we try to get the most flavor into our dishes without using a lot of them.

These 5 are some of the best:

• extra virgin olive oil

• coconut milk

• grass-fed butter

• avocado oil

• beef tallow (for frying)

How to use sauces in meal prep

When you meal prep, you're not just cooking for today, you're setting yourself up for the next few days.

And since food textures and flavors change with time, your dish may look and taste different tomorrow compared to today.

Since the moisture in a sauce gets absorbed by pasta, rice and potatoes, I often include leaner sauces in small portion cups alongside the main dish.

After the dish is reheated, these leaner sauces are often best drizzled on top of the hot dish.

For richer sauces, the dish tastes great as these sauces are absorbed by the other ingredients when it's originally plated.

This week's dish uses a richer type of sauce.

Sweet gochujang salmon with crispy rice and bok choy

With only 11 ingredients, you may already have many of the components on hand for this beginner-friendly recipe, including leftover steamed rice.

Start by searing the salmon fillets until the skin is crispy. I lightly press the fillets down with a fish spatula so the skin gets evenly crisped.

Remove the fillets and add a bit more oil to the pan. Carefully press the rice onto the pan in an even layer, like a rice pancake.

When it's browned on the bottom, remove from the heat, place a sheet pan on top, and invert the rice pan so the rice falls on the sheet pan, crispy-side up.

Brown some chopped garlic in the same pan, and place the bok choy in the pan and steam it, covered, with mirin wine until al dente.

I finish this dish off with a rich, spicy glaze flavored with maple syrup, grass-fed butter, and rice wine vinegar...

Plus a delightful Korean condiment that gives it a sweet kick and brings the whole dish together.

I'll tell you everything you need to know about it in the next live virtual cooking class, where I'll break down each step live.

Here's your invitation:

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