Traybake with Broccoli, Chickpeas & Cod
Everything on one sheet, straight from freezer to oven. Chickpeas get tossed in olive oil, paprika, and garlic while the cod and broccoli go in frozen. Twenty minutes later, feta crumbles over the top and dinner is done.
This plate quietly covers ground most recipe pages skip. 39 grams of protein split between cod and chickpeas, 14 grams of fiber from the chickpeas and broccoli, and a handful of ingredient interactions happening on the tray that are worth knowing about before you eat.
Everything on one sheet, straight from freezer to oven. Chickpeas get tossed in olive oil, paprika, and garlic while the cod and broccoli go in frozen. Twenty minutes later, feta crumbles over the top and dinner is done.
This plate quietly covers ground most recipe pages skip. 39 grams of protein split between cod and chickpeas, 14 grams of fiber from the chickpeas and broccoli, and a handful of ingredient interactions happening on the tray that are worth knowing about before you eat.
Ingredients
- cod fillet (frozen) 1
- chickpeas 126 g
- garlic 1 clove
- olive oil 1.5 tbsp
- paprika ground 2 tsp
- broccoli florets (frozen) 196 g
- feta cheese crumbled 42 g
Method
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Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C).
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Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then pat them dry with a paper towel.
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Add the chickpeas to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and minced garlic, and toss to coat evenly.
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Push the chickpeas to one side and add the frozen broccoli florets and cod fillet to the baking sheet.
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Drizzle the broccoli and cod with a little more olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
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Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cod is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.
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Remove from the oven, crumble feta cheese over the top, and serve immediately.
Sprinkle a pinch of mustard powder over the broccoli when the traybake comes out of the oven. Frozen broccoli has lost the enzyme it needs to produce sulforaphane, the compound that made broccoli famous as a health food. Mustard seeds carry their own version of that enzyme. In a trial of 12 adults, 1 gram of mustard powder on cooked broccoli restored sulforaphane production 4.7-fold.
The garlic roasting alongside those chickpeas is pulling double duty. Sulfur compounds in garlic chelate with iron in pulses, keeping it soluble during digestion instead of locked to phytates. Across multiple grain-and-legume pairings, garlic increased iron bioaccessibility by 9.9 to 73.3 percent.
British Journal of Nutrition · DOIWhy This Works
Behind this recipe
Why add mustard powder after cooking?
Frozen broccoli was blanched before freezing, which destroyed myrosinase, the enzyme that converts glucoraphanin into sulforaphane. Mustard seeds carry their own heat-stable version of that enzyme. Research found that 1 gram of mustard powder on cooked broccoli restored sulforaphane production 4.7-fold in 12 adults. Sprinkling it over the hot broccoli when the tray comes out gives the mustard enzyme time to work on the intact precursor.
Read the full evidence reviewIs frozen broccoli less healthy than fresh?
Not across the board. Frozen broccoli retains its vitamins, minerals, and fiber about as well as fresh, and often better than produce that sat in a store for days. The one exception is sulforaphane production. The blanching step before freezing destroys the enzyme needed to form it. Fresh broccoli still has that enzyme intact. For everything else, frozen holds up.
Read the full evidence reviewDoes the garlic help with iron from the chickpeas?
It does. Sulfur compounds in garlic form chelates with non-heme iron that stay soluble during digestion, counteracting the phytates in legumes that normally bind iron and reduce absorption. Lab studies found garlic increased iron bioaccessibility from pulses by 9.9 to 73.3 percent. In this recipe, the garlic roasts directly alongside the chickpeas on the same sheet.
Read the full evidence review
