Oven Baked Sole With Chickpeas

One of the facets of Greek cooking that I love is that it's so versatile. It touches upon vegetables, fruits, poultry, meats and mince, seafood, legumes, grains and pasta.

Greek food relies on herbs to flavour dishes, and an array of spices. Greek food can be complex and it can be easy.

This fish dish is a perfect of example of quality ingredients, prepared simply to highlight the freshness and to maximize flavour.

Today, I'm giving you more tastes of the Aegean, in particular the Cycladic islands of Syros and Sifnos. Syros is an island I've visited in previous travels to Greece and Sifnos was most recently visited this past summer.

This recipe for baked sole comes from Syros and the feature fish is sole, seasoned and baked simply with olive oil, lemon juice, Capers and dill.

The side dish highlights Sifnos' beloved use of chickpeas and here, I've baked them with bay, onions, garlic and cherry tomatoes.

This combo makes a perfect weeknight dish as the ingredients are readily available at the market.

The prep is quick, both main and side dish can be thrown in the oven.
Go change into something more comfortable, open the mail, open a bottle of wine and set the table.

Now your oven baked sole with chick peas is ready to be served. Don't hesitate to break some crusty bread and mop-up the olive oil and sauce in your plate.

Oven Baked Sole
(serves 4)

4 fillets of sole
1/2 cup olive oil
4 Tbsp. of capers, drained
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper

Baked Chickpeas
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1/3 cup water
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heated 375F oven

1. Rinse and pat-dry your fillets. Thirty minutes before baking, season the fillets with salt and let them sit.
2. For the Baked Chickpeas, in a baking vessel, add all the chickpeas ingredients together and toss well. Place in the oven and they should take about 1 hour and be ready when you fillets of sole are also done.
   
3. Place your fillets on an oiled baking sheet, pour the oil, lemon juice, dill and capers over the fillets. Bake for 30 minutes and serve warm with a lemon wedge.

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