It’s been a while. I fell off this food blog hard, and honestly have not been cooking as much. But we’re so back (hopefully) and today’s post is a slight kitchen clean out with ingredients that I have been avoiding.
The frozen cod in my freezer, and potatoes and quinoa in my pantry are the victims here. I had many plans for them, many moons ago, except cooking has felt like such a chore that I don’t have energy for lately so they’ve been sitting unloved in the kitchen. The recipe that we’re using is ‘One Pan Roasted Fish Cherry Tomatoes‘ by Lidey Heuck via NYT cooking.
This was the top comment on the recipe, which felt perfect because I needed to use up at least one of the potatoes in my pantry. As much as I want to try recipes that use different ingredients, it’s only fair that I use up what I have first in an effort to eat what I buy and waste less.
Lets get to it! And yes, I forgot the tomatoes in the photo below because I always forget something.
Ingredients: (3-4 servings)
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup thinly sliced shallots (about 1 large)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 2 large cloves)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar (I thought I had this but didn’t, so used rice vinegar)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
- 4 (6-ounce) skin-on mild white fish fillets, such as cod or halibut
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (from about ½ lemon)
- Chopped fresh basil and mint, for serving (I only used basil)
- Added one thinly sliced potato
- Added quinoa cooked in veggie bullion on the side
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees. (Here I cut the potatoes and lightly fried them in the pan. Then I layered them in the pan as seen above).
- Place the tomatoes, shallots and garlic in a baking dish. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Pour over the tomatoes and toss to combine. Roast until the tomatoes have collapsed and the shallots are translucent, about 15 minutes.
- While the tomatoes roast, pat the fish dry with paper towels, brush all over with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Toss the tomatoes, move them to the sides of the dish and place the fish fillets, evenly spaced, in the center. Roast until the fish is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 12 minutes. (I started cooking about 1/4 cup quinoa at this time too)
- Sprinkle the entire dish with the lemon zest, basil and mint. Serve and enjoy!
Now excuse my small portion, I had a snack before dinner so I wasn’t hungry enough for a full plate. But this gave me two perfect portions for leftovers.
I honestly cannot get enough of tomatoes. This was wonderful, light and satisfying. I kinda undercooked the quinoa, which worked out because it added a nice crunch to the dish. The lemon zest and basil really made the tomato flavor stand out and the dish wasn’t fishy at all. The addition of the potatoes at the bottom of the pan was genius (thank you, Libby!), it soaked up the sauce and made the meal more hearty and filling. The potatoes didn’t come out crispy, so maybe I would fry them longer or maybe they just won’t come out that way which is okay because it still tasted great and the texture was still good.
I think this is one of those versatile recipes that can work with different types of fish, tomatoes, herbs, and vegetables. Perfect for summer, when tomatoes are in season and herbs are fresh from the garden. I can see this being a summer staple, especially if you have a grill – layer everything into tinfoil and toss onto the grill – sounds so good.
I would rate 4/5 – probably would be 5/5 if everything was in season, so I’ll have to try this again in a few months!
