Tilapia with Chimichurri

Two fish posts in a row! Last night, I made broiled tilapia with a chimichurri sauce. For side dishes, I made roasted red potatoes with garlic and steamed broccoli with lemon. Aaron proclaimed this meal a “10 out of 10”!

Tilapia with Chimichurri Sauce

Recipe for Tilapia with Chimichurri (makes 2 servings):

What you need:

• 2 fresh tilapia fillets
• nonstick cooking spray
• olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 garlic cloves
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, or to taste
• salt and pepper

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a glass baking dish with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Brush both sides of the tilapia with a light coating of olive oil and season each side with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the smoked paprika on top of the fish. Put the fish in the oven to bake, about 20-30 minutes, until the fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, make the chimichurri. (This could be done in the food processor, but if you don’t mind a more rustic sauce, you can simply chop the ingredients together on the cutting board, as I did on this occassion.) Finely chop the parsley and garlic together. Add the lemon juice, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, red pepper flakes, and a little salt and pepper and mix well.
3. About 5 minutes before the fish is done, coat each tilapia fillet with 2 Tbsp. of the chimichurri.
4. When the fish is done, remove from the oven, serve, and enjoy!

This was a really successful recipe! Since I live in a small apartment and don’t have a grill, I added the smoked paprika for a nice smoky, grill-y flavor. The bright flavors of lemon and parsley work great with the light tilapia, and the red pepper flakes add just a little bit of kick.

Over dinner, I asked Aaron how much he might expect to pay for this meal at a restaurant, and without hesitating he said, “$18.95.” Pretty good, considering that this meal cost about $4.50 per serving to make at home.

According to nutritiondata.com, 100g of tilapia contains about 128 calories, 3g of fat, and just 1g of saturated fat. The parsley in the chimichurri is more than just tasty and pretty-looking. Two tablespoons of parsley contains about 16% of the recommended daily value of vitamin C and 12% of the daily value of vitamin A, says nutritiondata. Steamed broccoli with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice is one of my favorite side dishes – just 1/2 cup of cooked broccoli provides 84% the daily value of vitamin C, with only 27 calories.

Roasted red potatoes with garlic.

The oven-roasted red potatoes were delicious, crispy, and very filling. I mixed a little bit of the extra chimichurri in with them near the end of their cooking. Here is the recipe for the potatoes:

Recipe (makes about 2 servings):

What you need:

• 1 pound of small red potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled, whole
• olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. chimichurri (see tilapia recipe above)
• salt and pepper

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. (This dish can be cooked at the same time as the tilapia, which is what I did.) Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place the potatoes and garlic on the foil, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat the potatoes.
2. Bake the potatoes in the oven until fork tender and crispy on the outside. Remove from the oven and toss with the chimichurri.
3. Serve and enjoy!