Fry

Mediterranean inspired fish tacos

February  9, 2011
4.5
2 Ratings
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

I've had grilled white fish with a lemon-olive salsa before (from Sunday Suppers at Lucques), and thinking about it I realized, well if there's salsa, why not turn it into a taco?! We had the results for dinner last night, and I have to say, I expected them to be good, but they were even more delicious than I had anticipated! They're amazingly fresh and summery feeling, even though they use seasonal ingredients. And, even though they have a long ingredient list, they come together very quickly. —fiveandspice

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion
  • 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, divided
  • 3 teaspoons honey, divided
  • 2 meyer lemons
  • 1/2 cup pitted green olives (of your favorite variety), chopped
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 2 cups shredded red cabbage
  • 2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
  • sea salt
  • 1 1/2 - 2 pounds tilapia or flounder fillets (or any other white fish that you can find wild/locally caught)
  • 2 teaspoons hot paprika
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • plain yogurt, for serving
  • 8 flour tortillas, for serving
Directions
  1. First make the lemon-olive salsa. Stir together the red onion with 2 Tbs. sherry vinegar. Let this sit while you chop the lemons. Remove the ends from each of the meyer lemons, then dice them into small cubes (about 1/8 inch), peel and all. Do remove the seeds, though. When this is finished, whisk 2 tsp. honey and a pinch of salt into the onions. Next whisk in about 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir in the diced meyer lemons, the chopped olives, and the cilantro, and set aside.
  2. Trim the fennel bulb and thinly slice it. Whisk together 2 Tbs. olive oil, 1 Tbs. sherry vinegar, 1 tsp. honey, 2 tsp. mustard, and 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper. In a large bowl toss the shredded cabbage and the sliced fennel with this dressing. Set aside.
  3. Rub one side of your fish fillets with the hot paprika and thyme and sprinkle them with some salt and fresh ground pepper. Let them sit 5 minutes. Then, heat about 1-2 Tbs. olive oil in a large frying pan until it is nearly smoking. Add the fish, spiced side down, and fry until just cooked through and flaky.
  4. Assemble the tacos by filling a tortilla with a couple chunks of fish, a scoop of the cabbage-fennel slaw and a scoop of lemon-olive salsa. Top with a dollop of plain yogurt (and if you happen to have an avocado around, a few slices on a taco go quite nicely). Enjoy!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • ifjuly
    ifjuly
  • nannydeb
    nannydeb
  • fuhsi
    fuhsi
  • fiveandspice
    fiveandspice

9 Reviews

ifjuly June 9, 2019
Outstanding and agreed, perfect summery dinner. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliant idea! I worried about whether we'd like the salsa since I've never encountered anything like it before but it's divine; we promptly ran out of it topping our tacos, yum!
And I like that as you point out it comes together surprisingly quickly--I threw together the salsa and slaw in the morning and then when it was time for dinner seasoned and cooked the seafood et voila, dinner ready in less than 15 minutes. Definitely going into regular summer rotation.
 
nannydeb January 16, 2012
This is on the menu for dinner tonight!
 
fiveandspice January 16, 2012
Oh that's great! I'd love to hear what you think of it!
 
nannydeb January 17, 2012
I made this last night for dinner and it was delicious! I almost didn't put in the whole lemon thinking it was going to be too much, but it was perfect! We loved the olives and sherry vinegar too. Great recipe, thanks!
 
fiveandspice January 18, 2012
I'm so glad you guys enjoyed them!!! Thanks so much for letting me know!
 
fuhsi January 1, 2012
We've tried this recipe twice and it's unbelievably delicious, so much so it's going on the roster.
We use the full quantity of ingredients to 1 pound of fish because we are vegetable hogs.
Have never made fish tacos but are fussy about eating environmentally-friendly and safe fish and needed to do something with that tilapia in the freezer. Thanks fiveandspice!
 
fiveandspice January 2, 2012
Love it! I frequently find myself needing something to do with "that tilapia in the freezer" too! :) I'm so glad you like these. It's actually one of my favorite recipes, nice and refreshing in the middle of winter.
 
lizb February 24, 2011
Super good fish tacos! I LOVE fish tacos but find I make them the same boring way every time. My mouth watered as soon as I read the recipe, but I hardly finished a couple of tacos before my husband ate the rest. Just means I'll be making them again soon.
 
fiveandspice February 24, 2011
So happy you enjoyed them! My husband kind of hogged them in our house too :). But tacos are on the menu again for tomorrow...