It’s the 5th week of Lent, who is sick of fish yet? I’m not! Even during the rest of the year when I am allowed to eat meat on whatever day I please, I make this fish honestly about once a week, sometimes more. I eat this so often for 3 reasons: 1) it is so incredibly easy, 2) it’s fast, under 30 minutes, and 3) it’s healthy, that’s what I call a win-win-and WIN! Another reason I make it so often is because I am usually really lazy on work nights and it’s so easy you could make it in your sleep.
You can use whatever fish filet you want, I have made this before with cod and walleye. I’ve started using tilapia because it’s super cheap when you buy it frozen, and because I am a creature of habit. I’m not a super big fan of the fishy taste of fish, even with a white fish like tilapia you can still taste some fishyness, but the great thing about this recipe is the the lemon juice and seasonings give it a zesty flavor that completely masks any fish taste. You end up with a light healthy fish filet.
One more reason why I make this so often is because I almost always have everything laying around (in the spice rack and freezer). Here’s what you need:
Preheat the oven to 425. Spray the bottom of a glass baking dish with cooking spray (this probably isn’t necessary but I do it anyway). Put your filet in the dish, squeeze the ½ lemon over the filet, sprinkle with lemon peel, pepper, garlic salt, and red pepper flakes (probably about ½ teaspoon each-depending on your preference). You could also use lemon pepper and red pepper flakes instead of the lemon peel, pepper, and garlic. Sometimes when I make this, I make roasted asparagus or broccoli too, in that case I’ll make a tin foil tent package for the filet instead of the glass dish, that way you can set that on the baking sheet with the veggies and only dirty one dish.
This time I decided to layer some lemon slices on top, I’m not really sure why, just to look fancy?
Cover. When the oven is preheated, put the baking dish in, set the timer for 20 minutes (you might need 25 minutes if your filet is thicker, ~1/2 in thick, I don’t have an exact science for this).
The fish is done when it easily flakes with a fork. This is something I learned from my dad, when we would make fresh walleye from the lake 🙂 If you try and pick up the filet with a fork-it should fall apart. If that doesn’t happen, or the filet hasn’t turned white-stick it back in for about 5 minutes until it flakes when you stick a fork in the thickest part and turn the fork a little.
To stick with the healthy, easy theme, I usually serve this along side some green beans and brown rice.
The steam-in-the-bag green beans are perfect because they are ready in 3 minutes, and the microwave pouches of rice are ready in 90 seconds. So. easy. Lately I’ve been cooking rice in my rice cooker, which I received as a gift from my very thoughtful friend Macks. The rice cooker conveniently takes about 25 minutes, so if you start the rice when you start the fish, it should be done around the same time.
- 1-2 frozen tilapia filets, thawed (or any white fish you'd like) per person
- Juice from ½ lemon
- ½ teaspoon lemon peel
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Preheat the oven to 425
- Place the filet into a glass baking dish, squeeze the lemon juice over the filet
- Sprinkle the seasonings on the filet
- Cover and bake for 20 minutes
- The fish is done when it turns white and flakes easily with a fork
[…] 7. Lemon and Red Pepper Baked Tilapia […]