The only thing I wish I would have added in this recipe is more tomatoes. When you read the recipe, add more potatoes or more tomatoes according to your own preference.

Why Eat Red Snapper?

• Super Nutritious
• Low Mercury Levels
• High in Omega 3’s
• High in Protein (23 grams per 4 ounces)
• Firm Flesh, makes it versatile for many different recipes
• Mild Tasting White Fish
• Easy to Prepare

The only con is price. Red snapper runs about $34 a pound, so this is a treat, but it can be well worth it to make it at home, rather than spend more than that in a restaurant.

Ways to Prepare Red Snapper

• Pan-Sear
• Poach
• Bake, Roast
• Add to Pasta with creamy sauce or butter and lemon

Process for Red Snapper Recipe

This recipe couldn’t be easier. I did boil my potatoes first because there is not much oven time. You will only need about 8 to 10 minutes in the oven, just enough time to warm through the tomatoes. The only thing I would change it to add more grape tomatoes, because they were so good with each bite of the fish.

8 minutes per half inch at 400

Here are some of my Red Snapper Dishes

• Roasted Snapper with Pistachio Pesto
• Whole Grilled Red Snapper

More Fish/Seafood Recipes

• Roasted Fish Tacos with Peach Salsa
• Tuscan Shrimp
• Salmon Kabobs
• Seared Scallops

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Roasted Red Snapper

Roasted Red Snapper with Potatoes and Grape Tomatoes in Olive OIl

Course Entree

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword red snapper

Ingredients

• 1 pound Red Snapper Filets
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 small golden yukon potatoes
• 12 grape tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• 1 tablespoons fresh dill or parsley
• 1 teaspoon capers

Instructions

• Boil potatoes in cold water until fork tender. Cool enough to be be able to slice. You can use any potato, but yukon gold slice easier without falling apart.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Drizzle olive oil bottom of dish. Add sliced potatoes. Place snapper on top of potatoes.
• Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over the fish, add capers, lemon juice, tomatoes, fresh dill or parsley. I prefer to cut the tomatoes in half before placing in dish.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.

The post Roasted Red Snapper with Potatoes and Tomatoes appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I’m so smitten with red snapper. It’s a good bite of white (not fishy) fish with a substantial texture. This is the kind of fish you might have imagined was passed around in those baskets with bread in the old testament. At least in my mind, I envision that taste and freshness.

It’s not a steak like swordfish. It’s not flimsy like Dover sole. It has just enough oomph to put a fork in and then make your own.

It’s hard to mess up red snapper unless you overcook or over-bake. It’s one of my all time favorite fish. If you can get a whole fish and grill like I did here, it’s amazing.

However, sometimes you just want an easy dinner.

This Baked snapper recipe is easy, tasty and loves sauces.

In this recipe, I turned to my favorite pistachio pesto and left it a little chunky for added texture. You can, of course, make it very smooth, by blending it more.

I love to bake it in the oven after searing the skin on top of the stove. You could just go straight to the oven, but I like to make that skin a little crispy and then turn it over and put in the oven for about 5 to 7 minutes. If you are making several filets,  I would skip the pan frying, and place the filets on a shallow baking pan that has been brushed with a little olive oil.

Baked Red snapper with a drizzle of olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper is magical. Today, however, I added my pistachio pesto and placed in on cauliflower rice with a little fresh fennel. You could serve with rice, mashed potatoes, or all by itself.

Admittedly, red snapper is pricey, but not any more so than halibut or scallops. This piece cost about $10, and I ate half for lunch and half for dinner, because it was loaded up with veggies.

Baked Red Snapper Recipe with Sautéed Cauliflower Rice and Fennel

I like fish with rice or cauliflower rice. Today I sautéed the cauliflower rice in butter with fresh fennel, salt, pepper. Once the fish and pesto were placed atop the cauliflower rice, it was the perfect bite.

I have quite a few pesto recipes here at Spinach Tiger. Pesto pairs well with fish, chicken, meatballs.

Mint Pistachio Pesto for Lamb Meatballs Here

Seven Herb Walnut Pesto, Recipe Here

Pistachio Pesto Recipe Here

More Fish Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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Baked Red Snapper Recipe

Red Snapper with Pistachio Pesto

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 Red Snapper Fillet about 3/4 pound
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or avocado oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup pistachio pesto recipe found here

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F
• Put enough oil in pan to cover the surface (about a tablespoon)
• Get the pan hot. A drop of water should sizzle.
• Put snapper in skin down. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Make sure the snapper loosens.
• Turn over. Place in oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

The post Baked Red Snapper Recipe with Pistachio Pesto appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I’m not sure why I’ve never grilled or roasted a whole fish before. Perhaps, because it seems so daunting, and unlike my neighbor, Susan, who brought the fish over for us to share, I didn’t grow up eating whole fish. Her Chinese father reveled in sucking each morsel of flesh off the the head of the fish and then ate the eyeballs. I’m so glad he taught her that, because she has passed this whole fish wonderment over to us. She came in hand with a near 3 pound fresh red snapper and I got on line to get some help. Who knew it would be so easy?

Outside of smelts for Christmas Eve, we ate our fish breaded and fried. However, we often ordered whole Dover Sole out in restaurants. They would show us the fish and then go back to the kitchen, filet it and return with delicious fish. The fish that was roasted whole always tasted so much better to me, as does any kind of meat cooked with bones. It’s the reason I very rarely purchase boneless chicken breasts, which lack flavor and I opt to always buy a whole chicken.

I’ve come to learn this week that fish is the same way. The bones add flavor and the skin keeps the moisture in. Another advantage to taking home a fish that is  staring back at you is a guarantee of freshness. Check for bright eyes and a moderate briny smell. If the eyes are not clear and bright and or the fish smells too fishy, don’t buy it. Ask your fish monger where the fish came from and when it was caught.

I purchased the red snapper at Whole Foods and everything was prepped, which included trimming the tail, removing the tail fin, pectoral fin,  pelvic fins, the dorsal fin, and the gills, and gutting and scaling it. They offer a method called unzipping, which removes the bones from the whole fish before you take it home. I don’t recommend that because as I’ve mentioned, the bones add flavor. They will also chop the head off for you, but, trust me, the cheeks of the fish has the most amazingly tender, succulent fish, that you would be a fool to do that.

The preparation for grilling or roasting a whole fish is quite easy, when the fish monger takes care of the yucky stuff.

I rubbed the fish with olive oil,  and seasoned with salt and pepper. I made 4  diagonal slits  about an inch and half apart, all the way to the bone on each side of the fish. Each slit and the cavity were stuffed with lemons, limes and various fresh herbs I picked from my garden.  You can find your own way with herbs and  spices, but if you have a beautiful fresh fish, don’t over do it. I set out a garden pesto to eat with the fish, but it was so deliciously perfumed from the fresh herbs and citrus, we didn’t dare add anything more to it.

I put it on the grill at 450 degrees and then turned down the heat to medium to keep that steady temperature.  I set the timer for 30 minutes and I never turned the fish over. You may be tempted to turn the fish, but it could fall apart.  When I took it to the table, I peeled each piece of skin away at the slit and fileted the fish. Remove the top layer of skin, and gently remove the pieces of fish sitting on the bones. Underneath those bones is a lot more fish. This 2. 6 pound fish was more than 4 people could eat. I served the fish with a salad of green beans, potatoes and fresh tomatoes, all prepared with a bit of olive oil and fresh herbs.

The fish was absolutely fantastic. The fish is meaty and mild and absorbed every bit of herb and citrus into the flesh. I have a rather high deck on a corner house and a neighbor walked by and remarked about how wonderful whatever I was making smelled. The aroma of the lemons, limes, basil, dill and thyme was sheer perfection.

There were four of us with good appetites and we still have fish left over. This fish is just a perfect size for four people, and something I know I will be grilling a whole fish again and again.

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Grilling a Whole Fish

Lemons, limes and fresh herbs are stuffed into a whole red snapper and grilled for a succulent fish dinner.

Course Entree

Cuisine African

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 whole red snapper scaled and gutted
• olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• fresh herbs such as basil thyme, parsley, dill
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Rub olive oil over fish. Make sure to oil the bottom of the fish.
• Make 4 slits all the way to the bone on each side of the fish
• Stuff the fish with slices of lemons, limes and fresh herbs.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Allow fish to sit out for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat the grill on high. Place fish on grill.
• Turn grill down. Cook for 25-30 minutes.

Oven Roasting Method

• If using an oven, bake on baking sheet (preferably with parchment paper) at 425 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Do not turn over.

Filet Fish

• Peel skin back. Using spoon and knife, remove the fish off of the bones. The bones will lift off in one piece. There will be a few bones you will miss. Be aware of that.

A video for deboning red snapper.

The post Grilling a Whole Fish appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Healthy Fish and Sweet Potato Grits

Healthy is a loose term to be sure.   In Southern circles grits aren’t grits if they don’t have a big hunk of butter and cheese.  Healthy to some people means to cut out all the fat, going from 60 to 0 and maybe even cutting out the salt.

In Spinach Tiger circles healthy is good old fashioned food, fresh ingredients, and nutrition sensibility. It doesn’t mean low calorie; it means lower calorie, which in today’s world of overeating, equates to the right amount of calories to sustain a reasonable weight, kicking out the extremes of feast and famine mentality.

It also means not using artificial ingredients and chemicals which abound in many “diet” foods.

My inspiration for this dish comes from the Southern Oyster & Steak Restaurant  I posted about here.  When I love a dish, I try to figure it out, and  make it more suitable for home cooking and everyday eating.

Restaurants tend to put a lot more fat into food than we would at home. Where they use a stick of butter, I’ll use a tablespoon, opting for the trimmer, lighter fare that I can control, but I wouldn’t dream of using margarine or butter substitutes or trying to make food that has no fat.

No fat, no flavor, and deprivation leads to overeating.

It starts with these sweet potato grits.

This is the lighter, scaled down version of Southern comfort food, the kind of dish that you can work out hard for an hour and come home to, and feel like you are eating real food that satisfies and nourishes.

I used red snapper as my fish of choice, but you could use whatever you want. Halibut was in the original inspired dish, but tilapia or even flounder would work as well.

The key is to slim down the grits, add in the sweet potatoes  which are a filling, yet good complex carbohydrate and top with a buttery fish that wasn’t cooked in butter, but flavored with high impact.

I didn’t use any tasso or sausage in this version, but I’m sure there will come a day when I will make a dinner party version, pumped up with  the traditional fat trinity, pork, butter and cream. In the meantime, enjoy a balanced, lighter, taste of the South.

You might also like these Fish Dishes

Red Snapper with Pistacho Pesto

Sword Fish Agridolce

Salmon with Shoe String Sweet Potatoes

Sole Meuniere

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Healthy Fish and Sweet Potato Grits

A slimmed down version of a Southern Classic, made with red snapper and sweet potato grits.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 3

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 pound red snapper (or any milk white fish) boned with skin on, cut into 4 serving pieces.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil coconut oil or avocado oil
• 1 tablespoon cajun spice such as Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Red Cabbage Slaw

• 2 cups sliced red cabbage
• 1 onion sliced
• salt and pepper
• Sweet Potato Grits Recipe Here
• 3 tablespoons grated cheddar or gouda cheese optional.

Instructions

• Make Sweet Potato Grits Recipe Here
• Add gouda cheese as option during cooking time to grits.

Fish

• Heat heavy bottom frying pan with olive oil or coconut oil.
• Rub fish on both sides with cajun spices
• Heat pan to medium heat. Place fish in hot pan.
• Cook for 2-4 minutes skin side down, until skin is crispy and fish easily moves. Turn over, cook for 2-4 more minutes.

Red Cabbage Slaw

• In another pan, saute onion and cabbage until wilted about 6 minutes.
• Add in salt and pepper to cabbage.
• Arrange fish on top of grits garnished with red cabbage.

Serve the snapper over these sweet potato grits.

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