This is a colorful seafood dish that can be thrown together quickly, yet has great color and flavor. The most laborious part of this is chopping the tomatoes, onions, and garlic – and you could even use canned chopped tomatoes and their liquid to save even more time. The rest is layering.
I have to admit that tilapia is not my preferred seafood, simply because it is so mild. I like my seafood to taste like seafood. But, variety is good, so I pick some up every once in a while. I countered the mildness of this tilapia by adding spices and capers to give it some flavor.
A note about the liquid – you can use 1 or 2 cups, depending on how liquid you prefer the finished dish to be. My family likes to have some liquid to spoon over the rice or other grain side dish, so I used 2 cups. If you like a drier dish, you can reduce the stock to 1 cup.
Tilapia on a Bed of Spinach, Topped with Tomatoes, Capers, Onions, & Garlic
4 tilapia fillets
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tablespoons capers, drained of brine
8 ounces spinach,whole or roughly chopped
½ – 1 teaspoon paprika
½ – 1 teaspoon turmeric
½ – 1 teaspoon cumin
2 Tablespoons cooking oil of your choice (extra virgin olive oil, canola, etc), separated
1 -2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (I used 2 because my family likes a lot of liquid to spoon over sauce)
lemon wedges for serving
Preheat oven to 425.
Place 8 oz fresh spinach in a baking dish.
Pour stock over spinach.
Season tilapia – Mix and slather on 4 tilapia fillets – teaspoon paprika, cumin, turmeric, salt & pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil..
Put fish on spinach.
Make topping – In bowl – put 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 small chopped onion, 4-6 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons drained capers, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice).
Mix and spread over fish.
Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes or till it flakes easily with fork.
Uncover and broil for a couple of minutes for some color. Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing on fish when serving.
Goes well with any of the following:
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