Wild salmon is your dream protein when you’re looking for low carb, keto-friendly recipes. It’s an oily, nutrient-rich fish loaded with anti-inflammatory omega-3s, making it easy to integrate into a keto diet where you’re limiting your intake of carbohydrates and replacing many of those calories with healthy fats.
What is the keto diet?
A ketogenic diet is high in fat and very low in carbs, a balance of macronutrients that is a dramatic departure from the dietary recommendations of the FDA. When you’re following a keto diet, you’re getting most of your calories from dietary fats — think grass-fed butters, plant-based oils, and a variety of yummy oily fish — rather than from carbohydrates to power you through your day. The upside of upping your fat intake? Weight management and brain health.
When you’re not consuming as many carbs, your blood sugar levels stay low. And without sugar to fuel your body, your body shifts into a metabolic state called ketosis. This is when the magic happens: Your body begins to burn fat as its main energy source, facilitating fat loss. Equally important, ketosis floods your brain with ketones (a byproduct of fatty acids), chemicals that may stave off or even be used to treat neurodegeneration, according to a growing body of research.
What are the benefits of the keto diet?
A keto-based fish diet, in particular, can be an incredibly healthy way to enjoy the benefits of ketosis.
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Lots of variety: A low carb seafood diet, packed with a delicious mix of wild-caught fish, offers a wide range of culinary possibilities for anyone following a ketogenic diet. Lean varieties of fish like Pacific cod and Pacific halibut, as well as oily fish like wild salmon, can be paired up with healthy fats so that it’s easy to hit your target fat intake.
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It’s adaptable: Another benefit of the keto fish diet is that it can easily be adapted to fit gluten-free, pescatarian, and Whole30 approaches to a keto meal plan.
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Versatile: Fish is quick and easy to prepare using a variety of cooking methods, and can take on the flavors of any of your favorite cuisines.
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It’s nutrient-rich: Keto guidelines can lead to nutrient deficiencies when you aren’t integrating high-quality fats, proteins, and net carbs into your diet. Net carbs are the proportion of total carbohydrates (which includes fiber, sugar alcohols, and sugar) in food that get converted to glucose; glucose is what keto diets are designed to limit. Wild-caught fish from Alaska is one-two punch of fat and protein, as it contains essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, giving you the best bang for your kcals.
Top 10 Keto Fish Recipes
Here are some of our favorite low carb fish recipes to keep you on track with your nutrition and macros.
1. Wild Salmon Keto with Miso Butter
For the most basic of basic keto fish recipes, all you need to do is add butter. Our quick and easy recipe for keto salmon smothers a crispy pan-fried fillet of sockeye, and a heaping plate of broccoli, with umami-rich miso butter for a seriously savory meal.
2. Keto Stuffed Peppers with Salmon
Meaty, wild-caught sockeye salmon is a great protein to use for stuffed peppers, transforming this classic, comforting dish into one of your new favorite low carb fish recipes. Our version of stuffed peppers bakes a spiced mixture of ground salmon and cauliflower rice together into the perfect keto package.
3. Keto Pacific Halibut Skewers with Tzatziki
Our recipe for Pacific halibut skewers is marinated in a Mediterranean-inspired keto marinade that adds moisture and flavor this mild fish. Keto-friendly veggies, like zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers, add color and nutrients to the meal. You'll want to serve everything alongside a generous bowl of homemade tzatziki, made from whole-fat yogurt, cucumbers, and herbs.
4. One Pan Pacific Cod with Lemony Zucchini Noodles
Zucchini noodles are the star of this low-carb fish recipe. Dressed in a simple lemon-butter sauce, the zucchini noodles are a fresh backdrop for seared Pacific cod. One of the best parts about this dish? It's a one-pan recipe that's easy to make and even easier to clean up.
5. Keto Poached Salmon in Coconut-Lemongrass Sauce
For a full-on Alaska-meets-tropics meal, try our recipe for wild salmon poached in a bath of fish stock and coconut milk, infused with the heady aromatics of ginger, garlic, lemongrass, and lime zest. Spoon this over any low-carb veggie that can soak up all the goodness in the sauce — try roasted eggplant, sauteed zucchini, or even a bowl of coconut rice.
6. Crispy Seared Salmon with Creamy Cauliflower Mash
This keto salmon recipe is all about texture: crispy-seared salmon skin and a meaty fillet, served over a bowl of creamy cauliflower mash. It's perfect for when you're in a meat-and-potatoes type of mood but keeping things low-carb.
7. Cantonese Steamed Pacific Cod with Ginger and Scallions
Fresh, fragrant, and full of flavor, this Cantonese-style steamed white fish recipe only needs a few ingredients: scallions, ginger, soy sauce, and plenty of sizzling hot oil to pour over the fish right before serving. It's a deceptively plain combination of ingredients that, with a little heat, brings mild Pacific cod to life.
8. Andrea's Lemon-Herb Compound Butter
To add an effortless flourish to any keto seafood recipe, make a batch of this lemon-herb compound butter to stash in your freezer. This flavorful compound butter can be used to top any fillet of fish before it goes into the oven, melted on to just before serving, or whisked into a sauce to pour over everything on your plate.
9. Pan-Fried Pacific Halibut with Tapenade and Greek Salad
This Mediterranean-inspired keto recipe for seared Pacific halibut enhances a lean, high-protein fillet of white fish with healthy fats from olives and olive oil.
10. Sweet and Spicy Keto Salmon Cakes
Our recipe for wild salmon cakes can easily be adapted as a keto seafood meal. Just skip the sweet chili sauce and opt for a homemade peanut sauce. And if you’re super strict about having absolutely no added sugar in your diet, just leave out or replace the teaspoon of sugar that is listed in the ingredients; it’s not an integral component of the recipe, though it does balance the flavor profile.
What side dishes go well with no-carb fish dishes?
Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower is the jack-of-all-trades for keto diets. It’s a cruciferous powerhouse that can be sliced, diced — and perhaps more notably, riced.
Cauliflower rice can be a game changer, as following a keto seafood diet can sometimes feel like an endless rotation of fish fillets served next to sides of veggies. Mixing cauliflower rice into your meals can help you transform those veggie-fish combos into “rice” bowls, stir-fries, and pilafs.
Cabbage Slaws
Cabbage is a humble superfood that should get plenty of mileage in keto meal plans.
Cabbage slaws are an exceptionally versatile way to enjoy this cruciferous veggie. Pile a light and vibrant slaw into a bowl and top it with halibut fish cakes and a squeeze of lemon juice. Tuck a zesty lemon garlic slaw into a collard wrap with your favorite keto shrimp recipe (but sub in wild-caught spot prawns to keep things sustainable)! Jamie Oliver’s fiery take on slaw turns it into a quick kimchi to spice up your favorite salmon recipe. As long as you shred it up nice, cabbage will take on any flavor profile you throw at it.
Roasted or Baked Veggies
Roasting or baking low-carb veggies is an effortless way to integrate plenty of keto-friendly produce into your diet so that you’re getting nutrients from a diverse array of foods.
Roasting veggies at higher temperatures allows them to develop complex flavors and crusty textures. All you need is a drizzle of olive oil to get things going, maybe a light dusting of garlic powder to bring out the savory undertones of whatever you’re cooking, and a sprinkle of paprika to enhance browning. The heat and the veg do the rest of the work for you. Ina Garten’s recipe for roasted winter veggies is a solid how-to. For a different play on texture, try baking veggies with low-carb, gluten-free topping. For example, you can make zucchini “fries” by coating sliced zucchini in almond flour breadcrumbs or grated parmesan, as in this recipe from Downshiftology.
Sauteed Mushrooms
Mushrooms pack in so much flavor and contain a broad mix of vitamins and minerals, despite being so low in calories and carbs.
To soak up grass-fed butter (or ghee!) in style, toss mushrooms into a saute pan with plenty of it and let the fat do its magic. The mushrooms will sweat out their moisture and take on a meatier texture as they cook down and caramelize. From there, you don’t need to do much more than spoon them over a seared fillet for an umami bomb of a meal. Spend with Pennies’s recipe has a few good tips for perfecting sauteed mushrooms.
Low-Carb Bread
Bread made from a mix of low-carb flours (almond flour or coconut flour are popular options) let’s you enjoy the experience of bread — meaning, you can enjoy sandwiches, meals with dinner rolls that can be dipped into soups, etc. — without any of the carbs. You can typically find keto bread options at the store, but these breads are also easy to bake at home, since they don’t require the addition of yeast. Well Plated’s recipe for low-carb bread take only 10 minutes to prep, and is done within the hour.
Keto Seafood Recipes Prep Time Suggestions
Because you’re not falling back on easily accessible carbs like bread, rice, or pasta to fill out a meal or accompany a main course, you might find that the total time you spend in the kitchen has increased. For some folks, the extra time and effort it takes to cook this way can make it a challenge to stick to a keto diet.
One way to relieve this burden is to change the way you approach cooking. Try meal prepping so that you can build an easy keto meal plan that includes lots of good quality, satisfying ingredients to enjoy throughout the week. Meal prepping will also help you to be more efficient in the kitchen, streamlining prep, cook, and clean up and saving you lots of time. Many of the free recipes that we’ve included in this post can easily be meal prepped. When adapting any of the recipes to prep in advance, keep in mind that cooked seafood and other proteins last about four days when stored in the refrigerator. Simply plan to prep four days of meals.
The Best Seafood for Your Fish Diet
To keep your kitchen stocked with nutrient-rich, keto-friendly protein, become a member of Wild Alaskan Company. As a member of Wild Alaskan Company, you’ll receive a box packed with high-quality, wild-caught seafood each month, making it easy to enjoy a keto diet. Learn more about how a Wild Alaskan Company membership works by visiting our homepage.
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