A little spring sunshine goes a long way to pique my appetite for seafood and vegetables. Maybe it’s the excitement around the growing bounty of colors, shapes, and textures that start to arrive at my local market week after week. Or maybe it’s the effect that warmer weather has on my taste buds, diversifying my cravings to something beyond comfort food. Freshness. Brightness. Tang. Whatever it is, the month of May triggers a truly Pavlovian response where the idea of pairing wild-caught fish with vegetables has me salivating.
There’s a new recipe for Salmon with Spring Green Risotto on the blog that has all the vegetal allure that my stomach desires — the risotto is bright green, made with a puree of spinach and peas that makes for a stunning presentation.
Or maybe fish escabeche is what's for dinner. It's a super simple seafood preparation that’s part vinegar brine, part delicious sauce, made from quick-pickled vegetables. This particular recipe for Pacific Halibut Steak Escabeche is made with an herby red pepper escabeche that’s colorful, crunchy, and perfectly sweet and sour. I actually don’t have any Pacific halibut steaks in the freezer right now, but it'll be perfect with pan-fried rockfish.
Another idea for fish and veg that really appeals to me right now is something that’s wide open to culinary interpretation, using an easy Cajun-Inspired Spice Blend as my only guide. I like that I have all of the spices in my pantry already, and that I can sprinkle my DIY cajun spice mix over any vegetable and any species of fish for a flavorful sheet pan meal.
For freestyle sheet pan meals, you’ll need to adapt the cooking times depending on the species and what type of vegetable you’re baking — wild salmon cooks much, much faster than potatoes. But from there you’ll have endless possibilities for meals: Cajun salmon with zucchini. Cajun rockfish with green beans. Cajun Pacific halibut with sweet potatoes. Mix and match to infinity. Check out our collection of WAC how-to cooking guides to dial in the cook times for different species of wild-caught fish.
For a health-forward take on fish and veggie pairings, there’s also a new blog post from WAC’s nutritionist contributor that discusses how the nutritional profile of certain vegetables and species of fish can complement each other. It’s a really interesting read that may inspire you to find your ideal pairing, from a scientific standpoint.
With that, I invite you to enjoy the dream-team of menu rotations — seafood and vegetables — during what very well may be the dreamiest of all of the seasons.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: A vibrant green, springtime-y bowl of risotto, topped with luscious flakes of pan-seared sockeye salmon.
