Take advantage of summer’s bounty — the endless variety of ripe veggies that burst into life under the heat of the sun, the fresh herbs that flourish during the long days — to make wild-caught cod one of your go-to proteins this season. For a mild fish like cod, these flavorful accoutrements help to transform any recipe from meh to amazing and will keep cod in your rotation through fall.
Here are some of our favorite summer-inspired cod recipes we can’t wait to make:
Teriyaki Cod with Cold Cucumber Salad
Broiled cod, marinated in a homemade teriyaki glaze from Food & Wine Magazine — turns your fillet of fish into a sweet and savory umami bomb. A cold side of quick-pickled sweet and sour cucumber salad is the perfect complement, helping you to enjoy a hot dish in the summer without having to break too much of a sweat.
Pan-Seared Cod with Cilantro Vinaigrette and Creamed Corn
A zesty cilantro vinaigrette balances out the richness of freshly-shucked creamed corn from this Food Network recipe — and with all that summer flavor going on, all you need to finish the dish is the bare simplicity of a perfectly cooked fillet of cod, pan-seared in butter. If you’re not into using all that cream, you can definitely swap it out with a cashew- or coconut-based cream instead.
Cod and Tomatillo Posole
Posole gets a seasonal spin with this tomatillo-based recipe from Bon Appetit, flavored with cilantro and fresh chiles. The most notable twist, of course, is that the dish is centered around a flaky fillet of cod rather than pork. Altogether, these ingredients make for a lighter, brighter posole perfect for when your summer night is bringing you a cool breeze.
Crusty, Briny Sicilian Cod Bake
Serious Eats’ recipe for a Sicilian-inspired baked cod uses a liberal amount of summer herbs — mint, basil, parsley — to create a oreganata-style dish fit for a seaside escape. The recipe isn’t difficult to make, but it does take a few steps; notably, you’ll be making your own seasoned breadcrumbs, flavored with salty anchovy paste, to create the layer that will top the final dish in a golden crust. Garnish with cured black olives to add an extra briny pop.
Herb-Marinated Cod with Sweet Sauteed Peppers
Another dish inspired with Mediterranean flavors, this recipe from Minimalist Baker will have you buying up all the sweet peppers you can find, in every color of the rainbow, to make this cod bake a tasty reality. You’ll be sauteeing the peppers first with a couple of ripe tomatoes, then topping seared fillets of herb-marinated cod — whatever herbs are in abundance — before baking everything together in the oven.
Pesto-Crusted Cod with Tomato-Lentil Salad
When loads of basil begin to fill up your garden or your local markets, you’ll want to grab as much as you can get your hands on to make pesto for days.
Once your pesto is ready to go, this dish from BBC Good Food is a cinch to make. You’ll simply coat the fillets in pesto to create an herbaceous crust, serving them alongside a warm lentil and tomato salad. As the recipe uses UK measurements, you’ll just need to make a few minor conversions.
Mexican-Inspired Cod Bake with Pumpkin Seed Salsa
The first dish in this roundup of fish recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi is a Mexican-inspired cod bake. Fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers, plus the spice from a hot chili, form the base of a salsa that you’ll use to marinate cod fillets. Meanwhile, you’ll be making a garlicky spiced rice before baking the cod, topping off everything with a handful of cilantro and fresh lime.
