Fish Tacos with Citrus Slaw and Glazed Sweet Potato
Do you ever time out for dinner? It’s what happened to me last night. I got home late and with Scarlett’s ever increasing list of homework as well as her shower and bedtime pressing down on me, I was under the gun to get dinner on the table in 20 minutes. If not, the whole night would be a disaster. And by a disaster I mean me hitting my limit and having a mental meltdown. There’s a certain wall I reach every night when my reservoir of patience dries up. I need to complete our nightly routine before I reach this wall or it all goes South. Then I can no longer politely ask anyone to “please take your dish to the sink” or helpfully remind a distracted homework participant with “you need to stay focused on your work.” Instead I turn into an irrational lunatic trailing off on some lecture about how “I used to have a life that involved dry cleaned clothing and cocktails” and how “I don’t work for anyone in the house”, including the cat that suddenly seems demanding too.
Photo by Leila Ashtari
On the nights when the clock is ticking on dinner (as well as my patience), I need recipes that are flexible. They can’t have a hard and fast 40 minute total time for the dinner bell. I want a shortcut out of meal prep/cooking that leads me straight to the dinner table. However, if all goes according to plan, it’s nice to have a few more bells and whistles. Take this fish taco dish. I created it a year ago and then slowly added other components. Until now, it had lived on the Cityline.ca website since we debuted the recipe with them last spring. I was recently reminded of the dish by Scarlett. She asked for it like an old friend who’d moved away. It’s probably because she’d helped me create it and was missing her masterpiece from our rotation so I decided, if she loved it so much, it was time to share it with SPC. If you have 20 minutes to dinner you can easily get by with just the tacos. However, if you have an extra 10 minutes of prep time, you can add a delicious citrus slaw. Got another 10 minutes? It will yield glazed sweet potatoes that snuggle up nicely with the tang of the slaw and the spice of the fish. Got no time at all and you’ve hit the wall? Pour a drink and order in pizza.
Ingredients
- For the fish -20 minutes prep time
- 4 – 6 Mahi-Mahi or Halibut fillets
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground oregano
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- For the citrus slaw - 30 minutes prep time
- 1/4 small white cabbage, finely shredded
- juice and zest of one lime
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons sour cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
- salt and pepper
- For the maple-glazed sweet potato - 40 minutes prep time
- 1 small sweet potato, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- salt
- 1 tsp butter
- Suggested ingredients for the table servings:
- Corn or whole wheat tortillas
- 1/2 cup diced pineapple
- 1 avocado sliced
- 1 container of fresh salsa
- chopped fresh cilantro
- sour cream
- Guacomole
- lime wedges
Method
For the fish:
Preheat oven to 425F and grease a large baking sheet.
Combine the cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl and mix with a fork to combine.
Sprinkle over fish and rub spice mix evenly across the fillets.
Place on prepared sheet and bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork.
Place mahi-mahi on a serving platter and gently pull fillets apart with a fork.
For the slaw:
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the the zest, lime and orange juice, sour cream, salt, pepper and cilantro.
Toss the cabbage in the sauce and set aside.
For the maple-glazed sweet potato:
Toss the sweet potato with the maple syrup and sprinkle with salt.
In a skillet over medium-low heat, add the butter and then saute the sweet potato for about 10 minutes, or until potato is tender.
Be sure to not burn it.
Remove the sweet potato from the skillet, place it in a bowl, and set aside.
How to serve:
Serve fish, citrus slaw, glazed sweet potato alongside other fixings and let the family have fun creating their own tacos!
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We're Ceri and Laura, a couple of magazine-editors-turned-food-bloggers. Also, we're mothers obsessed with delicious, healthy, family food. We're constantly thinking of ways to make your time (and our own!) in the kitchen easier and more productive, but still nostalgic for the days when dinner was cereal eaten over the kitchen sink.
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