Baked Rainbow Trout

This baked rainbow trout is easy for a weeknight dinner. On the table in about 20 minutes and seasoned with herbs and simple sides of roasted cherry tomatoes and perfectly seasoned green beans.

I fell in love with cooking whole fish when a new fish market opened up by my house. My husband and I had just came back from traveling to Puerto Rico. While we were there, we ate so much delicious red snapper. When I saw that this fish market sold red snapper, I had to have it. Ever since then, I enjoy cooking whole fish. I think its faster because of less prep work and tastes better. You can grill them or bake them. I also love that most of the time these markets will debone and clean the guts out for you leaving a slit at the bottom of the fish perfect for stuffing fish and adding tons of flavor.

This month during our happiness rest challenge, we are taking a deep look into vitamin D sources and many of those sources are fish. Rainbow trout has some of the highest amounts of vitamin D. So, I decided to make a meal out of it. My husband and I just loved how simple and delicious it was and we decided to share this recipe with all of you.

First thing I like to do is to make my own seasoning. For this fish I decided to make a simple chimichurri base. While chimichurri sauce is usually served uncooked as a topping, I like to use the sauce during cooking by putting the sauce inside the fish for more flavor. I do this also with many of my Puerto Rican dishes.

This sauce is made up of salt, parsley, apple cider vinegar, fresh garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper and avocado oil. However, white wine vinegar and olive oil can be substituted for the apple cider vinegar and avocado oil. Also because it is winter, I used dried oregano but did happen to have fresh parsley on hand. Fresh is always best if you have access to it. Blend the ingredients into a paste and you are ready to place the paste inside the fish. Many people like to create a little pocket out of the parchment paper to retain moisture in the fish but this is such an oily fish I wasn’t worried about it drying out.

While you prep the fish, preheat the oven to 400 °F. Place the fish into a 13×9 baking dish with parchment paper. Add your favorite veggies with drizzled olive oil, salt and bake for 20 minutes.

There is some controversy in regards to the internal temperature that you should cook the fish to. The FDA says that all fish should be cooked to 145 °F. Many times this makes for a dry fish and we instead often cook fish only until we see the flesh of the fish become white and opaque and easily flake with a fork. When we cook fish we find that we often take it out when the internal temperature is closer to 135 °F. Like any other meat, the fish will continue to increase in temperature while it rests as well. So, before cutting into the fish, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

A notation about the green beans. In the picture below we decided to use the chimichurri paste on the outside of the fish (not necessary) just to try it and we found that the green beans that touched the sauce on the fish came out really peppery. So, if you don’t like peppery things keep the green beans away from the fish.

The roasted cherry tomatoes are so AMAZING when cooked like this and go so well with the fish. I highly recommend roasting more cherry tomatoes in the future.

Also, 3 oz of rainbow trout gives you 645IU’s of Vitamin D!

Enjoy!

For more baked recipes check out our Taco pizza and Chicken Enchiladas.

If you liked this recipe please leave a comment below or use #happinessresetchallenge to show us your dinner.

Baked Rainbow Trout

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• Author: Elena

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Description

This baked rainbow trout is easy for a weeknight dinner. On the table in about 20 minutes and seasoned with herbs and simple sides of roasted cherry tomatoes and perfectly seasoned green beans.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

The Chimichurri:

• 1/4 cup of parsley
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons of oregano
• 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (white wine vinegar is good also)
• 1 tablespoon of avocado oil (olive oil works too)

Rainbow trout:

• 1 whole rainbow trout (1 pound)
• 10 oz of cherry tomatoes
• 12 oz of green beans
• 2 tablespoons of avocado oil (or olive oil)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 lime sliced

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Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Chimichurri:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor excluding the apple cider vinegar and oil.
2. Blend and slowly add apple cider vinegar and oil until a thick paste is formed (The thicker the better).
3. Set aside.

Rainbow Trout:

1. Begin preheating oven to 400 °F.
2. Place parchment paper in a 13×9 baking dish.
3. Place the fish in the baking dish.
4. Place chimichurri paste inside the fish and also place three or four thin slices of lime inside the fish to keep the paste in place.
5. Add cherry tomatoes and green beans.
6. Drizzle oil over tomatoes, fish, green beans and lightly salt.
7. If you have any leftover paste, you can add it to the top of the fish.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until the fish becomes white and easily flakes.
9. Once you take the fish out of the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes.

Notes

According to the FDA the internal temperature for fish is 145 °F.