Cooking fish at home becomes super easy with my Mediterranean baked cod recipe. Cod loins are topped with a pan-fried mixture of fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions and olive, then baked for 10 minutes in the oven to create this absolutely delicious meal.
While I’ve specified cod, you could use any white chunky fish for this recipe, such as haddock, halibut or pollock. If you’d like to try it with more delicate white fish like sea bass or sea bream, simply reduce the oven cooking time slightly as the fillets are thinner and will cook more quickly.
The Mediterranean vegetable topping serves a dual purpose in this dish, not only tasting amazing but also keep the fish nice and moist during cooking. The result should be a perfectly-cooked, flakey but succulent piece of fish, topped with loads of lovely flavours.
Before the vegetables are added to the fish, they are pan-fried to help them break down and to cook off any excess liquid. This is important to help develop the flavours and to avoid a watery mess when you get to the oven-baking stage.
Substitutions
I’ve tried this recipe with both sundried tomato paste and sundried tomato pesto and both work beautifully. You could use any pesto variety for a slightly different flavour but the same end effect. The oil in the pesto infuses down into the cod, delivering a wonderful depth of flavour.
I really like green pepper for this recipe, as I find green has a distinctive flavour that works really well in cooking. However, if you have red/yellow/orange to use that’s fine and you can keep the method exactly the same.
Again, with the olives I have recommended kalamata olives as their flavour profile works best, but green or blacks olives would be lovely too.
Finally, if you do not have fresh basil, simply use dried or any other fresh herbs you have. Parsely, oregano or thyme would all be nice in this dish.
Serving suggestion
As you can see in the picture above, we’ve really enjoyed having this dish with my crispy garlic butter hasselback potatoes and green beans. It’s the most glorious combination!
The fish would also be great with any other type of potato, brown rice, long grain rice, gluten free cous cous, quinoa or with homemade gluten free garlic bread and a big salad.
I would love to see your home creations, so if you make this dish please do snap a photo and either send to me on social media (@myglutenfreeguide on Instagram and Facebook) or to my email [email protected].
If you enjoy this recipe, I would also be SUPER grateful if you could leave a nice review on the recipe below. It really helps me to know which recipes you guys are loving.
Thank you! Laura x
Mediterranean Baked Cod
Mediterranean Baked Cod
Ingredients
- 100g (3.5oz) green pepper (capsicum/bell pepper)
- 1 red onion
- 150g fresh tomatoes (large vine tomatoes ideally, but any variety will do including smaller cherry tomatoes)
- 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste or sundried tomato pesto
- 30g (1 oz) kalamata olives, chopped small
- 1 sprig fresh basil, chopped (approx 1 tbsp)
- salt and pepper
- 2 cod loin portions (1 per person)
- olive oil
Instructions
- Finely dice the green pepper and red onion, then fry in a small saucepan over a low-medium heat until softened (takes about 10 mins).
- Dice the tomatoes into small chunks and add to the saucepan, along with the tomato paste/pesto, olives and basil. Cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat until the tomatoes have broken down slightly and any watery juice has evaporated off. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oven to 200C/390F (fan). Plan the two cod loins skin-down on a lined baking tray. Spritz each piece with some oil olive, so that all the exposed edges are covered with a little oil.
- Use a teaspoon to heat the sauce on top of each piece of cod. You'll have quite a mound on each, but trust me it shrinks down during cooking. Now transfer into the oven and cook on the middle shelf for 10-12 minutes. The time varies slightly depending on the size and thickness of your cod. To check that it is cooked cut into one of the pieces of fish and check the centre. The fish will be opaque when cooked, so if still translucent you need to cook it for a couple more minutes.
- Serve immediately with your choice of sides. I recommend serving with either hasselback new potatoes or brown rice, plus some green veggies. Delish!
For more tasty dinner ideas, why not try some of my other family favourite gluten free recipes:
Enjoy! x
