Butter and Citrus Poached Turbot with Roasted Vegetables

Have you started dating someone who eats a keto or paleo diet and you want to cook a nice meal for them? How about an easy meal idea for a regular old Wednesday night for you and your spouse? Or maybe just yourself? It really doesn’t matter who you’re cooking for, this recipe is super simple but seems really fancy due to the ingredients. Using premium ingredients (or even doing a high-low dish like this with some premium ingredients paired with very simple ones) is a great way to make a nice dinner without exerting a lot of energy. I love this meal because it is healthy and requires very little time in the kitchen. The veggies take a while to roast in the oven, but you can basically toss them in and then wait until the last few minutes of roasting to cook the rest. It’s that easy.

This dinner is a butter, citrus and herb poached turbot with harissa spiced broccoli and candy cane beets. I got most of my ingredients from the local farmer’s market, with a few extra things purchased at my local health food grocer. However, you don’t need a health food grocer or a farmer’s market to make this meal. You can use any white fish, get regular broccoli and normal beets from the regular store, and you can get harissa spice anywhere (or just a modified version as I’ve suggested below).

Ingredients:

2-3 filets of turbot (or halibut or haddock or cod)

1/2 cup butter (I used salted, just be aware of whether or not your butter is salted or not before adding more salt)

1 orange - zest and juice

1/2 a lemon - zest and juice

1 teaspoon of honey

Whatever fresh herbs you have - I recommend basil and/or dill

Salt and pepper to taste

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1/2 teaspoon of harissa spice (substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, a dash paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne - it isn’t the same but those spices should be in most cupboards and will taste good)

5-6 candy cane beets, sliced into wedges

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Olive oil to coat the vegetables

How to prepare:

Start with the vegetables. Cut your broccoli head into florets and wash them well. Then toss them into a baking dish but move them to one side. On the other side, place the candy cane (or regular, if that’s what you have) beet wedges on the other side of the baking dish. Then, drizzle all of the veggies with olive oil, sprinkle them all with salt and pepper, and then add the harissa (or other seasoning mix) to the broccoli side and the cinnamon to the beet side. Give them a quick toss, and then roast them in the oven. I roasted mine at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, tossing half way through. The broccoli gets nice and crispy at the ends, and the beets caramelize and become so deliciously sweet.

Once your veggies are in the oven, go chill for a bit (or socialize with your date). After you’ve done your mid-point toss of the veggies (around 20 minutes into cooking) then you can start preparing the fish. In a frying pan large enough for all of the fish filets, add your 1/2 cup of butter and place it on the stove on medium-low heat. Yes, I know, it’s a lot of butter but it’s a decadent dish. Don’t make it every night. Once your butter has melted, add the zest of the orange and the 1/2 lemon, as well as the juice from both. Drizzle in the honey, and add some salt and pepper. Add your herbs at the end or else they’ll burn. Once your butter mixture is warm and emulsified (it shouldn’t be bubbling - if it is then turn the heat down) then you can add your fish filets. A delicate white fish takes very little time to cook. Expect it to take only a few minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the fish. After max 5 minutes on the first side, flip it over and add some more salt and pepper. After a minute or two, turn off the heat since the residual heat of the butter/citrus mix will cook the fish. Add a bit more salt and pepper, and add your fresh herbs on top.

That’s it! Once the veggies come out of the oven, serve them alongside the fish. You can serve the fish with as much or as little of the butter mixture as you like, depending on your tastes.

This is a boreal dish in the sense that I used locally grown ingredients, but it can also be boreal depending on your source of fish. The turbot filets I used were wild caught off the coast of Greenland, so not particularly local, but obviously some wild caught cod off of the coast of Newfoundland would make this a very boreal dish!

I hope this dinner impresses anyone you feed it to, even if it is just yourself.

Enjoy!