Oven Baked Fish with Lemon Aioli and a Warm Arugula Salad

April 15, 2019:  I’m back with the Chefs Plate meals! 😀  I only order these Chefs Plate meals whenever the weekly-changing menu for the week appeals to me and when I have time to make them (i.e., when my workload is low and I’m working from home).  I usually like to make them early in the day there is ample sunlight for my photos. 😀

This meal is the Oven Baked Fish with Lemon Aioli and a Warm Arugula Salad with a difficulty level of “medium”.  The cooking time is about 30 minutes.

This was the first time I’ve made oven baked fish fingers, and this was why this dish appealed to me.

I ordered three meals from Chefs Plate during the week of April 14, 2019

New booklet with all the recipes!

When I got the box from Chefs Plate this week, I realized that they have updated their loose leaf recipe cards by combining them into a booklet.  So smart!  This way, they won’t forget to ship any recipe cards with the box (like what happened to me one time and I had to e-mail them to get a replacement copy).  Also, on the last page of the booklet, it showcases the dishes for the following week (so you’ll be tempted to order again).  Further smartness!

Zoom in to see all the nutrition information for this meal

Mise en place for the meal

This recipe requires full use of the oven, so make sure you preheat your oven to 450° F before starting.

Recipe card for this meal

Step by step instructions

Putting the diced up potatoes and red onions into the oven for about half an hour

First of all, the potatoes need to be baked.  After washing and drying the potatoes (I got 5 in my bag), cut them into one-inch pieces.  Then cut the red onions into 1.5-inch pieces.  Toss these diced potatoes and red onions with some oil, salt, and pepper, and then lay them on a baking sheet (we use aluminium foil) and into the oven it goes for 20 to 25 minutes.  I set the oven timer for 15 minutes for a first round of baking.

Next up, prep the fish fingers.  Do this by cutting the tilapia fillets widthwise into one-inch strips and then season with salt and pepper.  Put the pieces into a bowl and combine the Cornmeal Spice Mix and a bit of oil to make sure all the tilapia strips are coated evenly with the Cornmeal Spice Mix (which is composed of cornmeal and Old Bay seasoning).

Cut and coat the tilapia fillets with the Cornmeal Spice Mix

Put the fish into the oven with the potatoes and red onions

Next, the recipe calls for the fish fingers to go into the oven for 12-15 minutes.  Thus, that’s why I had set the oven for the potatoes for 15 minutes only.  Once the timer beeped, this was when I put the fish fingers in.  I set the timer for another 13 minutes ish.  This meant that once the timer beeped, both the fish fingers and potatoes would be done at the same time.

(The recipe doesn’t say to do this, but during this time when I’m putting the fish fingers into the oven, I also flip the potatoes and red onions a little bit on the pan to make sure they’re being baked evenly.)

During this time when the fish and vegetables are baking in the oven, prepare the lemon and garlic.  You should have three bowls: one with minced garlic, one for lemon juice, and one for two lemon wedges as well as lemon zest.

Lemon juice, lemon wedges, lemon zest, and minced garlic

Make the lemon aioli.  This was easy.  Simply whisk the mayonnaise with half of the minced garlic, half of the lemon juice, salt, and pepper together.  Done!  (I didn’t know it was so easy to make aioli.  Now I know.)

Lemon aioli = lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt and pepper

Next, make the salad dressing.  Use the remaining garlic, remaining half of the lemon juice, lemon zest, some sugar, oil, and salt and pepper, and mix together in a small bowl.

Making the warm arugula salad

Take the roasted red onions and potatoes out of the oven at this point.

In the same large bowl that you made the salad dressing with, add the roasted red onions and potatoes with the arugula.  (That’s how you get the warm salad because the residual heat from the roasted red onions and potatoes will slightly warm up the arugula.)  Toss it all together so the salad dressing coats the contents.

Plate the oven baked fish fingers with the salad on the plate.  Serve the lemon aioli on the side and that’s it!  You can squeeze the lemon wedges over the fish if you like too.  Yay!  Done!

I liked how simple this recipe was since you only needed the oven as the tool to heat everything up.  You don’t even need to wash any pans!

Ta-da!

I really liked the warm arugula salad in this dish.  The potatoes were so delicious with the arugula!  The red onions practically shrunk away in the baking process, so you can barely see the red onions in the photo.

Close-up

The oven baked fish fingers were very healthy and not too flavourful, but they still tasted fresh and good.   They weren’t crispy (if you were expecting them to be.)  The lemon aioli was nice as well.

If you want to try Chefs Plate for yourself, use my link.  Click on it and choose four plates of food.  It will be free for you if you are trying Chefs Plate for the first time.  Happy cooking!   (If for any reason the link doesn’t work, enter “#freeplatesfromstenoodie” or “#stenoodie” in the promo box when you check out.  You can also e-mail me at stenoodie@gmail.com with the subject “free CP plates” and I’ll personally send you an invitation to receive the 4 plates of food for free.)

It makes two plates of food