Red Cabbage and Orange Fish Salad

I am finding so much joy in making salads nowadays! I love developing my own flavors and putting together fresh ingredients and surprise my pallete. I have gone through fruit seasons, and with that, delicious salads too. For mango season, my mango bacon salad with this bomb mango ginger vinaigrette, for pear season- my pear tree tomato salad with pear ginger vinaigrette. Today, a phenomenal fish salad enters the chat!

As I have mentioned multiple times in the past, the best salads always have a body of veggies and a protein – sio mboga tu!!! Now that we are smack in the middle of citrus season, let us delve deep into my healthy, protein loaded, red cabbage and orange fish salad.

I made a dope vid to accompany the blog post. Do watch below, and subscribe!

PREP TIME: 15min    COOK TIME:  10 min       SERVES: 3

Fish Salad Ingredients

1 cup of shredded red cabbage

1 cup of roughly chopped lettuce

1 orange, sliced

½ an apple chopped

A handful of snowpeas

For the dressing

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons of honey

½ a teaspoon of ginger

½ a teaspoon of orange zest

1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger

For the fish

½ a kg of tilapia

1 tablespoon of orange zest

1 cup of bread crumbs

½ a teaspoon of coriander powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 egg

Method

In a bowl, add all the chopped vegetables and fruit and toss. You can adjust the ratios of the veggies as you prefer. For the orange, make sure you use a very very sweet one so that flavors are not thrown off. Lightly sear the snow peas until they are cooked but still retained their color and texture.

I bought my snowpeas from carrefour, but you can use french beans in their place as well.

Add the snow peas the bowl once done, and toss.

Always, we dress all salads we make, and this one is no different.

For the dressing, add all the ingredients into a jar, give it a good shake and once combined, you are done. I showed the step by step in today’s video. Give it a taste and adjust for any ingredients that need adjusting. The same orange notes that are in the salad body are the same ones that are in the dressing, and in the fish coating too as you will shortly see. And that is how a good salad is composed, one note needs to be common.

In case you have a surplus of dressing, you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. It can stay fresh for even longer (though intensity might dip) and you have to be careful not to double-dip so as to keep it fresh.

If everything is in balance in the dressing, proceed to dress the salad.

For the fish, mix the bread crumbs with the garlic powder, coriander spice, orange zest and some salt. See where the orange comes in with regard to the fish? Right here. And remember, by orange zest, I mean the grated rind of an orange. It really does shine when it comes to fish!

I bought my fish from City Market stall 38, and the contacts are linked in the video’s description box. However, sourcing from Carrefour is also convenient and as time has proven, sometimes cheaper.

Whisk the egg, dip the fish and toss in the crumbs. Fry the fish. Fish cooks very fast, and you will need a few minutes for it to cook thoroughly, trust me on this one. Do not overcook it.

Once done, serve it beside the salad while hot. Peculiar? Maybe to some, but in my book, it is as perfect as they come! And do the flavours of this fish salad work? Damn right!

Just try it out and you will agree with me!

I love how the flavour of the orange came through and tied everything together- from the fish, to the salad, to the dressing. I deeply enjoyed the contrast between the hot juicy fish, and the cool explosive veggies! The meatiness of the fish, and the crisp freshness of the salad were such an irresistible contrast and one I enjoyed to savor.

If you are indeed in the mood to make this a bit more celebratory, this pairs so perfectly with a chilled Sauvignon Blanc, or a Chardonnay. And when I feel like breaking the rules, this fish salad shines with a Moscato!

Do check out my Salad Playlist on YouTube, there are lots of similarly amazing recipes that I know you will fall in love with. After you give this fish salad a shot, try my mango olive halloumi salad with a honey ginger dressing, my pineapple french bean egg salad and finally, my mushroom broccoli salad with a lime & coconut milk vinaigrette.

I made you a plate.

Shika!

Get your downloadable recipe here :))

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