This recipe is super easy and somewhat of a deviation from the typical lemon-juice flavored seafood entree. Get ready to enjoy some unique flavors and impress your family without spending hours in the kitchen!
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Moroccan Fish with Mango and Whole-Grain Pearl Couscous
Yield: 3 – 4 servings
Adapted from foodnetwork.com
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried whole-wheat pearl couscous (if you can’t find “pearl” just regular whole-grain couscous will work)
- 1 lb fresh wild-caught white fish
- Salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- 1 ripe (soft) mango, peeled and diced (FYI – we use a mango corer at our house)
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped + extra for garnish
- 2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Directions
- Cook couscous according to package directions. The “pearl” version usually takes about 8 – 10 minutes to cook.
- In a small bowl combine the cumin, chili powder, coriander and a pinch of salt & pepper. Evenly rub the spice mixture on all sides of the fish and set aside (in the fridge if you’d like).
- Peel, core and dice the mango. We use a mango corer at our house. Chop the cilantro into small pieces. Put the mango, cilantro, and lime juice together in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
- Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the seasoned fish to the pan and cook on both sides until it’s white all the way through. For thinner pieces this might only take a few minutes.
- Once the couscous is done transfer it to the bowl with the mango, cilantro, and lime. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and mix together thoroughly.
- Divide the couscous mixture evenly among plates. Top with pieces of fish and extra pieces of cilantro. Serve warm with a salad or vegetable on the side and enjoy!
This looks fantastic! I have been on the hunt for more tasty fish recipes for Lent, and this one definitely looks like a winner. I love whole wheat israeli couscous – just fantastic!
Any suggestions for real food replacement for the butter? I can’t do dairy. Perhaps organic coconut oil?
Coconut or olive oil would work great!
Where do you buy the whole wheat pearl couscous? I prefer pearl, but have never seen a whole grain option.
I got ours at Earth Fare…it was a small little plastic box-type package.
The recipe looks delicious. Just discovered your blog. I’m looking forward to reading more about your real food journey.
Do you have a brand recommendation for whole grain pearl cous cous. I’m looking at brands that don’t say pearl, but are visibly different looking. Is it just a texture difference, or more than that?
It’s basically the same thing just bigger pieces…the brand I found is “Rice Select” from Earth Fare.
This was delicious! Thanks for a simple yet satisfying dinner.
Made this tonight and…um…WOW. LOVED IT!!! I feel like I’m eating in a restaurant (aside from the mess I made in my kitchen)…OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!
Do you have any suggestions if you cannot buy fresh fish? We live in a small town and the only “fresh” fish here is previously frozen, farm raised talapia or salmon??? And I feel like frozen fish is always mushy. I’d love any pointers you might have! Thanks!
If my choices were fresh/farm raised or frozen/wild caught I would go with the frozen stuff. I’ve purchased fresh fish here and put it in the freezer myself and it defrosts very nicely so try to find the highest quality frozen stuff you can.
Hi Steph, I was the seafood manager for a local store here where I live. The talapia that most places (here in inland Washington state anyway, and we have access to lots of fresh fish being so close to the ocean) are frozen and thawed when they arrive at the store. Talapia holds up very well when frozen so if you only have frozen choices and wish to avoid the mushy texture I would go with that. Cod. halibut and tuna also hold up very well and are very rarely mushy when thawed. Things to avoid would be dover sole, salmon, swai and catfish. Hope this helps
Made this last night. It was wonderful,but I will add a little more chili powder next time.
I liked the fish and loved the IDEA of the couscous. It turned out incredibly bland. I’m not even sure what I would do to improve it, but it definitely needed more flavor.
Are you saying the fish or the couscous was bland? Did you follow the recipe exactly?
the fish was good. I tolerate fish, I don’t particularly like it, but I actually had 2 servings of the fish. It was the couscous that was bland. No I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, I used 2 mangoes instead of 1.
I made this for dinner last night and it was great. I used tilapia and it turned out perfect. I also added a bit more lime juice to the couscous to give it a bit more flavor. Thanks for the great recipe.
[...] on Mahi Mahi (which I’ve determined is my favorite kind of fish!). I had a recipe for Moroccan fish with couscous that I’ve been dying to try so I made the ingredients/shopping list and headed to Whole Foods [...]
Made this last night and it was great. I wasn’t really expecting to like it, but I had fish and mangos that needed to be eaten. It was amazing! Even my super-picky three year old ate the couscous.