Pesto Sea Bass: A Healthy Midweek Fish Recipe

This vibrant pesto sea bass is a delicious and healthy way to eat fish. The nutty coriander pesto with chilli, garlic and lemon gives it a great flavour! It's perfect for a midweek fish supper.

A lighter fresher pesto recipe

Don't you just love pesto? I've made lots of different pestos over the years. Some of them have featured on this blog. Some of them haven't. Until now they have all had one thing in common. CHEESE! This pesto is the first one I've made without cheese and it is so good. I was aiming for a lighter and fresher pesto recipe and I've definitely managed it.

Pesto Sea Bass for my first ever Recipe Redux

The reason I really wanted it to be a healthier pesto is that I was taking part in the Recipe Redux. The Recipe Redux was a food blogging challenge set up by dietitians where the focus was on creating delicious but also healthy dishes. This month the theme was double dinners. We were challenged to either make a healthy meal from the leftovers of a dish on our blog or to cook a new dish but to show how the leftovers could be used to make another delicious dinner as well.

I chose to make two meals with coriander pesto but adapted the coriander pesto recipe already on my blog to make it less oily. For my first meal of pesto crusted sea bass I wanted the pesto to have quite a thick consistency so it would coat the fish like a crust. That way it keeps the fish moist but also adds lots of pesto flavour. I kept the pesto thick by not adding too much olive oil to it.

Do you need Cheese in pesto?

It worked brilliantly without parmesan. The fish was moist and the pesto made it so yummy. Not adding cheese to the pesto was definitely the best option for this dish. It just doesn't need it. The flavours from the lemon, garlic, chilli pepper and coriander are perfect for the sea bass. Or any other white fish you choose to use.

Can you adapt this pesto sea bass recipe?

If you can't get hold of sea bass then any other white fish would work well for this recipe.

If you want to adapt the pesto then please do. You can make a more traditional pesto with basil and pine nuts. Or just use different nuts. I often make variations of pesto and the recipe just depends on what I have in the kitchen on that particular day!

How to use the leftover pesto

For my second dinner we just mixed the pesto with pasta. As the coriander pesto was quite thick I left quite a bit of the cooking water in with the pasta. That meant that the pesto sauce was liquid enough to coat all of the pasta. Although you can't see it in the picture, I then topped each plate of pasta with a small handful of grated parmesan, making a slightly richer but just as delicious pesto dinner.

Coriander Pesto Crusted Sea Bass

Corina Blum

This vibrant pesto sea bass is a delicious and healthy way to eat fish. The nutty coriander pesto with chilli, garlic and lemon gives it a great flavour!

4.5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 20 mins

Course fish, Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 4

Calories 285 kcal

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 60 g coriander leaves and stalks
• 50 g cashew nuts
• 1 clove garlic roughly chopped
• 1 green chilli pepper
• 1 lemon juiced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 600 g sea bass fillets

Instructions

 

• Put the cashew nuts into a dry frying pan and toast them until they are turning golden.  Keep tossing the pan so they don't burn.
• Put all the pesto ingredients into a food processor and blitz until everything is well combined.
• Put a tablespoon of the pesto on each sea bass fillet and press it down so it coats the whole of the top of the sea bass. 
• Grill (broil) for 10 minutes.

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate and a guideline only.

Nutrition

Calories: 285kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 29gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 120mgSodium: 149mgPotassium: 544mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 1145IUVitamin C: 8.5mgCalcium: 37mgIron: 2.4mg

Keyword Pesto sea bass

Tried this recipe?Tag me on Instagram @Searchingforspice

More Delicious Fish Recipes

Fish with lemon and parsley sauce

Jamie Oliver's Brazilian Fish Bake

You might also like this sea bass with a green herb salsa. It's delicious as well as nut-free so perfect if you are cooking for people with allergies.

Keep in touch

Do let me know if you make this pesto sea bass recipe. I love to get feedback from readers.

You can also stay up to date by following on Instagram, Facebook  and Twitter.

Why not sign up to my weekly newsletter too?