Blackened Cumin-Cayenne Tilapia and Pesto Caesar Salad

This dinner featured the return of one of my favorites, added a new one, and rounded it out with some tender fish. I combined spice, tartness, and sweetness here to create a dish that you could easily serve up at any time of the year. The crispness of the salad balanced out the warmth of the homemade bread and both served to prop up the tender yet lightly spiced fish that served as the entree.

This meal also works well since it combines more difficult and easier preparations. The bread takes the longest to prepare, and must be started well before the other pieces. But then the salad and fish come together quickly, allowing you some breathing room in between the start and finish of this dinner. Which bread, you may ask? Well, I decided to recreate one of my favorites from a previous post, the Asiago and Caramelized Onion Focaccia. Unbelieveable. So let's get to it!

Blackened Cumin-Cayenne Tilapia
This name belies the fish slightly in that, in the end, it's not a particularly spicy entree unless you serve it that way. And, it's probably one of the simplest recipes that you will ever see. Nice, huh?

As you'll find, you're lightly spicing the fish and then broiling it. Broiling is essentially like super-powered toasting. The heat comes from the top of the oven rather than the bottom and at extremely high temperatures. This allows the fish to cook very quickly while locking in moisture and giving it a unique flavor. I'm a big fan of broiling over baking since I find that baking often ends up drying out fish too much.

As usual, I also recommend leaving out the salt in this recipe. In my opinion, unless you are making french fries there is truly no reason to include salt. Be healthier and I promise you will NOT even miss it! I guarantee there is already far more than enough salt in your diet than you would ever need. (And yes, I make that as a blanket statement to basically everyone in a first world nation.)

Mix up the spices, broil, and you're good to go!

Pesto Caesar Salad
This new recipe is now one of my absolute favorites and I am sure to use it again and again. It provides a twist on the classic Caesar salad (the pesto) while also making it far healthier than you would ever find in a store. Think all salads are healthy? Think again. When you buy a Caesar salad in a restaurant it typically uses lettuce with almost no nutrition (the whiter the lettuce the less there is; always purchase dark green and red leaf lettuce such as mesclun mixes, arugula, spinach, and spring mixes to maximize your nutrition). It also piles on the croutons, full of oil/butter, and makes the dressing with lots of mayo, egg, and salt. Not good. You may as well eat the hamburger.

But here, the Caesar salad is healthy and the pesto addition is absolutely divine. You'll even make your own croutons, which are far healthier than store-bought ones. But remember, even as you make your own, limit how many you are creating. Just make a handful and eat them sparingly. And buy dark green lettuce! A couple croutons per person provides a nice touch without the ridiculous number of calories.

I skipped the anchovy paste (just not a fan) and also the hot pepper sauce (not a fan of spicy.) This left me loving the salad. But if you want those ingredients as well, then toss them on in. Just make sure there are no vegetarians digging into this salad. (Or just people who are grossed out by anchovies, because, well, they're disgusting!)

You'll find everyone wolfing this down and you'll quickly need the extra pesto on hand to whip up some more. Enjoy!