Today I’m going to show you how to make healthy fish tacos- so healthy they’re Nourishing Traditions approved! With crunchy cabbage slaw and a tangy, slightly spicy Baja sauce, this will be one of your go-to healthy dinner ideas. You’d never guess how healthy this recipe is, it’s that good!
I’m so excited to share this recipe with you today.
I’m not just saying that.
As you might’ve noticed, I’ve been on a huge kefir kick lately.
Related: How To Make Milk Kefir
Healthy Breakfast Scones: How To Make Scones With Kefir
How To Use Up Kefir- Cooking, Baking And More
Nourishing Traditions
Luke and I have been trying to incorporate more fish into our diet, as well as always striving to eat healthier in general.
I’m constantly flipping through Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon for advice and inspiration. And while the book is a gold mine, I actually came across this idea on the Nourishing Traditions blog, which I hadn’t previously known existed.
If you’ve read or flipped through Nourishing Traditions you might’ve felt a little intimidated or even personally victimized…
Trust me, I’m still a long way from where I want to be with ancestral eating, but it’s a worthy goal and I’m grateful for the book, blog and community. But I digress.
On the NT blog, I came across some ideas for how to make this way of eating more doable, especially for busy moms. One way to do this is by batch cooking, and reusing the same base recipe in different ways.
I was immediately in.
One example was this post here in which the writer suggests making a big batch of the NT pancake batter but also using it to batter fish! Yum!
Even better? The batter is made by soaking the fresh-milled wheat in kefir!
How To Make These Healthy Fish Tacos
If fish fried in pancake batter sounds weird, hear me out. And don’t be thrown off by the picture in the original recipe post. Each time I’ve made it the fish looks a lot more like battered fish and a lot less like fish-shaped pancakes, ok?
- Mill 1 cup of wheat berries (or use store bought whole wheat flour). Add your one cup of wheat flour to a medium bowl and add 2 cups of milk kefir.
- Cover tightly and let the mixture sit at room temp for 12-18 hours to soak.
- Add 1 egg, 2 Tbsp melted butter, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda to the soaked mixture. Add a splash of water as necessary to reach a heavy cream consistency.
- Heat enough oil in your fry pan to generously cover the bottom and come up the sides about 1/4″.
- Dip thin tilapia filets (skinless, cut into strips if large) into 1 cup of all-purpose flour seasoned with salt, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne and black pepper. Coat evenly, then dip into batter.
- Fry fish until golden-brown and cooked through (meat thermometer should read 145 F).
- Remove to parchment paper-lined tray and keep warm in a 200 degree oven until all fish is ready to serve.
- Add fish, crunchy cabbage slaw, and Baja sauce to a warm flour tortilla. Enjoy!
What You Need To Make Healthy Fish Tacos
- white fish filets, no skin
- kefir
- wheat berries and mill OR whole wheat flour
- seasonings like paprika, cayenne, garlic, chili powder, black pepper
- plenty of avocado or coconut oil, or lard for frying
- tortillas
- the rest of the ingredients listed in recipe (typical pantry and fridge staples)
How To Make These Even Healthier
- Milling your own grain ups the nutrition enormously. No need to stress if you’re not into milling, simply opt for the best option you can. Using an ancient grain like einkorn, emmer or spelt is also great!
- Try to soak your grains for at least 12 hours. This helps break down phytic acid and makes the grains much more digestible.
- Use homemade tortillas, or try to find sprouted ancient grain tortillas like these. Again, stressing about this stuff is probably worse for your health than just eating a regular old tortilla. Here’s another tortilla recipe with rave reviews that uses all-purpose flour. Still a good compromise as we’re avoiding preservatives!
- Use wild caught white fish. Just check the packaging for ‘wild caught’ instead of farmed. Some examples of good white fish for tacos include tilapia, cod, barramundi, whiting, and flounder.
- Use homemade yogurt or sour cream (crème fraiche) for the Baja sauce base. The probiotics and simple ingredients will make these tacos even healthier.
- Go for organic slaw mix. I like to use one with green and purple cabbage as well as shredded carrots.
- Use coconut or avocado oil, lard or tallow for frying. I know this is counterintuitive in our culture, but these fats have stood the test of time and don’t cause free-radicals and carcinogenic reactions like canola or even olive oil.
Tips For The Best Fish Tacos
- Get your batter to the right consistency. You don’t want it too thick or thin. It should pretty much be the consistency of pancake batter or heavy ccream.
- Use plenty of oil and get it pretty hot. We’re not quite deep frying the fish but almost. If you aren’t generous with your chosen cooking fat you won’t have crispy fish. What you will have is a burnt on mess.
- But not too hot! You want the fish to sizzle and bubble when placed in the oil but so rapidly that it’s spraying out of the pan upon contact. The batter will burn and the fish will be raw in the middle! Look for the oil to have a shimmery appearance but not be to the smoking point when you place your fish in, then just keep an eye on it.
- Work in batches and keep it hot. I like to use my wire baking tray that came with my oven for air frying purposes. It has holes all throughout to allow for air flow so it’s perfect for keeping things crispy in the oven. I line it with parchment to keep things for dripping out. A regular tray or baking sheet will work too. I set my oven to 175 or 200 F while I fry the remaining fish.
- Don’t overcrowd your pan. This will drop the temperature of the pan giving inconsistent results. Plus the fish will most likely stick together and, again, leave you with a mess. I find three pieces at a time is best in my 9″ skillet.
- Cut thin filets into strips. This way the fish cooks quickly, and they’re the ideal size for putting into tacos.
If you make this recipe, be sure to let me know what you think!
Healthy Fish Tacos With Cabbage Slaw And Baja Sauce
With this recipe you get all the crispiness, texture and delicious flavor of an authentic fish taco but with none of the drawbacks. You'd never guess how healthy these tacos are. Made with Nourishing Traditions' kefir-soaked batter and other high-quality ingredients, you can have a super satisfying taco night and nourish your family at the same time. The crisp slaw and creamy Baja sauce round out this flavor-packed recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup wheat berries milled into flour OR 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 cups milk kefir
- 1 egg
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- water as needed (see instructions)
- 1 lb. white fish filets cut into strips
- oil or lard for frying (have about 1 cup ready, you may need to add to the pan)
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp chili powder
- pinch of cayenne
- 10 taco size tortillas
- 1 package cabbage slaw
- FOR THE BAJA SAUCE
- 1/2 cup of crème fraiche, sour cream or Greek yogurt
- juice of 1/2 a lime
- 2 tsp honey or maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- pinch of black pepper
- pinch of cayenne
Instructions
- The day before you want your fish tacos, mill your grain (or use store bought whole wheat flour). Mix one cup of wheat flour with 2 cups of milk kefir. Cover and let sit at room temperature for about 12 hours.
- The next day, melt 2 Tbsp of butter and set aside. Crack an egg in a small bowl and whisk. Add the egg to the soaked flour and stir to combine.
- Next add 1/2 tsp salt and the melted butter, then baking soda and gently stir. Add a splash of water as needed to reach a thin pancake batter or heavy cream consistency.
- Place a parchment-lined wire baking rack or regular baking tray in the oven set to 175 F to keep fish warm as you fry in batches.
- Make the Baja sauce: In a small bowl, mix together all the Baja sauce ingredients. Taste test and adjust to preference. Keep in the fridge while you finish the recipe.
- Set up an assembly line: the prepared white fish on the right, then the all-purpose flour combined with the spices, then the kefir soaked batter on the left. Meanwhile, get your oil going in a frying pan. (You'll want the oil shimmering but not smoking when you put in the fish, see notes for more).
- Coat the fish strips in flour, then dip into batter. Once you have three in the batter, allow excess to drip off then place into hot oil. They should sizzle pretty rapidly, but not be sputtering and spraying oil. Watch closely.
- Once underside is looking golden (about 4 minutes), flip and cook on the other side for 3-4 more minutes or until deep golden brown and internal temperature has reached 145 F.
- Remove to tray and keep warm in the oven until all fish are done.
- Meanwhile, get out your other ingredients: tortillas (you might want to warm them), slaw, and Baja sauce. See notes for more serving ideas.
- Once all the fish is done, assemble tacos by placing a fish filet in a warm tortilla and topping with slaw and Baja sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
I used frozen tilapia that I thawed for this recipe. I used about a pound of thin filets that I cut in half lengthwise for 10 strips of fish.
You can test if your oil is hot enough by ticking in a wooden skewer and see if it sizzles. Or you can dip one edge of a fish filet for the same effect. You want the oil nice and hot but not so hot that it burns the batter without cooking the fish through in the middle.
Keep an eye on the oil level as you cook. It can absorb into the fish or even the pan. You'll want to replace it between batches if this happens so you have plenty of oil to get the fish nice and crispy.
For more garnish and topping ideas, try setting out lime wedges, chopped tomatoes and bell peppers, cilantro, green onions and cotija cheese.
As always, see full blog post for best results. Enjoy your tacos!
Thanks SO much for being here! See you again soon,
-Tara
Looking for more healthy dinner ideas? Check these out!
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