Springtime is HERE! Sure, it could still dump snow for several more months in many parts of the country, but, by the calendar, spring has arrived, and that is reason to celebrate.
Asparagus is the ultimate spring crop, and we’ve used it many ways over the years at WTC. Asparagus farro-tto is a cult favorite, this sheet-pan sesame soy steak with asparagus and peppers is simple and hits the spot every time, and my personal favorite, sheet-pan spring salmon, has Niçoise vibes with a lot less hassle.
So today, we’re kicking off this spring season with a recipe that highlights asparagus!
This meal stars a simple, beautiful roasted fish with a chimichurri-inspired sauce. Chimichurri is a South American sauce consisting of parsley, garlic, vinegar, oil, and red pepper flakes, and is often served with steak. I’ve switched things up a bit — we’re bringing in some fresh lemon juice and zest, which mellows out the acidity to help it pair nicely with fish. I’ve also added some really thinly sliced serrano chili pepper, which looks gorgeous and freshens things up.
This is a one-pan meal with roasted cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and cod (or any white fish, or there are about a million protein substitutions in the notes section, as always). We’re keeping the seasoning on the veggies and fish simple, because the big flavor in this meal is coming from the chimichurri, which gets whipped up while the tomatoes are in the oven!
It’s a true 30-minute meal with restaurant-worthy flavor!
If you typically shy away from cooking fish at home because you’re unsure how to shop for it, or you’re intimidated to cook it, or you don’t know how to tell when it’s done, etc., click here! When we made blackened fish taco bowls two years ago, I wrote a comprehensive tip roundup titled “How to Buy and Cook Fish, a Beginner’s Guide,” so if you missed that, it’s worth a read.
Also scroll through the comments section of that post — some of you shared your favorite places to buy fresh fish where you live. There are a lot more of you here now, so please add your favorite, if you haven’t weighed in!
Serves 4
Cook time: 30 minutes
Tools:
Ingredients:
Optional but encouraged: rice, couscous, cauliflower rice, or any grain you like (might I recommend frozen rice?!)
1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil (about 1 cup, divided)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound medium asparagus (about the width of your pinky finger), woody ends removed
1 cup parsley leaves and tender stems, finely chopped
1 serrano chili pepper, thinly sliced (skip this if feeding spice-averse people, or only stir it into half of the chimichurri for those who would like some heat)
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 lemon (preferably organic)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or any clear vinegar)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless white fish filets (I like cod, but ANYTHING you can find fresh is ideal! Salmon is also great here)
Start by getting your rice or grain cooking if you’re going to serve some with this meal. I personally would opt for white jasmine rice with some butter stirred in at the end. Cook the rice using the pasta-cooking method that we used here.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed half sheet pan with parchment paper.
Cut 1 pound cherry tomatoes in half. Add them to the baking sheet and toss with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Spread them out so that they’re not touching.
Roast for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, trim the woody ends off of 1 pound of asparagus (that means cutting usually an inch or two off the bottom) and get started on making the chimichurri.
To make the chimichurri, finely chop 1 cup parsley leaves and tender stems, thinly slice 1 serrano chili pepper (like paper-thin slices! If you can’t get them really, really thin, mince it instead), grate or mince 2 garlic cloves (I like to use my microplane to get them really fine), and zest and juice 1 lemon, adding all to a medium bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Taste. I like my chimichurri pretty acidic, so I typically add another splash of vinegar.
After they’ve cooked for 12 minutes, scooch the cherry tomatoes over to one side of the sheet pan (they can be piled on top of each other at this point) and add the trimmed asparagus to the other side. Toss to coat the asparagus with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and season with a big pinch of both salt and pepper.
Scooch things around to make room for 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless white fish filets. Season fish with a big pinch of salt, then drizzle a spoonful of chimichurri over each filet.
Roast for 12-ish minutes, until the fish flakes easily when poked at with a fork and the asparagus is crisp tender (go on — take a bite of one!). There will be a lot of liquid on the sheet-pan — don’t worry, that’s normal!
Scoop a bit of cooked rice onto each plate and top with fish. Spoon lots of tomatoes and their juices over the fish. Serve asparagus off to the side. Drizzle chimichurri over everything. Dig in!
30-minute sheet-pan chimichurri fish
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Love your leftovers: If you’re cooking for 2 and don’t like leftover fish, halve that portion of the recipe. Leftover asparagus, tomatoes, chimichurri, and rice, however, would be great to have on hand for lunches this week! Store them in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Add shredded rotisserie chicken or some crispy chickpeas for protein, or make a veggie bowl with whatever you have hanging out in the fridge (sweet corn, pickled onion, roasted sweet potatoes, etc.). If you do wind up with leftover fish, heat it up in a skillet with some oil and throw it into a tortilla with some guac for a quickie fish taco.
What to cook when you really don’t feel like cooking: Instead of chimichurri, use store-bought pesto. Spread a bit over the fish, then stir some pesto into your grains before serving.
We’re not a fish fam: You sure? Read my essay on why we should all be eating more fish first! If you’re sure, head to the subs section for swaps.
Prep ahead: Make the chimichurri sauce up to a day in advance. Slice your tomatoes and wash and trim your asparagus earlier in the day or even the night before, if it makes cooking this meal more doable for you. Roast it all just before eating — it comes together quickly and is best right out of the oven.
Asparagus buying tip: I personally hate the skinny, “pencil-thin” asparagus. Try to find medium-width asparagus that’s about the width of your pinky finger. If you’re choosing between skinny and fat, opt for the fat ones! They should cook through in that 12-ish minutes, but, if the fish finishes cooking before the asparagus does, pull the fish off of the sheet pan and keep the asparagus (and tomatoes) in the oven a little longer, until the asparagus is crisp tender. If all you can find are pencil-thin asparagus, pull them off the sheet pan as soon as they’re crisp tender, which may only take 6 or so minutes of cooking.
WTF does “crisp tender” mean? It means that the asparagus should be cooked through but still have a slight crunch to it (it should NOT be mushy, which can happen when asparagus is overcooked).
Vegetarian: Swap the fish out for portobello mushroom caps or cauliflower steaks. If cooking either, put them on another half sheet pan to cook, and coat them with EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Portobello caps need to roast for about 20 minutes total, flipping once halfway through. Cauliflower steaks need about 35 to 40 minutes of roasting (you’re looking for them to be a nice golden brown color). Add the chimichurri to the caps or steaks after they’ve crisped up a good bit, so at about the last 5 minutes of cooking. Adjust when you put the various veggies in the oven as needed by their cook time.
DF/GF: This recipe is both dairy free and gluten free as written (just use DF butter in your rice, if using).
Cherry tomatoes: Grape or cherry tomatoes work! The juice and sweetness of the roasted tomatoes really complements the acidity of the chimichurri here. If you hate tomatoes, you could omit them or swap them out for sliced red onion or red bell pepper, which would also offer sweetness once roasted.
EVOO: Olive oil would be the ideal sub, but another cooking oil like grapeseed, avocado, or canola oil would work.
Asparagus: Some good springy subs for asparagus are green beans or snap peas. Broccoli florets would also work here!
Parsley: Fresh cilantro or oregano
Serrano pepper: Omit if cooking for someone who’s spice-averse (or only add half of it to half of the chimichurri if you want two options). You could also use a jalapeño pepper instead, which will be less spicy.
Garlic: 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 cubes of frozen minced garlic (thawed)
Lemon: Zest and juice of a lime, or just skip the zest and use 2 to 3 extra tablespoons of a light-colored vinegar like white wine, red wine, or apple cider vinegar in place of the lemon juice.
Dried oregano: 2 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced. Or a teaspoon of dried basil or Italian seasoning.
White fish filets:
Halibut, cod (my favorite here), tilapia, grouper, flounder, red snapper … whichever you can find fresh (ideally). You could also use salmon. Keep the thickness of your fish filets in mind when determining cook time — 12 minutes will likely work for a thicker cut (but keep cooking as needed!). If you’re working with very thin filets, you may need to pull them out of the oven sooner. A good rule of thumb: fish filets need about 10 minutes of cooking per 1 inch of thickness (at 400°F like we’re doing here).
Shrimp: Add peeled and deveined shrimp for the last 8 minutes of cooking.
Flank steak (or skirt steak): A great sub! The broiler works best for these. So go ahead and bake the tomatoes at 400°F as written, then turn on the broiler (to high) when you add the steak and asparagus to the sheet pan. Place the sheet pan on the top rung of the oven and broil for 3 minutes for skirt steak, 4 minutes for flank steak. Take it out, flip the steak over, and stir the vegetables. Return the pan to the oven to broil for another 3 minutes for skirt, or 4 for flank. Check the internal temperature; it should be between 125°F and 130°F. This will give you medium-rare steak. Transfer the steak to a cutting board to rest for at least 5 minutes. Cut the steak into thin slices by tilting your knife so that it’s almost parallel to the steak, then shaving the steak very thinly.
Pork tenderloin: Another good sub! This would need to roast for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pork registers at least 140°F internally, but not over 145°F. Start checking it at the 20-minute mark, then stay very close by so that you can keep checking every minute or two after that! For this recipe, that means adding it to the sheet pan after the tomatoes have cooked for 5 minutes. Add the asparagus when there are about 12 minutes left of cooking.
Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken thighs would be my rec for swapping in chicken. They’ll need 25 to 35 minutes of cook time to register at 165°F internally, so roast them the whole time along with the tomatoes, and add the asparagus at the 15-minute mark. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts would work too. They’ll need about 20 to 25 minutes to reach that internal temp, so adjust cook times for your veggies accordingly!
Click here for the full index of What to Cook recipes categorized by protein, cook time, and mood.
Editor: Molly Ramsey
Illustrations: Nhung Lê
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