A 'Keep Me Afloat' Inspired Dinner Recipe

Butter Lemon Cod with Herb Kale Salad

Inspired by Keep Me Afloat

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In the past, I’ve primarily shared sweet recipes in honor of my first book The Ingredients of Us. And while my latest novel Keep Me Afloat isn’t related to food or baking, it does have plenty of Pacific Northwest flavor. What does that look like in recipe-form? Well, in my opinion, it requires seafood and probably kale.

This is one of my favorite dinner “recipes” because you can tweak it based on what you’re in the mood for and what you have in the fridge. In its most basic form, this recipe is made up of greens and fish—doesn’t get much easier than that!

This recipe serves two people (those two people being me and my husband, sometimes with leftovers).

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Ingredients

For the fish:

  • 1 lb cod

  • 1 tsp paprika

  • 3/4 tsp garlic powder

  • 1/2 tsp table salt

  • 1/2 freshly cracked black pepper

  • 1/4 cup butter, melted

  • 1/4 freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the salad:

  • 1 bunch curly kale or red kale, chopped

  • 1/2 cup total of your choice herbs, chopped (lately, I’ve been pulling lemon balm, mint, rosemary, and parsley from my garden)

  • 1 avocado, cut into cubes

  • 1/2 cup pine nuts or roughly chopped walnuts

  • Dressing of choice (I use a goddess dressing like this one or a basic balsamic vinaigrette)

  • Lemon wedges for garnish

Steps:

Get the fish going:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  2. Line a glass 9x9 pyrex dish (or similar) with aluminum foil and drizzle with a touch of oil.

  3. Place the fish in the pan and pour the melted butter and lemon juice over the fish.

  4. Season the top of the fish with the mix of paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

  5. Bake until the fish is flaky (cooking times vary by thickness of the filet and the oven, but aim for about 20–25 minutes).

While the fish is baking, prep the salad:

  1. Toss the chopped kale, chopped herbs, avocado, nuts, and your preferred amount of dressing in a large bowl. Split the salad between two plates.

  2. Once the fish is done, place a filet on top of each salad. I usually spoon a little of the butter from the pan on top of the filet.

  3. Garnish with lemon wedges and enjoy!

A note about fish:

If you’ve read Keep Me Afloat, you probably already know that salmon is important to wildlife in the Puget Sound, specifically the southern resident killer whales. Finding sustainable fish is a complicated issue, but SeafoodWatch.org is a great resource for guiding you toward more sustainable fish. Lately, I go for wild caught Alaska cod, which has a good rating from Seafood Watch. If you want to go full PNW and buy salmon, make sure to review Seafood Watch’s recommendations to have the lowest environmental impact.