Recipe: St Patty’s Air Fry Fish
Are holiday’s a stumbling block for your diet? Too often the traditional favorites are filled with fat, salt and calories and St Patrick’s Day is no exception. Do you have any idea how much salt is in corned beef? Fortunately Ireland is surrounded by fish-rich oceans and fish and chips is a United Kingdom favorite. So why not do fish and chips for St Patrick’s Day? Especially when it’s as high-protein and low-calorie as our air fryer version with healthy slaw and a surprising healthy tartar sauce. Here’s how we keep it healthy:
A light spray of olive oil and “frying” in an air fryer substitutes for the traditional hot deep oil cooking.
Carbonated sparkling water stands in for the beer in the batter
Fat free Greek yogurt keeps the tartar sauce creamy (and high protein) while spices, capers and relish pack a flavorable punch.
Even a sampling of the ingredients looks good, doesn’t it?
You’ll find the recipe for the fish plus a tartar sauce and a nutritious slaw below, but we have a few tips to make preparing this St Patty’s meal easier. Let’s start with the tartar sauce:
Capers add a slightly salty, slightly vinegary oomph to the sauce. They’re also slightly squishy, so don’t mince, just roughly chop. A sharp, wide blade knife works well for this job and can also be used to scoop them up from the cutting board.
If you don’t have shallots on hand then you can substitute yellow onion but shallots have a more subtle flavor that works well with the fish.
Everything goes to together with a quick stir and leftover sauce can be stored covered in the refrigerator for several days.
And now for the slaw:
Be sure to slice your cabbage and red onion very thin. You’ll want to make sure your knife blade is sharp or use a microplane.
If you don’t have a juicer, get one. Even a simple glass juicer as pictured here extracts more juice than trying to squeeze it out with your hands and fresh juice adds so much more flavor than bottled lime or lemon juice.
And then the fish:
Can you really make beer battered fish without the beer? Yes! At least you can if your goal is to get the same light, puffy coating as traditional beer battered fish. Carbonated water has the same fizzy bubbles as beer and keeps the coating light without the added calories of the beer. I’ve used sparkling water made at home with a Sodastream but any carbonated water, such as Club Soda, would work.
You’ll split your spiced flour mix between two bowls and only add water to one of them. The other is for rolling your batter-dipped fish into. I like to use a deep bowl for the batter and a shallow bowl for rolling. A pasta bowl works very well.
Be sure to mix your carbonated water and flour well, as the bubbles make it a bit harder to get rid of the flour lumps. Although if you have a few white flour dots left on your air-fried fish then you can always just say it’s where the Irish leprechauns touched it for good luck.
Serve your St Patty’s Air Fry Fish dressed with tartar sauce and nestled into a bed of colorful cole slaw. Be sure to top with sliced lemons for the fish. So good! And look for healthy chips recipes coming next week to complete your fish and chips Irish holiday.
St Patty’s Air Fry Fish
Servings: 4
Ingredients Fish:
1 pound fresh cod
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika (preferably smoked)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 oz carbonated water
Olive oil spray
Lemon wedges for serving
Ingredients Tartar Sauce:
3/4 cup Non-fat Greek yogurt
2 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
2 tbsp pickle relish
1/2 shallot, minced
1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients Slaw:
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Battered Fish Directions:
Spray an air fryer basket with olive oil. Preheat air fryer to 380 degrees. Cut fish into four servings and pat dry with paper towels.
In a small bowl, stir well together flour and all seasonings: garlic powder, onion power, paprika, salt and pepper. Remove half of flour mix to a wide, shallow bowl. Pour carbonated water into remaining flour mixture in bowl and stir until all flour is blended into the liquid.
Dip one piece of fish into the batter, coating it, then roll it in the dry flour mix in the shallow bowl. Repeat with each remaining piece of fish. Place fish in air fryer basket, spraying each side of the battered fish with olive oil spray.
Cook in air fryer for 12 minutes or to an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
Serve immediately with slaw, tartar sauce, and lemon slices.
Slaw Directions:
Thinly slice cabbage and red onion. Toss in a medium bowl with lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Tartar Sauce Directions:
In a small bowl, add the yogurt, chopped capers, relish, minced shallots, lemon juice, and parsley. Stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in well. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Nutrition per serving including fish, sauce and slaw: 290 calories, 4g fat, 32g protein