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Whole Baked Sea Bass

Whole sea bass baked in oven served on roasted green vegetables on a white plate.

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5 from 1 review

Fresh whole sea bass flavored with a sauce made with parsley, lemon, olive oil and garlic and simply baked in the oven. Green vegetables like leeks and chard leaves are baked in the same pan with the fish. This is one of the easiest weeknight dinner recipes as it takes just about 10 minutes to put everything in the oven.

Ingredients

Herbs:

  • 1 cup leeks (finely chopped)

  • 2 cups chopped chard (chopped)

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • ½ teaspoon salt 

  • ½ teaspoon black pepper

  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Fish:

  • 2 sea bass or any white fish like tilapia and sea bream), about ½ pound/225g each (cleaned and gutted)

  • Sea salt

  • Black pepper 

Sauce:

  • 1 cup parsley, finely chopped

  • 1 lemon (juice only)

  • 1 clove garlic, mashed 

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven at 450F/230C. 

Herbs:

  1. Place the chopped leek and chard in a baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over them, sprinkle salt and pepper. Give it a good stir. 

Prepare the whole fish:

  1. Rinse the sea bass fish and pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut 3-4 diagonal slits on each side of the fish. 

  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them and place them on the greens in the baking pan.

Sauce:

  1. In a medium bowl, mix parsley, lemon, garlic, olive oil and salt. 

  2. Brush the cavity of each fish and the slits on them with this sauce. Save some for serving.

Bake:

  1. Bake the fish for 20 minutes or until their top is golden brown.

  2. Serve it with extra green sauce and on the roasted chard and leek. 

Notes

  1. Make sure the fish you buy is fresh. Fresh fish has shiny and vibrant eyes and a firm skin. Also, the fish shouldn’t smell too fishy.
  2. The baking duration might change depending on the size or thickness of your whole fish.

  3. Don’t cover the pan with foil when baking. Otherwise, the skin won’t get browned and a little crispy.

  4. Don’t over-cook.

  5. You can use this recipe for sea bass fillets too. Place the skin sides down, spread the green sauce over the white meat and bake for 10-15 minutes.

  6. If you want, you can leave out the herbs and the green sauce. Then you’ll need to line the baking pan with parchment paper or foil, sprinkle salt and pepper all over the fish, oil well with a brush and roast the fish on its own.

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