Cod with white beans and spinach
Golden seared cod on a bed of garlicky white beans, spinach and burst tomatoes, an Italian-style skillet dinner that’s light but filling.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $7.59 a serving
- 550 calories
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 cod fillets, about 6 oz each, thawed if frozen
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 4 cups baby spinach
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp grated parmesan (optional)
From your pantry
- ¾ tsp salt, divided
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Each serving has about 550 calories, 46 g protein, 43 g carbs and 23 g fat, and costs about $7.59 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No cod fillets? Tilapia fillets work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the cod dry and with ½ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick over medium-high heat until it . Cook the cod for 3 to 4 minutes without moving it, until underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: It sticks at first. When the crust forms, it lets go on its own, and that’s when you flip.Flip and cook 2 to 3 minutes more, until it flakes easily in the thickest part. Move it to a plate.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Food safety: Fish is done at 145°F, when the middle looks opaque and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Turn the heat to medium, add the rest of the oil, the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook about 1 minute, until the garlic is pale .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Add the tomatoes and cook 2 minutes, until they start to burst.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
in the beans, broth and the rest of the salt and 3 minutes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Add the spinach a handful at a time and until it , then squeeze in the lemon juice.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heat
Spoon the beans into shallow bowls, set the cod on top and finish with the parmesan.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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