Sayadieh (Lebanese spiced fish and rice)
Warmly spiced rice cooked with deeply caramelized onions, topped with golden fish and toasted almonds, the fisherman’s dish of Lebanon.
- 60 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.37 a serving
- 570 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice, rinsed
- 1¼ lb frozen white fish fillets, thawed and patted dry
- ¼ cup almonds, roughly chopped
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, divided
- 2 tsp ground cumin, divided
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- 1¾ tsp salt, divided
- 2½ cups water
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 570 calories, 30 g protein, 68 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $2.37 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot with a lid over medium heat. Cook the onions for 15 to 20 minutes, often, until deep .
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.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium heatTimer: 17 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Deep brown, not black, gives the rice its color and sweet, rich flavor. Turn the heat down if they darken too fast.Scoop out about a third of the onions and set them aside for the top.
Add the rice, 1 teaspoon of the cumin, the cinnamon and turmeric to the pot and for 1 minute.
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.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Pour in the water, add 1¼ teaspoons of the salt and .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn the heat to low and cook for 18 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
Meanwhile, the fish with the rest of the cumin and salt and the pepper.
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 the rest of the oil in a large nonstick over medium-high heat and cook the fish 3 to 4 minutes per side, until and it flakes easily. Move it to a plate.
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.
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: 7 min
Food safety: Fish is done at 145°F, when the middle looks opaque and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Toast the almonds in the same over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, , until .
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.
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.
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: 2 min 30 sec
Take the rice off the heat and let it sit, covered, for 5 minutes, then fluff it with a fork.
Timer: 5 min
Spoon the rice onto a platter, set the fish on top and scatter the saved onions, almonds and parsley over. Serve with lemon wedges.
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.
