Name: Baked Honey Lemon Steelhead Trout
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 steelhead trout fillet ((scaled, skin on or off, about 2 lbs)); 2 Tbsp honey; 2 Tbsp lemon juice ((or lime juice)); 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce; 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard; 1 inch ginger root ((peeled and grated or thinly sliced)); 2 cloves garlic ((pressed, minced or thinly sliced)); 1 tsp kosher salt ((or sea salt)); 1 tsp ground pepper; 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper; 1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped parsley; 1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped cilantro ((or use another tablespoon of parsley)); 2 Tbsp white wine ((you can skip it if you don't any on hand, but I highly recommend adding it)); 2 Tbsp fresh finely chopped parsley ((or cilantro, or a combination of both))

If you are looking for an awesome steelhead trout recipe – look no further. This recipe is so good that you will be making it again and again, I guarantee it. What I like the most about this recipe is the sauce – garlicky, sweet and savory, pleasantly bright and perfectly balanced. And you don’t just slap the sauce on and bake the fish. Instead, you let the trout marinate in it for a few hours and absorb the tasty juices. This makes the fish flavored inside out, and taste many times better as you eat it. In this recipe, all the flavor is contained within the fish itself and no additional sauces are needed.

A few words about the ingredients

The ingredients for this recipe are fairly simple and should be readily available in most kitchens. You can substitute fresh ginger root, parsley and cilantro for dried ones but trust me, fresh herbs and root make this dish so much more flavorful. Fish really benefits from fresh herbs as it quickly and easily absorbs flavors.

Side dishes for this baked trout

I often get questions about what side dish to serve with the recipes I post here, so I thought I’d answer that question pro-actively here. White or brown rice go very well with this trout recipe. Since the fish and the sauce has enough oil in them, plain or lightly seasoned rice would be sufficient.

My personal favorite side dish to serve with this trout is roasted vegetables. I was tempted to make this a one pan or, rather, a one sheet dish, together with the roasted vegetables, but it’s just an opportunity to mess things up. Both require different baking times and overcrowding would lead to less then optimal roasting and browning.

Tips on how to make trout with roasted vegetables

You will need to two large baking sheets. First, roast the vegetables for about 30 minutes, until perfectly caramelized and cooked through. Keep them warm. Then bake the trout.

Alternatively, you can roast the veggies for about 10 -15 minutes on the top rack, then move them down and add the trout to the top rack and bake both until done. Moisture released by the vegetables will impact browning of the fish, so you may have to put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes at the end. That said, I find that baking the two separately is optimal.