Mediterranean Baked Cod recipe

My recipe for baked cod is a healthy, delicious one pan recipe that you can make quickly! This recipe for Mediterranean Cod is full of incredible flavors, amazing vegetables and can be made in 35 minutes. It’s fancy enough for a holiday meal and still simple enough for an everyday dinner. Save the recipe now! 

I’m a lover of seafood. If I had my choice I would eat it every day. Alas, we are surrounded by water with only lake food. (Not my favorite.) We have one good fish market here but it doesn’t open until 11 a.m., which is fairly inconvenient for me because once I drop the kids at school, I’m not going back out two hours later smack dab in the middle of my work/farming day. Instead we tend to order some of our seafood in whenever we have it and we recently ordered Wild Alaskan Cod filets so I could make my recipe for Mediterranean Cod. 

This is a recipe for baked cod and truly there are so many things that I love about it that I don’t even know where to start. From the light tasting fish, to the massive amounts of vegetables that are baked with it and the flavorful gremolata parsley topping; there’s just so many delicious aspects to my recipe for Mediterranean cod. So let’s start from the top, yes?

What is cod?

Cod is a fish that is typically found in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean or in the Pacific near Alaska. It is a dense white fish that has a very mild flavor. It comes in dense fillets so there’s virtually no prep work needed in order to cook it. It’s a flakey fish and one of the most common ways to cook it is to batter it and fry it. in fact, when you get fried fish at restaurants, it is usually cod fish. However, cod can be cooked in a variety of ways from frying to steaming, grilling and baking.  My recipe for Mediterranean Cod focuses on baking it, which makes it perfect for a year-round, amazing meal. 

Making my recipe for Baked Cod

Baking cod is one of the healthier ways you can prepare it. In fact, I love my recipe for baked cod because of this first and foremost. If you’re looking for ways to eat a little healthier, baking fish is certainly one of the most positive ways you can go. With just a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and some dried herbs you can have a healthy, filling meal that bakes up quickly. 

The overall baking time for cod filets is between 12-15 minutes. Because my recipe for baked cod has vegetables added in, the total time for my recipe for Mediterranean Cod is about 35 minutes. 

The vegetables I use include cherry tomatoes, artichokes, Kalamata olives, pepper and potatoes. Some people might not think potatoes are a Mediterranean food and instead think about pasta and rice, but potatoes are heavily used in Mediterranean dishes too. Since I wanted my recipe for Mediterranean Cod to be a full meal, I decided to include them in the pan versus making a separate serving of rice or noodles. As the meal stands, it fits into the Whole 30 diet too.

Adding a Gremolata 

Because cod is such a lightly flavored fish, you really need to make sure that it is seasoned well. This means season it heavily. My recipe for baked cod does just that with the mix of the vegetables, some dried seasoning and a fresh Gremolata garnish. Gremolata is mainly made of fresh parsley and it is considered a zesty Italian condiment. Many people will call it a sauce but it’s not truly a sauce because you want it to stay a little chunkier. You don’t want it to be as smooth as say a pesto sauce. 

To make the Gremolata for my recipe for Mediterranean Cod, you simply combine, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper in a food processor and roughly chop it. 

Can you make the recipe for baked cod without this? Yes, you can but I don’t recommend it. The Gremolata sauce really just adds that flavor on top that pulls the whole dish together for my Mediterranean Cod. 

Tips for my recipe for Mediterranean Cod

• Make sure to use high quality extra virgin olive oil. Since the fish itself isn’t fatty, the extra fat included in the olive oil will help with the flavor profile. 
• This is one of the few recipes where I recommend using dried herbs as opposed to fresh. EXCEPT when it comes to making the Gremolata. Please use fresh parsley for that, fresh lemon juice and that good quality extra virgin olive oil. 
• I use baby Dutch potatoes in this recipe for baked cod and cut them about 1/2 inch thick. The thickness will be important since you need them to cook through in the baking pan. 
• Use artichokes from a jar for this recipe with no additional seasoning. You can usually find them packed din olive oil with seasoning and without. Use the ones without. I usually use Napoleon Brand but I’ve also used Mezzetta and Reese’s. Cut them in half if they are whole hearts. 
• You shouldn’t have to do anything to prepare you Cod filets, n o matter where you get them from. Every now and then through you might find a very small bone in the filets so just be aware of that. I had one that popped up onto the surface after cooking. They will look like a sliver of plastic so just don’t want you to be alarmed if you’ve never made cod before. 
• Drain the capers this recipe calls for before adding them to the baking dish.
• As far as saving this, I don’t recommend keeping the fish. Make what you need for the people you’re serving. You can save the vegetables, but since they were cooked with the fish, I only recommend saving them 24 hours. You can reheat them in the microwave and they would be wonderful on a ned of fresh arugula the next day. 

What to cook it in

I cooked 4 filets in my baking dish. You only see 3 because one was a different shape and it didn’t look right in the photos. 🙂 You will need a large baking pan for 4 of these. You cannot fit 4 or all the vegetables in a regular 9×13. Something like this one {HERE} at 11×8 or this 15×10 {HERE} would work best. Mine is from a few years ago at Target, either Magnolia or Chrissy Teigan, and it doesn’t look like they carry it anymore. If you are only making two cod filets you can probably get it all in a 9×13. 

Looking for more easy, healthy meals? Or looking for more seafood? 

Try these recipes if you’re looking for more seafood recipe ideas or just looking for a few healthier dinner options. 

• Salmon with goat Cheese and Herbs {HERE}
• Tilapia Ceviche {HERE}
• Baked Butter Garlic Shrimp Scampi {HERE}
• Shrimp Salad with Old Bay Seasoning {HERE}
• Italian Roasted Cauliflower Steaks {HERE}
• Beet and Apple Salad {HERE}
• Beet Soup {HERE}

Thank you so much for stopping by today, friends! I hope you love my recipe for baked cod inspired by Mediterranean flavors. You can find the full, printable recipe below. I hope you will come visit us again. Happy eating.