The Best Fish Recipes for Easy Family Dinners
Family dinners on school nights call for prepared fish entrees suitable for entertaining but not overly complicated to cook and clean up. Recipes on this page include a honey-glazed grilled salmon recipe, citrus shrimp with spices, cold dill salad, sun-dried tomato pasta with cream sauce, and a salmon and asparagus combination meal. Several fish recipes can be prepared at home during the week.
Why These Fish Recipes Work
- Weeknight Meals: Spicy lemon garlic shrimp cooks in 20 minutes. Garlic butter salmon cooks in 25 minutes and serves four people.
- Easy Cleanup Meals: Salmon and asparagus cooked in butter and other fats and juices with lemon in a single pan, fewer dishes to clean after dinner.
- Busy-Day Lunch Ideas: A recipe for cold shrimp salad with poached shrimp and vegetables tossed in a lemon and dill dressing is one option for a lunch dish.
- Family Dinner Ideas: Creamy pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and shrimp and gluten-free penne and Parmesan cheese and spinach are good family dinner options.
- Small Groups: Garlic butter salmon serves four and is pan-fried with a golden-brown crust. This meal is ideal for entertaining a group of friends.
1. Honey Glazed Salmon Bowls with Crisp Salmon and Paprika Mayo
Roasting individual pieces of honey-coated salmon fillets in the oven browns the salmon exterior, and broiling salmon cubes briefly crisps the cubes without changing the tender center for a slightly burned, honey-glazed taste. Honey-glazed salmon bowls contain brown rice, sliced avocado, shredded cucumber, honey-glazed salmon cubes, and a paprika-mayonnaise topping. The salmon's breading ingredients include avocado oil, honey, soy sauce or tamari, and sriracha. Honey is used in the breading for sweetness and thickness. Soy sauce or tamari adds flavor contrast to the breading. Sriracha adds spice that you can control. The cucumber-avocado salad dressing includes olive oil, cilantro, lime juice, and honey. Brown rice is served with the salmon and salad. The mayo sauce includes low-fat mayo, lime juice, paprika, cumin, and honey. The mayo sauce adds tangy and spicy flavors. Fish cubes should be spread in one layer on the baking sheet to ensure heat reaches the coated surfaces. Cooked fish cubes will turn opaque. Broiling will give fish cubes the crunchy texture mentioned in the recipe. The biggest problem to watch out for when roasting fish cubes is overcrowding the baking sheet. Overcrowding will prevent the coating on fish cubes from browning. Monitor broiled fish cubes to avoid burning the honey coating. For the meal, the rice adds a hot contrast to the cold avocado and cucumber and salmon ingredients, which can be drizzled with sauce. Other add-ins might include sesame seeds, green onions, jalapeños, snap peas, or steamed broccoli. The salad should be served right away for contrast with the salmon.
2. Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp with Buttery Citrus Sauce
Ready in 20 minutes, this lemon and garlic shrimp dish with red pepper flakes is a one-pan meal made with jumbo shrimp, butter or olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, white wine, and other ingredients. Jumbo shrimp cooked in lemon-butter sauce with red pepper flakes provides a spicy taste, though you can reduce the spiciness of this dish. Butter or olive oil is sautéed with garlic, onion powder, paprika, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper for flavoring. Large peeled and deveined shrimp are stirred into the skillet, and lemon juice and white wine are stirred in at the end to create a sauce. Fresh cilantro is stirred in at the end for flavor but does not need to be cooked. Sautéing the spices in oil before adding the shrimp helps build flavor in the dish. Search for pink, nontransparent shrimp for best results. Cook shrimp in sauce until completely covered. Overcooking shrimp is the primary risk. According to the article's author, jumbo shrimp cook for two to three minutes on each side and can become tough. Pat dry any thawed frozen shrimp to prevent the sauce from becoming watery. Use a big pan to prevent overcrowding while cooking shrimp quickly. Eat immediately with rice, pasta, or another salad. Other recipes the article suggests include Avocado Cucumber Salad and Iced Tea Lemonade. You can reheat leftovers in a skillet over low heat with broth or lemon water, according to the article. Do not reheat leftovers in the microwave, as suggested in the article, because shrimp can be fragile.
3. Shrimp Salad with Creamy Lemon Dill Dressing and Crisp Vegetables
Use jumbo shrimp in this cold shrimp salad; poaching them helps retain moisture and tenderness. Use a mayonnaise-based dressing for the shrimp salad and season the shrimp with lemon juice and fresh dill, and add sweet bell peppers, celery, and green onions for extra taste and texture. Bell peppers, celery, and green onions provide flavor and texture contrasts to the shrimp. Mayonnaise adds body and creaminess to the dip. Lemon juice and dill add flavors typically paired with shrimp. The recipe allows for the use of precooked shrimp but recommends cooking shrimp for this dish. Choose high-quality store-bought or homemade mayonnaise for this recipe. Once the water is boiling, the crucial part of this recipe is to remove it from the heat before adding the shrimp. Poach large shrimp for three minutes or so in the hot water to cook them thoroughly without overcooking. There is no guidance on visual cues for cooked shrimp in this recipe. Do not boil the shrimp for longer than three minutes. Overcooking is one of the biggest risks associated with preparing this recipe; shrimp must be cooked for a short time in hot water to prevent overcooking. Serve the cold salad with saltine crackers and other toppings. Fill rolls with salad. Roll the salad in flour tortillas. Use leaves of lettuce or endive. If you have time, refrigerate the salad, covered, for an hour or so after preparing it to enhance the dill and lemon and other vegetable flavors. Other sauces are not recommended.
4. One-Pan Keto Salmon and Asparagus with Butter and Lemon
Cooking asparagus in butter makes it tender without becoming mushy. This keto salmon and asparagus one-pan meal features seasoned salmon and asparagus, pan juices, and a serving of lemon juice. The ingredients listed for this recipe are trimmed asparagus, butter, skinless salmon, salt, pepper, and 1/2 lemon. Half of the butter is heated in a pan with asparagus and cooked over medium heat. The other half of the butter is heated in the pan before the salmon. The salmon is seasoned with salt and pepper in the pan. The lemon is saved for a final garnish. Cooking as described allows the juices from the butter, asparagus, and salmon to mix in the pan and serve together. Watch the asparagus for four to five minutes to prevent it from overcooking or being soggy before adding the salmon. Flip the salmon halfway through cooking to thoroughly coat the asparagus with melted butter. Challenges to preparing this recipe properly include overcooking or undercooking the asparagus relative to the salmon. The time required to cook the asparagus will be less than the time required to cook the entire recipe. Serve salmon and asparagus on plates with pan juices over salmon and asparagus and lemon juice. This recipe serves two. The article recommends doubling or increasing the recipe. When doubling or increasing the recipe, use a pan large enough to accommodate both the asparagus and salmon, as they are prepared together.
5. Marry Me Shrimp Pasta with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
Marry Me Shrimp Pasta, a family dinner recipe, has seasoned shrimp and gluten-free cooked penne pasta in a sun-dried tomato sauce with Parmesan and spinach. C-shaped and pink shrimp and pieces of sun-dried tomato give it a homemade look and flavor. The shrimp are flavored with smoked paprika, Italian seasonings, salt, and pepper and sautéed in sun-dried tomato oil. Shrimp are removed, and the same pan is used to sauté garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, and other dried herbs in butter. A gluten-free flour blend is used as a thickener, and vegetable broth, heavy cream, spinach, and Parmesan are added to the pan to create a sauce for cooked penne. Cook aromatics in a pan on medium-low heat. Stir in other ingredients like flour, broth, cream, and spinach until the sauce thickens and the spinach cooks. Stir in Parmesan cheese so it is evenly distributed throughout the dish rather than forming clumps on top. Check the shrimp. Curved pink shrimp are done; straight shrimp are overcooked. Serve the pasta straight from the pan, garnished with fresh basil. The recipe serves six people and is a full meal suitable for a family dinner. Reheat leftovers in a deep pan on low to medium heat. The recipe notes that freezing is not recommended because of the cream in the dish.
6. Garlic Butter Salmon with Golden Crust and Fresh Lemon
Weeknight meal for a small group: This garlic butter salmon recipe serves four in 25 minutes. Seasoned flour-coated boneless and skinless salmon fillets are pan-fried until golden brown. Serve with a butter, garlic, vegetable broth, and parsley sauce. Lemon wedges are served with the salmon to enhance the flavor of each bite. Seasoned flour provides flavor to the fish along with garlic powder, salt, and pepper to brown it. Seasoned flour helps thicken the sauce coating the fish. Fresh garlic is used instead of bottled garlic, and unsalted butter lets you season the dish to your liking. Vegetable broth is used in the sauce to make it spoonable rather than greasy. Wait until the outer layer of salmon is cooked on both sides before checking for doneness. You will be returning the salmon to the pan. Salmon is fully cooked when it is flaky and has a light pink interior. Quickly stir the garlic to avoid burning it and making the sauce too bitter. Boiling the sauce too hard can also cause it to break. Serve fillets with additional sauce and a lemon wedge on the side so people can squeeze lemon juice onto their fillets while eating. According to the article, options include Parmesan smashed potatoes and asparagus or bread and a green salad. Additional side dish options include baked or mashed potatoes and green beans to go with the sauce.
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