Healthy Spicy Tilapia with Brown Rice

Pan-fried Tilapia served on brown rice. This is what it should look like when you’re done.

Can something be healthy and fried? Probably not, but this came out really good. I’m on this kick now to eat healthier, well I’m trying at least. Baby steps right? I picked up some brown Basmati rice from Trader Joe’s and had a Tilapia filet from Harris Teeter just lying around in the fridge, so I came up with this tasty concoction. Enjoy.

What you’ll need:

• a Tilapia filet
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (regular paprika will still do)
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed powder
• salt
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 clove garlic
• fresh oregano (dried should work too)
• 1 cup brown rice

Before you start the fish, start cooking the brown rice with a teaspoon of olive oil and a few dashes of salt in the water. Oh yea, you should probably have a rice cooker to make this step really easy on you. You will use a ratio of 1 part rice to 2 parts water. You can add a little more water if you like since brown rice takes longer to cook.

Take the Tilapia filet and dredge it in the mixture of cayenne pepper powder, smoked paprika, a dash of salt, flax seed powder and onion powder. You can make this more spicy by adding more cayenne pepper if you like, that’s what I did, I love spicy food. Basically you want to coat both sides of the fish with this mixture and then set it aside.

In a frying pan, heat up the grapeseed oil (or olive oil, whatever) on medium-high heat. Cut the garlic clove in half and drop it into the oil along with fresh oregano leaves (or dried oregano). Let the garlic flavor the oil for a couple minutes. Place the tilapia filet in the frying pan and fry it for about 4-5 minutes on each side or until it’s nice brown and crispy. When done, lay it out on a paper towel to absorb excess grease. Place the tilapia over the cooked rice and enjoy.

If you can’t find flax seed powder, you can just take flax seeds and ground them in a mortar & pestle. I just pick up a bag from Wegman’s nearby. I think Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods carries it as well.