Poached Cod with Tomatoes + Pesto
and how most things aren't nearly as hard as our minds make them out to be
One thing most of us are REALLY good at: believing something will be hard before we've even given ourselves the chance to try it - in the kitchen and in life.
Poaching, and cooking fish in general, is a good example of this. It might look or sound fancy-pants, but in reality, poaching is a cooking method that just means gently cooking something in liquid.
I actually consider it to be one of the most forgiving cooking methods (AKA really hard to F up) because it doesn’t require high heat or constant monitoring.
I think the same thing generally goes for fish - it looks or sounds harder than it really is to cook. So naturally, I’m challenging both beliefs today with an easier than it looks, and even easier to customize, poached cod recipe that requires less than 10 ingredients.
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part - you can cook the fish straight from the freezer. No thawing required!
Doesn’t get much better than that, y’all!
Keep scrolling for:
The recipe, tools, instructions, and notes
A video demo for Poached Cod with Tomatoes + Pesto
Poaching as a cooking skill + how this can support you in the kitchen
Poached Cod with Tomatoes + Pesto
Details
Time: Less than 30 minutes total
How to prepare: Gather tools and ingredients
What you’ll need: Tools
Pan with a tight fitting lid
Colander - for rinsing tomatoes
Knife + cutting board
Bowl - for trash as you go
Spatula and/or spoon
Meat thermometer
What you’ll need: Ingredients
Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
Shallot - 2, sliced
Garlic - 2 cloves, sliced
Cherry tomatoes - 1-2 pints
Broth - 1 cup *see notes below
Frozen cod filets, 2-4
Spinach - about 2 cups
Pesto - about 2-4 tablespoons
Diamond Crystal kosher salt - ¼ teaspoon, more or less based on the type of broth you use
Fresh cracked pepper
How to make Poached Cod with Tomatoes + Pesto
Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your pan over medium heat.
Add sliced shallot and garlic and sauté for about 1 minute. Turn the heat down if you notice that the garlic is browning too quickly.
Add tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and sauté until soft enough to crush with the back of a spoon or spatula, about 5-7 minutes.
Add broth to the pan.
Rinse frozen fish filets in cold water (to remove any ice) and add to the pan.
Bring to a simmer and put the lid on the pan. The cook time will vary based on the thickness of the fish, but I check it after 6-7 minutes.
Check the temperature and once the fish reaches 135°F, turn off the heat and mix in spinach. It will start to wilt pretty quickly.
Add as much pesto as you’d like and mix.
Serve with any carbohydrate you enjoy, like pasta, gnocchi, rice, roasted potatoes, etc.
Notes:
I use (and love) Better Than Bouillon paste to make the broth here. You just add 1 teaspoon per cup of water, and it allows you to make small batches of broth at a time, which is great for meals like this that only need about a cup!
Why + how this can help you in the kitchen
I can almost guarantee that poaching (especially with fish) will be much simpler than it sounded before you landed here.
Which brings us back to the bigger point of this whole post: most things aren’t nearly as hard as our minds make them out to be.
As the philosopher Seneca put it: “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
And while he probably wasn’t talking about cooking frozen cod in tomatoes and pesto, the point still stands.
Sometimes the thing we’ve built up in our heads as complicated, intimidating, or impossible ends up being… dinner on the table in way less than 30 minutes.
I’ll share more poached fish recipes in the near future because I’m such a fan, but in the meantime, know that you can make this meal your own by changing up the poaching liquid, aromatics, and veggies. It could be anything from the broth + tomato + pesto situation here, to coconut milk, to melted butter, to wine if that’s your thing.
And the fact that you can poach fish from frozen?! No extra planning and thawing required? Incredible.