Grilled Tilapia with Almond and Peach Salsa

A hot, steamy day today turned into a nice evening for sparking up the grill. Tilapia is a staple fish at our place: we use it in fish tacos, ceviche and for poaching with tomatos and garlic, among other things. Tonight it was simply seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice and cooked quickly on the gas grill.




Melissa made up an inspired salsa for her perfectly grilled fish. To a base of diced fancy tomatoes she added slivered almonds and diced peach, radish and red onion with a little fresh basil from the garden. Salt and pepper to taste and a beautiful garnish made the dish.

A bottle of 2006 Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, NZ) complemented the meal nicely.

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Recipe and Notes

Talapia Fillets with peach and almond salsa

2 talapia fillets
Salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Juice of ½ lemon

200g of finely diced tomatoes
100g of finely diced peach
50 g of finely diced radish
50 g of finely diced red onion
1 heaped tbsp of finely minced basil leaves
Juice of ½ lemon
25g of finely diced almonds
Salt and Pepper to season

Combine all salsa ingredients and refrigerate until fish is ready to serve. Grill seasoned tilapia fillets on lightly oiled BBQ on medium heat. Tilapia is a moist flakey white fish from Mexico. It has a delicate flavour and provides an excellent blank slate for whatever is added to it. It could be replaced with any other white fish such as Snapper, Striped Sea Bass or even Swordfish in this dish. I wouldn’t try it with something like Mackerel though. Grilling fish on the BBQ is tricky because when you flip it you’re liable to have it all fall apart on you. The trick is to leave it long enough to get a nice golden crust fire side down without poking or prodding at it too much (~5mins depending on whether it’s straight out of the fridge or less if it sat at room temperature for a little while). When it’s ready it should come away from the grill easily when a fish slice/metal spatula is slid underneath it. If you cooked it with a cover to keep the heat in, the top-side should also have turned from translucent to opaque, which indicates the fish is almost cooked through. Flip the fish and cook for a further minute or two to get the golden colour on both sides of the fillet. Carefully transfer fish from grill to plate for serving without risking a second flip. Provided you don’t cook the fish too long it should remain tender and juicy. The aim is to catch it at the point when the last sliver of translucent flesh inside the fillet turns opaque. Not 30 seconds more, not 30 seconds less.

Once on the plate top the fish with some salsa and garnish with a whole basil leaf, 2 slices of peach and 2 slices of small tomatos. I bought a medley of tomatoes from Whole Foods and really liked the deep purple and green striped tomatoes the best. They were listed on the label as “exotics” – a chocolate fish for the first person to find out what they really are….