Chili garlic poached cod and cannellini beans in the perfect, easy, stove-top, one pot meal. Cod and beans cooked in a spicy tomato, garlic, and onion broth. Serve as is or over noodles, rice, or polenta.

Raise your hand if you are running low on tasty pantry cooking ideas. My hand is raised as well. Don’t worry.

I totally forgot that, before the pandemic hit and these restrictions went into place, I bought a lot of frozen fish and fish sticks from my local Trader Joe’s.

The most inconvenient thing in my life pre-all this was having to not eat meat on Friday.

Sorry to say, that’s out the window now.

I figure God will forgive me if I don’t eat meat on a Tuesday as opposed to a Friday, right?

My idea to switch things up for dinner came when I saw this poached fish recipe from Alison Roman. I sorta riffed it based on what I had in my pantry.

Cooking these days is a real life version of Chopped.

Use what you have and make it nice.

The base of this recipe comes from olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and a can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes. Toss the canned beans and fish into the sauce, cover with a lid, and let it simmer for a few minutes. 

That’s it!

It is that easy!

The tomato chili garlic broth is so good that even if you don’t have fish on hand, you can double up the beans and make this totally vegetarian.

“Cool Stef. You gave us a killer entree of chili garlic poached cod and cannellini beans. Now what do we serve with it?”

Lemme tell you!

I love this fish over some sautéed spinach, noodles, parmesan polenta, or with a big hunk of sourdough bread.

Pro tip!

Be sure to save some of the chili garlic oil to drizzle over the top at the end of the dish or for your eggs/pasta/garlic bread the next day.

Chili Garlic Poached Cod and Cannellini Beans

Yield: Serves 2-4

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

One pot meal of poached cod and cannellini beans in a chili, garlic, onion, tomato based broth.

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Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced into rings
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes*
• 1, 14.5oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp cooking sherry
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1, 14.5 oz cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 similarly sized pieces of cod*
• fresh parsley
• lemon wedges

Instructions

1. Add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the onions. Cook the onions until tender and almost translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Reduce the heat to low. Cook until fragrant and the garlic starts to ever so slightly turn golden on the edges.
3. Remove all of the onion, garlic, and red pepper from the pan except for about 1 tbsp of oil, and transfer to a small dish off to the side. The oil and garlic will be used to finish the dish.
4. Add the canned tomatoes to the skillet. increase the heat to medium again. Add the sherry and cook for 2 minutes. Smash and super large pieces of tomato with a wooden spoon.
5. Add the water, beans, and salt to the skillet. Stir to combine.
6. Add the pieces of fish to the broth. Cover with a lid. Bring to a simmer. Simmer the fish, covered, for about 6-8 minutes until cooked through.
7. Finish the dish with some lemon juice and zest and a lot of fresh parsley.
8. Before serving add a few good tablespoonfuls of the chili garlic oil mixture to the top of each piece of fish.

Notes

* if you do not like a lot of spice, scale back to 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes, you can always add more later if you want more spice.

* if you don't have cod, you can use tilapia or halibut as well

* or if you want a vegetarian friendly version, disregard the fish, and add in another can of beans

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