Before I got really into the Paleo diet I thought mahi-mahi was just something you ordered in a fancy restaurant. But since then I’ve made it my goal to make restaurant-caliber meals at home with 100% Paleo ingredients. So I just had to try my hand at an amazing mahi mahi recipe and now I’m sharing it with you 🙂
There’s a lot of confusion surrounding mahi mahi and some of my friends thought that it was a euphemism for dolphin. I had to convince them that it was a fish, officially known as a dolphinfish, which is probably the source of the confusion. Once we cleared that up they gave it a try and were hooked.
Mahi mahi cooks up well and has an amazing flavor, so when you start adding ingredients to it it only amps it up. For the fish itself I’ve found that garlic, parsley, and a little red chili are all that’s needed to make it taste great. Add in some lime juice and olive oil for cooking and it comes out perfect every time.
To really top things off and set this recipe apart from other fish recipes you’ll want to make up the mango and red pepper salsa to go along with it. Serving a salsa alongside the fish helps to create a little separation of the flavors. If you bake the salsa with the fish the flavors would be all infused into the fish. However when you top it with the salsa you can taste the flavor of the fish, and also the flavor of the salsa, and each work separately and together at the same time.
The salsa is a simple mix of mango, red bell pepper, & a little onion. A little lime juice helps bring everything together, & a little red chili spices things up just enough. Proof that you don’t need to overcomplicate things to make an impressive meal.
The real joy of this recipe is that it creates a colorful plate that looks like something you’d get at a five-star restaurant. When you cook with Paleo ingredients it’s so easy to make a beautiful looking dish that you’ll have trouble convincing yourself this is diet food. It’s always nice to eat food that feels special, and not like something you are forcing yourself to eat.
This is one of those recipes that you can serve to your friends when entertaining at home and they will feel like you’ve rolled out the red carpet for them. You don’t even have to let them know that it is a Paleo recipe because it’s prepared in a way that makes it seem like a regular dish. Of course you’ll know that you are serving them a healthy dish that also tastes great.
Ingredients
- For the salsa
- 1 mango, peeled and diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 small, fresh or dried, red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
- juice of half a lime
- salt and black pepper to taste
- Rest of ingredients
- 2 (6 ounce) Mahi Mahi fillets
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small, fresh or dried, red chili, finely chopped
- juice of half a lime
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- pinch of salt
- pinch of ground black pepper
Directions
- In a small bowl, prepare marinade by mixing garlic, olive oil, chili, salt, pepper, lime juice and parsley. Place mahi mahi fillets in a medium baking dish, and cover with the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, turning occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until fish is easily flaked with fork. In the meantime prepare the salsa. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for salsa and mix well. Remove the fish from the oven and serve with salsa.