Cod with Carrot & Cucumber
Hot fish on a cold salad. The cod gets 3 minutes per side in a hot skillet while everything else stays cool — julienned carrot, cucumber, scallion, and quinoa tossed with a mustard-honey dressing.
The dressing is the quiet star. Lemon juice, the other half of the olive oil, yellow mustard, and honey whisked together and stirred straight into the quinoa. It coats every grain.
480 kcal and 29g of protein in 20 minutes. Most of that time is the quinoa cooking itself.
Ingredients
- cod fillet (frozen) 1 fillet
- quinoa 56 g
- carrot 1 piece
- cucumber 0.5 piece
- scallion 1 piece
- olive oil 15 ml
- lemon juice 5 ml
- yellow mustard 7 g
- honey 7 g
Method
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Let the cod thaw slightly.
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Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the package, drain and let cool.
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Julienne the carrot and cucumber. Slice the scallion into thin rings. Combine with the quinoa in a bowl.
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Rub the cod with salt and pepper. Heat half of the oil in a skillet and place the fish in the pan. Cook the cod for 3 minutes on each side until done.
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Mix the lemon juice with the remaining olive oil, mustard and honey to make a dressing. Stir this into the quinoa, seasoning with salt and pepper.
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Serve the quinoa salad on a (deep) plate and place the cod on top.
Cook the quinoa first and spread it on a plate to cool. Warm quinoa wilts the julienned vegetables and you lose the crunch. The dressing doubles as a finishing sauce: drizzle any extra over the cod before serving. Fresh dill or parsley on top adds a layer the salad quietly needs.
Behind this recipe
Can I use fresh cod instead of frozen?
Fresh works fine. Adjust the cooking time down by about a minute per side since fresh fillets tend to be thinner. The recipe calls for frozen because it is widely available and usually cheaper per fillet.
Is 49 grams of carbs a lot for one meal?
Depends on your daily target. At 49g, this sits near the floor of most cut-friendly meal plans. Across 32 controlled feeding studies with 5,192 participants, the specific carb number mattered less for fat loss than total calories and protein. Researchers found that swapping carbs for fat changed daily fat loss by 16 grams, about three sugar packets.
Read the full evidence reviewDoes eating carbs at dinner slow fat loss?
Four independent analyses found no difference in body composition based on whether carbs landed in the morning or evening, as long as daily totals matched. A 2025 crossover trial confirmed the same for overnight glucose regulation. The body runs on a 24-hour budget, not a meal-by-meal timer.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy quinoa instead of rice?
Quinoa delivers all nine essential amino acids, making it a complete protein, which white rice is not. It also holds its shape in a cold salad better than rice, which tends to clump once it cools. The 8g of fiber per serving is a bonus.
