Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Slow-Roasted Fish Tacos and Mango Salsa

Cinco de Mayo is always a great reason to show off your taco game, but these tacos don’t need a holiday to make it into your regular repertoire.

This is a flexible recipe where you can change up the proteins, and change up the flavors for an entirely different experience – keeping it fresh and anything but routine.  Here the fish is slow roasted, which allows for fantastic texture and plenty of time to make the other components of the dish. 

The pairing of a sweet mango salsa with fish or shrimp, can be a great way to get your kids to be a little more adventuresome. Before you know it, they’ll be asking for fish tacos!

This is also a great party food as we turn to warm weather entertaining. It is so easy to just bring your slaw, salsa and sauce out to the grill with your fish and tortillas.  Plan to make this on repeat this summer because it’s fresh, it’s unbelievably flavorful, and it’s even good for you.  It’s what I like to call good mood food!

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa & Cilantro Crema

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 lbs. Salmon or fish of your choice
1 tbsp. Olive oil
1 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. Coriander
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1 tsp. Onion powder
1 tsp. Tajin (chili-lime seasoning)
Street taco tortillas, corn or flour
Sliced avocado for garnish

Slaw

½ red cabbage
4 green onions
Juice of a lime
Salt & pepper, to taste

Mango salsa

3 mangoes
2 green onions
½ bunch of cilantro
Juice of ½ lime
1 tbsp. Olive oil

Cilantro crema

½ c. sour cream
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. cumin
½ bunch cilantro
2 green onions
1-2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno (or to taste)
1 tsp. Honey (or to taste)
Zest and juice of a lime

Preparation

1. 1. Prepare the fish.  Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Place the fish on a sheet pan and drizzle it with oil.  And the cumin, coriander, garlic powder, onion powder, and Tajin and rub to coat the fish well.  Season the fish generously with salt and pepper.  Place the fish in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes – it should just flake apart.
   2. In the meantime, make the slaw.  Thinly slice the cabbage and add it to a bowl.  To the cabbage, add sliced green onions, the juice of a lime, and a generous couple pinches of salt.  Toss everything to coat well and set aside.
   3. Next, make the salsa.  To dice the mangoes, place the mango upright on your cutting board, with the wider end down.  Slice the mango from top to bottom along one side of the seed – about a ¼ inch from the center, and then repeat on the other side so you have two halves.  Next, cut down the length of the mango around the seed, to remove any remaining flesh (see video).  Take one half of the mango and use a paring knife to make lengthwise cuts through the flesh, but not through the skin.  Make the cuts about ¼ inch apart.  Then turn the mango in your hand 90 degrees to make crosswise cuts to create small cubes.  Next, turn the mango halves inside out and carefully cut off the mango cubes into a bowl.  Add roughly chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, the juice of half of a lime, olive oil and salt to taste.  Stir to combine well and then set aside.
   4. Make the cilantro crema.  To make the crema, add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor or blender and process until well combined. Pour into a serving bowl and set aside.
   5. Toast the tortillas.  If you are using corn tortillas, the final thing to do is toast them.  You can do this over an open flame on your stove or grill by placing the tortilla directly over the flame until it starts to char, and then flipping it to repeat on the other side.  If you are using flour tortillas, you can wrap a stack of them in aluminum foil and place them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until they are warmed through.
   6. Assembly.  Once you have all the components completed, you can assemble the tacos by layering slaw, then fish, then mango salsa and then cilantro crema sauce.  ENJOY!

Notes:

• What are good types of fish to use?  Salmon, Mahi-Mahi, cod, most types of white fish, shrimp, etc.
• Don’t want to use fish?  You can use chicken, steak, tofu, etc – it all works!
• Hate cilantro?  You can substitute parsley and it will be really good!
• Don’t have red cabbage?  You can substitute green cabbage, no problem.
• Don’t like spice?  You can omit the jalapeno if you like or use less of it.

Hello, I’m Natalie!  I’m a professionally-trained chef, culinary instructor and recipe developer living in Ann Arbor.  A career change, a trip through culinary school 20 years ago, and being a lifelong Julia Child enthusiast has led me to a career doing my very favorite thing:  making food and cooking approachable to home cooks of all ages!   

My passion for creating great food experiences and getting people excited about learning and having fun in the kitchen is always at the heart of what I do.  You can find me at NatalieMarbleCooks.com.  And on social media you can find me at @NatalieMarbleCooks.  Sign up for my bi-weekly email newsletter here, where I share family-friendly recipes, tips & tricks, new class information, and hopefully a little inspiration!