Baked Haddock and Shredded Vegetables with Almond Gremolata

In this classic New Nordic recipe, haddock fillets are baked on a bed of shredded vegetables and topped with lemon yogurt sauce and almond gremolata. A healthful one-pan fish and vegetable bake with multiple layers of flavor.

Local, seasonal, pure, simple, healthy, and cooked-from-scratch – that is the essence of New Nordic cooking. This baked haddock recipe is all that: a North Atlantic fish (local for me), baked on top of fresh fall veggies – shredded cabbage, fennel and asparagus – and topped with tangy lemon-yogurt sauce and gremolata made from almonds, lemon zest and shallots. 

When I first started researching New Nordic Cuisine I wasn’t sure I’d succeed in finding a recipe suitable for the home chef or for this blog. What I did find were gorgeous, earthy-looking plates of stuff that I didn’t even recognize as food: tartare of Swedish horse, potatoes and pig blood, ant salt, beach grass, hay, bees-wax ice cream…you get the picture.

What exactly is New Nordic Cuisine?

The concept of “New Nordic” was developed by a bunch of Scandinavian chefs who decided to take “eating locally and sustainably” to heart – to live and cook in tune with the seasons and in harmony with nature. It’s a philosophy that I love too! However it isn’t easy being a strict “locavore,” especially when you’re a chef that lives in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland or Sweden – where the winters are relentlessly long and frigid. Still, for many chefs, the challenges of the native climate have spurred their creativity and intensified their resolve to cook what nature has to offer.

One of the world’s top restaurants – Noma, in Copenhagen – is strictly New Nordic. In fact Noma’s co-founders Claus Meyer and Rene Redzepi spearheaded the New Nordic Movement. In 2004, they got a group of top Scandinavian chefs together to discuss the future of Nordic Cuisine, and they drafted The New Nordic Kitchen Manifesto.  

Some key points of New Nordic Ideology:

• “Base our cooking on ingredients and produce whose characteristics are particularly excellent in our climates, landscapes and waters and to reflect the changing of the seasons in the meals we make.”
• “Combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge of health and well-being.”
• “Promote animal welfare and a sound production process in our seas, on our farmland and in the wild.”

How To Make This Baked Haddock and Vegetables:

Everything cooks in the oven in one baking pan. The veggies – shredded cabbage, fennel and asparagus –  need more cooking time than the fish, so they go into the oven first. After 15 minutes, the fish is added on top of the half-cooked veggies. Almond gremolata is sprinkled on top, the pan goes back into the oven for 10 minutes, and dinner is ready.

I think about the New Nordic ideology whenever we have this for dinner – appreciating the freshness, purity, simplicity and seasonality of all the ingredients as I enjoy the wonderful flavors of the meal. 

You might also like:

• Swedish Glogg
• Hasselback Potatoes
• Danish Aebleskivers

Here’s the New Nordic Baked Haddock recipe. If you try this recipe I hope you’ll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I’d love to know what you think.

Baked Haddock and Shredded Vegetables with Almond Gremolata

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

One-pan baked fish and vegetables. A delicious healthful meal meal with multiple layers of flavor.

Adapted from a recipe in The Nordic Diet

• Author: Lisa
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 5 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: Scandinavian

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

For The Yogurt Sauce:

• 3/4 cup low fat plain yogurt
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
• Pinch of salt

For The Gremolata:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 1/2 tablespoons minced shallots (1 large or 2 small)
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped almonds
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

For The Vegetables and Fish:

• 4 cups finely shredded green cabbage (1/3 – 1/2 cabbage)
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and thinly sliced by hand or with a mandoline (reserve fronds for garnish)
• 1 bunch of thick asparagus, tough ends cut off, sliced lengthwise into quarters and then in half crosswise. If using extra thin asparagus, no need to cut them lengthwise.
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
• 5 6-ounce skinless boneless Haddock fillets (or substitute cod or halibut)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1 juicy lemon)
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

1. Make the Yogurt Sauce Stir all the ingredients together and keep covered in the fridge.
2. Make the Gremolata Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a small non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, almonds and lemon zest and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until fragrant and softened a bit. Set aside.
3. Cook the Vegetables and Fish: In a large bowl, toss the shredded vegetables with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Spread veggies out in a large casserole dish and cook in the hot oven for 15 minutes. The veggies should be almost cooked through. Remove casserole from the oven. Place fish on top of the vegetables. Drizzle 2 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle 3 tablespoons lemon juice over the fish. Season the fish with 1/4 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Sprinkle the gremolata over the fish and vegetables. Put the casserole back in the oven for 8-12 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through and the veggies are tender. (timing will vary based on the thickness of the fish). The fish will continue to cook even after you remove it from the oven, so err on the side of taking it out when it’s slightly underdone.
4. To Serve: Divide vegetables and fish between 5 plates. Decorate plates with fennel fronds, if you like. Serve with lemony yogurt sauce on the side.

Keywords: Baked haddock with vegetables, one-pan fish and vegetable dinner

This recipe first appeared on Panning The Globe in September 2014. The post was updated on September, 2020 with added nutritional information, clarifying details to the written post and  a new name to more accurately describe the dish (it was previously titled “New Nordic Haddock On Shredded Vegetables). Also, based on feedback, the initial cooking time for the vegetables has been increased from 10 minutes to 15.