Grilled Swordfish with Root Vegetable Fries and French Lentil SaladGrilled Swordfish
march 10, 2015

Swordfish has been one of my daughter's favorite foods for as long as I can remember. When I first fed it to her I didn't realize that swordfish isn't on the green list for fish: primarily because they are large, top of the food chain predators.

 That means swordfish is both more endangered and more likely to contain toxic heavy metals (like mercury) than smaller species. So swordfish isn't a healthy or sustainable choice for dinner, mullet or sardines are better.

But it is delicious and there is just no other fish like it: mild flavored with a meaty texture that doesn't flake or fall apart, swordfish is really something special. So we eat it on rare occasions, in small portions. This big piece in the photo is actually swordfish for four. But when we do eat it, I make sure that it tastes delicious. See the recipe below to find out how.

I served this with Maple-Balsamic Root Vegetable "Fries" from p. 250 of The Pollan Family Table and  French Lentil Salad from p. 227 of the same cookbook. 

Grilled Swordfish:

1 lb swordfish steak (this is a small portion for four people)
lemon juice
olive oil
salt
pepper

One pound is enough to give a small piece of fish to four people, but you'll need to offset the portion size with another protein source like lentils or beans and something else that is filling, like a whole grain or root vegetable.

About an hour or so before cooking take the fish out of the refrigerator and lay it in a glass dish. Cut a lemon in half, and squeeze about half the juice out of one half on top of the fish, sprinkle with about a Tablespoon of olive oil, then add salt and pepper. Flip the fish to the other side and squeeze the remaining lemon juice from that same half lemon over the top, sprinkle more olive oil, salt and pepper.

Make whatever other things you'll be serving for dinner, then heat the grill. 

When it is hot, cook the swordfish for about five minutes on each side, depending on how thick the fish is and how hot the grill is. It is cooked when it becomes opaque, you can cut into it with a knife to see how it looks on the inside. 

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