Recipe: Paleo Fish Tacos

Paleo Fish Tacos

Walking around Whole Foods and seeing some of their seemingly astronomical prices on things is sometimes awfully discouraging. Until you remember that YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. So I swung by the seafood counter the other day, and they had nice Tilapia fillets on sale for $7.99/lb. Turns out, a single fillet is a little more than 1/4lb, so my dinner for that day was only $2.50 or so. Success! 

However, when I got home, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do with it. So I looked in my fridge and there I miraculously found some butter lettuce, tomatoes, and some bell peppers. It sounded "taco-y" enough, so I went with it. This is very much a veggie garbage-can meal...

Ingredients

• 1 fillet of white, flaky fish (Tilapia, in this case)
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• Seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper
• Optional: Chili-Lime Rub (okay, so not entirely Paleo, but I didn't use much: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/chili-lime-rub/)
• You can use any kind of spice you want here, or just salt and pepper is fine

•  Miscellaneous Diced Vegetables: tomatoes, bell peppers, red cabbage, carrots, etc.
• Optional: 1 tsp Hot Sauce (I used Cholula Hot Sauce - Paleo minus Xanthan Gum: http://www.cholula.com/products/original_hot_sauce.php)
• Optional: 1 tsp Lime or Lemon Juice

Instructions

1.  Heat your pan to medium, and melt the butter until it slightly bubbles. 
2. Wash off and pat dry your fish fillet. Sprinkle salt, pepper and any additional spices generously on one side
3. Just before the butter starts to brown, put the fillet in the pan. Let this cook (untouched) for 4-5 minutes, then flip it over for the next 4-5. You'll end up with bits stuck to the pan, which is perfectly fine. I like a couple of crispies in my tacos, anyways...
4. Once the fish is done cooking, pull the pan off the heat (leaving the fish in the pan), and GENTLY flake the fish. You don't want it disintegrated, just...in smaller pieces. Sprinkle some hot sauce and some lemon or lime juice as you like and gently turn the flakes. 
5. Place this flaked fish inside your butter lettuce leaf (or cabbage, or any other kind of taco shell substitute you want!). You can top this with any kind of vegetable you want: I had tomatoes and yellow bell peppers, but grated carrot, or some salsa (Newman's Own or another less-processed kind) would be great too.
6. Enjoy!

(Sidenote: I made one fillet, and it made one small butter lettuce leaf taco, and then I just put the remainder on my plate with all the veggies and some extra hot sauce and ate it with a fork...)

Thanks for reading!
CJ