I'm a big fan of vermicelli salads. I make them all of the time as a way to toss all of the produce that I have on hand into a single thing all at once. Curry is another non-boring option for this. Especially since I don't really enjoy lettuce. I almost never have it on hand. For whatever reason, it grows incredibly poorly in my garden. And I just, all around, find lettuce incredibly lackluster. If someone offered you a plate of lettuce with fresh fruits and vegetables on top or a blackened tilapia salad with vermicelli and avocado dip? Which one are you going for?
I generally don't really consider fruits and vegetables as food per say. It is obviously food. You want to mix and match as much produce as you can get into your diet. The biggest complaint I hear from most salads, though, is that they still leave you feeling hungry. No matter how many carrots and bell peppers with lettuce that you eat, there really isn't a lot that's filling about that. Which tends to lead to over-eating later because the starvation that sets in later is unsustainable.
As Americans, we tend to like to stave off this feeling by adding incredibly large amounts of carbohydrates and meat. So, I'm putting my own twist on the quintessential American food by not using lettuce, adding whole wheat vermicelli, and topping it with incredibly affordable tilapia.
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Variations of Blackened Tilapia Salad
I'm a huge fan of tilapia. It's inexpensive, available almost everywhere, an incredibly simple fish to cook. Fish can be a daunting thing to make if you're not used to it. It's so delicate so much of the time that it's obvious when it's under or overcooked. Tilapia is so much simpler to make than a lot of other fish, though. It's so thin that it's almost impossible to undercook. Adding the spices to blacken it also covers up almost all of the imperfections. All that you really have to do is toast it for a couple of minutes on each side and voila! Although I do make similar meals with plenty of other ingreedients if you're feeling adventurous, though.
Add about 4 inches of water to a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook vermicelli according to the manufacturer's instructions.Vermicelli cooks very quickly. I tend to add the vermicelli and then immediately remove it from heat. Then, go on to prepare the produce. Merely sitting in the once boiling water is sufficient enough soften it enough to eat without overcooking.
Avocado Dip
Add all of the avocado dip ingredients to a food processor. Process for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides occasionally.
Blacken Tilapia
Let the tilapia rest until it reaches room temperature.I usually let it sit while the skillet preheats. However, for particularly large fillet's, you may need to remove the tilapia from the fridge a little while before you preheat the skillet. Exactly how long varies widely based on room temperature. Although 15-30 minutes is usually sufficient.
Preheat skillet on medium heat.I use a cast iron pan, but the same basic principle applies in any skillet. If you aren't using cast iron, just make sure to lightly oil the pan to prevent sticking.
Mix the spices together in a small dish or bowl.
Sprinkle spice mix evenly over the tilapia. You can also lay them out across a plate and roll the tilapia in it. The goal is simply to evenly coat the fish with a thin layer of spices. As long as the flesh doesn't directly touch the skillet, you have enough seasoning.
Add tilapia, one or two fillets at a time, to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the spices have begun to blacken and the tilapia begins to firm.
Flip the tilapia and cook another 2-3 minutes, or until the spices have begun to blacken and the tilapia flakes with a fork.If you have any question about whether your tilapia is cooked, official recommendations are to cook until an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point the tilapia, much like a salmon, will begin to fall apart at the fat junctions and "flake" off of a fork. When you've done it enough times, you start to notice this particular type of firmness when the pieces ever-so-slightly begin to separate.
Assemble Salad
Place vermicelli in the center of a plate.
Add filet of tilapia and top with avocado dip, and a dash of salt and pepper.
As a general rule, I don't like to edit images. Food styling, editing, alteration, and even faking entirely is just as rampant a problem in the recipe realm. Cooking is a very visual art and you can tell when a lot of foods are cooked based on the color. So, when this is altered and you can't use the coloration as a gauge, it makes it quite difficult to follow some recipes. I have an entire article about Food Styling and Unrealistic Expectations of Recipes. My place has very warm lighting, though. So, sometimes my camera overcompensates and ends up with an unnatural hues. I've adjusted the hues, levels, and/or cropped the following images:
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