Salad w/ Catfish, Calabaza Squash Rice, & Avocado
This catfish salad combines air fryer catfish, rice cooker brown rice, and food processor avocado dip. It's a surprisingly quick and easy meal that's exceedingly simple to throw together. It looks far more impressive than the effort that it takes to actually make it. And one of those meals that tastes as great as it looks. Without actually having to put that much effort into it.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
- Food Processor
- 3 Bowls
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
Calabaza Squash Rice
- 1/2 c. calabaza squash roasted & puréed
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 red onion diced
- 2 Anaheim peppers diced
- dash cumin
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- 1 c. brown rice
- 2 ½ c. water (or vegetable broth)
Avocado Dip
- 6 avocados
- 6 cloves garlic
- 6 limes juiced
- 1 ½ c. Greek yogurt
- 2 c. walnuts
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- dash salt
- dash pepper
Breaded Catfish
- 1 fillet catfish
- 1/4 c. flour
- 1 egg whisked
- 1/4 c. bread crumbs
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- dash cayenne pepper
- spritz oil for coating
Salad
- 1/3 c. calabaza squash rice
- 1 fillet catfish breaded & fried
- 1/3 c. avocado dip
- 2 leaves lettuce shredded
Instructions
Cook Rice
- I used Roasted Calabaza Squash in this recipe. This takes a couple of hours and requires a calabaza (or other squash or pumpkin of choice) as well as aluminum foil and a baking dish.
- Add all of the ingredients for the rice into a rice cooker. I like to start with the larger vegetables and then add the smaller ingredients.This cooks the larger vegetables on the bottom, while dispersing the flavor profiles in the middle. Although with some mixing, this really doesn't matter all that much. Everything will eventually cook together!
- Press the cook button on the rice cooker. It should take about 45 minutes to cook.
- When the rice is fully cooked, let sit for 10 minutes, and then fluff with a wooden spoon and serve.
Make Avocado Dip
- Add all of the ingredients for the avocado dip into a food processor. Process for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides occasionally.
Prepare Catfish
- In 3 separate bowls, add the flour, whisked eggs, and bread crumbs with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.
- Dip the fish fillet into the flour. If you don't have bowl or Tupperware container the right size to fit an entire fillet of fish into, you can also put the fish on a plate, sprinkle the flour on top, and then pick the fish up and shake slightly to remove the excess flour.
- Dip the fish in the egg wash.
- Dip the fish into the breadcrumbs. Like with the flour, it can again help to pour the breadcrumbs onto the fish and lightly press it in to coat completely.
- Spritz the fish fillet generously with olive oil and place in the air fryer basket.
- Cook at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for about 7 minutes, or until the crust is a lightly fried golden brown. Make sure to rotate the fish fillet halfway through.If the breading isn't browning quickly enough, adding more oil will help.
Assemble Salad
- Add rice to the plate. If you've prepared it ahead of time, reheat the rice or at least let rest at room temperature before plating.
- Top with catfish, a hefty dollop of avocado dip, shredded lettuce, and a dash of salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately.