Creole Sole Fish with Spicy Roasted Veggies and Tri-Color Quinoa

Ingredients (per serving needed)
-1/4 cup cooked tri-color quinoa
-10 to 15 slices of summer squash
-3 okra, sliced
-1/2 C cherry tomatoes or small tomato blend, chopped
-1/2 chipotle pepper, finely minced
-1 filet of sole
-Zataran's or preferred creole seasoning

Now. Normally I would say salt right? No.  If you are using Zatarans you will NOT need salt.  It has PLENTY.  If you are using another kind, add if needed.

Add 1 TB of butter and 1/8th of a cup of water to a skillet and heat on medium.  Add in all the veggies and peppers.  Add a light sprinkle of creole seasoning (desiring to mimic that flavor through the dish). Cover with a lid and steam for about 10 minutes.

Depending on how done you like your veggies, you may want to go ahead and start cooking the fish at that ten minute mark.  Look at the veg and add another bit of steaming time if needed.  At the ten minute mark, go ahead and get a second skillet heating on medium or just a little higher.

When you feel like you have about 3 or 4 minutes left to get the vegetables how you prefer them, give the sole a solid sprinkle of creole seasoning, add 1 TB of butter to the heated skillet, and put the fish in.  You want to hear some serious sizzling. 

At this point you can also go ahead and toss in the quinoa to the vegetable mix.

Cook the fish a minute or two on each side, my filet was papery thin so it hardly took any time at all to cook up.  Adjust your timing as needed if you have a larger piece.

As with all meats, I suggest only flipping once. That should not be a problem with this swimmer.

Put a bed of quinoa/veggies on a plate and grate a little fresh parmesan over them.  I cannot really vouch for the creole authenticity of parmesan...but I do know it is delicious!  Transfer your cooked fish to the bed and dig in.

You may want to cut the chipotle back a little if you are not a big fan of heat, or leave it out entirely.  The seasoning on the fish has a little heat of its own, so keep that in mind.

I personally liked the dish as is, I know my mom would rave over it because she is a heat lover and a veggie lover, and I will have to make this sometime when I go home.  I am still not 100% sold on my Zataran's seasoning, it has a lot of flavor but it has a crap ton of salt.  I really prefer to be in control of salt levels...

But I do have a whole container of it so I probably will use it (and not salt at the same time).

I almost fell over dead a few days ago because someone said they never use salt when cooking.  First of all, that should be illegal.  You definitely don't want to oversalt things, but you can't hope to get the most out of a dish without just a little salt! Undersalted food is pretty high on my most depressing things list.

It might even be #1 since I just made the list up for that sentence...

Anyway, just because I am in grad school does not mean I have to eat boring, sad food.  I raided a farmer's market this morning, and this is one of the NUMEROUS dishes I will be posting over the next few days that utilize some of my spoils.  I am very excited to get going with all of this tasty produce.

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