Easy halibut side dish and serving ideas. From lemon rice to braised fennel, and homemade tomato pesto to fingerling potatoes, discover what to serve with halibut today.
Halibut is a light fish dinner dish that’s as easy to make as it is delicious to eat. It’s mild with a slightly sweet taste, making it a healthy evening meal that’s perfect grilled, roasted, or pan-seared.
But what side dishes can we serve up to best complement this white fish classic?
From roasted bok choy to lemon couscous, these halibut side dishes bring out the best that the seafood staple has to offer.
Fall Harvest Salad
A fall harvest salad typically contains seasonal ingredients like squash, apples, cranberries, and kale. All of these fall flavors pair well with halibut’s gentle and sweet taste.
Plus, when you add apple cider vinaigrette to the mix, you get a tart and juicy flavor that extracts the natural flavors of the halibut. This is a great salad and dressing to serve on the side of the main halibut meal.
Try This Recipe: This fall harvest salad with apple cider vinaigrette dish uses kale, nuts, seeds, and apples for a crunchier consistency throughout, which provides a contrast to soft halibut.
Roasted Vegetables
Roasted vegetables are a go-to when pairing a side with a fish meal, and something about halibut, in particular, makes it the perfect candidate for roasted veggies.
The light, delicate flavor of halibut pairs well with several different roasted vegetables. Try serving halibut with roasted Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and carrots. You can simply toss your veggies in olive oil and bake them in the oven.
Try This Recipe: This roasted vegetable recipe provides more detailed instructions on the best way to roast veggies for exceptional flavor and texture.
Artichoke Hearts
Speaking of delicious veggies, artichoke hearts are also a fantastic option for pairing a side with halibut.
Artichokes have a subtly nutty flavor that is earthy and grassy, which pairs well with the light taste of halibut. Plus, baked artichoke hearts, in particular, tend to have a crispy, breadcrumb outer layer that provides an appealing contrast to soft and delicate halibut.
Try This Recipe: These baked artichoke hearts incorporate butter for extra richness and a breadcrumb topping for texture.
Roasted Tomato Pesto
Roasted tomato pesto is another great option when it comes to serving halibut. It offers a strong flavor that remains bold while not fully covering up the lighter flavor of halibut.
Roasted tomato pesto is similar to regular tomato pesto but uses roasted tomatoes instead of raw ones. This change in ingredients provides a smokier flavor that goes well with halibut. Also, the incorporation of tomato in the first place gives the pine nuts – the signature pesto ingredient – a more complex finish.
Try This Recipe: This roasted tomato pesto is perfect for tomato lovers and includes thyme, garlic, and ground pepper for additional, hard-to-resist flavor.
Indian Lemon Rice
Lemon rice is a staple in Indian cuisine, but it’s also a great option for pairing with halibut. The main reason is that halibut’s light and delicate flavor is the perfect canvas for the strong and fragrant flavors found in lemon rice.
Lemon rice typically contains an array of spices, such as cumin, chili flakes, and mustard seeds. These spices provide a bold flavor that is tempered by the sweetness of ghee and the punchy taste of mustard seeds. The result is a fragrant, highly-flavorful dish that goes great with halibut.
Try This Recipe: In addition to some of the ingredients mentioned above, this Indian lemon rice includes coriander, cardamon, lemon juice, and turmeric powder for the ultimate depth of flavor.
Braised Fennel
Fennel is a great option for a side dish because it pairs well with many different kinds of fish, halibut included.
Fennel, indigenous to the Mediterranean and part of the carrot family, has a slightly anise-like flavor that is both sweet and licorice-like. When braised, fennel becomes even sweeter and more tender, making it the perfect side for halibut.
Try This Recipe: This lemon-braised fennel uses just four ingredients to create a zesty and soft side dish for any main fish course.
Lemon Couscous
Another Mediterranean-inspired, lemon-based dish that pairs well with fresh halibut is lemon couscous.
The mild nutty flavor of couscous is the perfect canvas for the punchy flavors of garlic, lemon, and parsley. This flavor profile is well-suited for halibut because it’s riveting but doesn’t overpower the delicate taste of the fish.
Try This Recipe: This lemon couscous is easy to follow and provides a few variations for additional flavors, colors, and textures, such as adding feta, basil, or almonds.
Braised Fingerling Potatoes
Potatoes are a highly-agreeable side dish because you can cook them in many different ways. When pairing them with halibut, braising fingerling potatoes is the way to go because it results in a side dish that is flavorful but not too heavy.
Adding spices and herbs like thyme and pepper makes this dish even more flavorful and well-suited alongside halibut.
Try This Recipe: These braised fingerling potatoes are simple yet effective and can be easily adapted to your liking. The thyme and butter are exceptional flavors alongside halibut.
Sautéed Green Beans
Another buttery dish that pairs well with halibut is sautéed green beans.
Green beans are a great option for a side dish because they offer both a crunch and freshness that can be challenging to achieve with other vegetables, especially being as easy to make as they are.
Try This Recipe: These buttery sautéed green beans provide expert tips on the various techniques for preparing green beans before putting them in the pan. It also incorporates salt, olive oil, and lemon juice for stand-out flavor.
Celery Root and Apple Salad
Celery root and apple salad are more of a lunch meal than a side, but it’s worth including because it is an excellent option for pairing with halibut.
Celery root, also known as celeriac, is a vegetable with a slightly nutty and celery-like flavor. Paired with apples and a light dressing makes for a refreshing and flavorful salad but not too heavy.
Try This Recipe: This celery root and apple salad is suitable for almost all diets, as it’s vegan, paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free, egg-free, and includes no refined sugar.
Garlic and Ginger Bok Choy
Lastly, garlic and ginger bok choy is an excellent Asian-inspired dish that pairs well with halibut because of its bold flavor profile.
Bok choy is a type of cabbage that is common in Asian cuisine. It has a slightly sweet and peppery taste that is well-suited for fresh, bright, and light halibut, especially with the help of garlic and ginger, to bring out the fish’s flavor even more.
Try This Recipe: This garlic ginger bok choy calls for fresh ginger, garlic cloves, soy sauce, and sesame oil for the best-tasting bok choy you could hope for.
