Banana Leaf Grilled Tilapia Veracruz

Fire up the grill and invite some friends over for a Mexican feast. Banana Leaf Grilled Tilapia Veracruz bursts with fresh flavors and a fiesta of colors while celebrating beautiful seafood.

Fresh, grilled fish is always a festive event, such as Macadamia Crusted Hot Honey Salmon. Tender, mild, flaky tilapia crowned with a cornucopia of fresh produce will transport you to the tropics at first bite. Easy enough for a weeknight but special enough to entertain with, this grilled tilapia recipe is sure to become a favorite.

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

Banana Leaf Grilled Tilapia Veracruz combines easily accessible vegetables with delicate and family-friendly tilapia. Whether you want to char up some tortillas for fish tacos or devour the flaky fish straight from the banana leaf, this is a dish friends and family will love.

• Budget Friendly – This seafood recipe combines budget friendly tilapia with both easy to find vegetables and pantry ingredients you probably already have.
• Quick Cooking – Not only is tilapia quick cooking, but you can create your fish packets while your grill is preheating. This entire meal goes from grill to table in less than 45 minutes. In addition, you can use previously cooked rice, or take the help of the grocery store by using either frozen rice or microwavable rice.
• Environmentally Conscious – The star of this grilled tilapia recipe is ASC-certified fish. This means it has met the highest standards of responsibly raised seafood.
• Healthy – This Veracruz style fish recipe includes heart healthy lean tilapia and a bounty of fresh vegetables. Not only is it delicious, but it’s something you can feel good about serving your family.
• Mild Flavor – Tilapia is a flaky, slightly sweet, mild flavored fish that is a great canvas for other flavors. For those that think they might not like seafood, it’s a great starter fish.
• Texture – Grilling tilapia in a banana leaf pack not only takes away any worry about it sticking or falling apart on the grill, but it also contains all of the moisture and helps concentrate the flavors of the topping.

What is Veracruz-Style Fish?

Pescado a la Veracruzana, or Veracruz style fish, originates from Veracruz, Mexico. Veracruz was one of the first places that the Spanish settled, so this style of dish includes Mediterranean flavors including citrus, oregano, and briny ingredients such as olives and capers.

The Mexican addition to the ingredients includes chiles, tomatoes, and onion. Every recipe is a little different. Some utilize fresh tomatoes while others use crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce. Some have you cook the sauce for a long time while others combine all of the fresh ingredients together. There is always a common component to this style of fish dish.

• Seafood – Fish is the most common vessel for a Veracruz style sauce. Whether it’s a whole fish hugged in the bright salsa, or fillets pertly crowned. In addition to fish, shrimp is another popular choice for this dish.
• Tomatoes – A little sweet and a little acidic, they add fresh flavor while helping make the dish a little saucy.
• Aromatics – Onions and garlic are always a supporting star to the base of this sauce.
• Peppers – Sweet bell peppers are often combined with spicy chiles such as jalapenos and serrano peppers.
• Briny Ingredients – Some recipes call for both capers and olives while others lean into just one pop of salty acid.
• Acid – A squeeze of fresh lime, hit of dry white wine, or splash of vinegar are all common choices to add a note of brightness.

Ingredients

This recipe for banana leaf wrapped fish is not only an effortless dish to prepare but utilizes easy to find ingredients.

• ASC-Certified Tilapia Fillets – This mild fish is a great blank slate for flavor. Delicate and tender, it cooks up quickly making it ideal for wrapping.
• Olive Oil
• Red Onion – Sweetens as it cooks while adding a depth of flavor.
• Garlic – Sharp, pungent, and savory, it perfumes the tomato and pepper topping.
• Bell Peppers – Use what variety you like. Red, orange, and yellow will add more sweetness while green offers more of a bitter and earth bite.
• Jalapeno – Adds just a hint of heat and freshness. If serving this dish to kids, you can remove the seeds and membrane for less heat while keeping the flavor.
• Kosher Salt – Seasons the fish while bringing out all of the flavors of the ingredients.
• Mexican Oregano – Floral, bright, and herbaceous, it has hints of citrus.
• White Wine – Pick a dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio. It adds brightness to the sauce while also helping to break it down a little.
• Roma Tomatoes – These meaty tomatoes have less seeds than other varieties. Add a hint of both sweetness and brightness and help bring moisture to the topping.
• Manzanilla Olives – These small bright green pimento stuffed Spanish olives add a pop of texture and salty flavor. The briny flavor pairs well with seafood.
• Cooked Rice – Use your favorite variety such as aromatic jasmine or readily available long grain white rice. You can also use brown rice in this recipe.
• Banana Leaves – You can find these in the international aisle of the frozen food section. They not only keep the fish moist, but they also perfume it with an almost green tea like aroma.

How to Make Banana Leaf Grilled Tilapia Veracruz

Fire up your grill and get out those tongs. Whether you’re popping open a cold cerveza or mixing up a batch of refreshing Palomas, this grilled fish recipe will turn any night into a fiesta.

• Mise en Place – Allow both your fish and banana leaves to defrost. The best way to defrost seafood is to allow it to gently defrost overnight in the refrigerator. Thoroughly rinse and dry your banana leaves and cut your vegetables.
• Sauté – Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent, and the garlic is fragrant. Add the peppers and season with salt and oregano. Stir to combine. Add the white wine and allow the peppers to cook until most of the wine has evaporated, but the peppers are still slightly crisp, 5-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the tomatoes and olives. Let the mixture cool.
• Wrap – To build your banana leaf packs, place 1/2 cup of rice in the center of a banana leaf. Season both sides of the tilapia lightly with salt and pepper and place on top of the rice. Add some of the pepper and tomato mixture to the top of the fish. Fold in the sides of the banana leaf and secure it with butcher twine. Repeat with the remaining tilapia fillets.
• Preheat – Prepare your grill for two-zone cooking. If using a charcoal grill bank your coals to one side of the grill. If using a gas grill don’t ignite all of the burners, leaving a cooler area. You want to heat your grill to about 350 degrees.

• Grill – Place the banana leaf packs on the cool side of the grill. Cover your grill and allow them to cook for about 12-15 minutes, or until the tilapia is opaque and flakes easily.

• Dinner’s Served – Top your tilapia with fresh cilantro and serve with avocado and lime wedges.

Substitutions

• Foil – Banana leaves are usually sold frozen and can be found at most Latin and Caribbean markets, as well as in the frozen food aisle of your grocery store. However, if you can’t find banana leaves you can make this same recipe by creating a foil pack for your fish.
• White Fish – This recipe can be made with other types of mild white fish such as grouper, snapper, mahi-mahi, even cod.
• Canned Tomatoes – While grilling the tomatoes in the banana leaf pack does sweeten them a little more, if fresh tomatoes don’t look good you can use canned tomatoes in this recipe. Diced fire-roasted tomatoes will add a hint of smoke but any type of drained diced tomato will do. You will need one cup.
• Oven – No grill? No problem! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Skip the banana leaves and use either foil or parchment paper to make your fish packs. They will cook up in 10-12 minutes.

How to Serve Pescado a la Veracruzana

This colorful dish gets a boost of both flavor and texture from the toppings. Whether you plan on creating fish tacos with this or serving it with a side of black beans, don’t forget to dress it up. Here are a few suggestions.

• Lime Wedges – Instantly adds a bright sunny pop of flavor and wakes up all of the ingredients.
• Habanero Pickled Red Onions – A little acidic, a little spicy, and a little sweet, they not only add color they also echo the red onions in the topping.
• Avocado – Adds a creamy texture and richness.
• Cilantro – Bright, slightly citrusy, and completely herbaceous, it adds instant freshness.
• Fresh Jalapeno Slices – Enforces the flavor of the cooked jalapeno in the topping while adding fresh heat.
• Pickled Jalapenos – Brings fresh heat, a crunchy bite, while echoing the brined flavor of the olives.

Tips From the Beach

While tilapia is one of the most easily accessible fish to purchase, always take the time to see where it was sourced. Look for the ASC-Certified label. Farmed seafood accounts for more than half of the seafood consumed worldwide, but not all farmed seafood is created equal.

When you buy ASC-Certified seafood, you know that not only was it farmed responsibly, but it was also raised in a way to protect the workers, the environment, and the community in which it was farmed. They include chain of custody from farm to store and their rigorous certification program includes everything from the water quality to the treatment and pay of farm’s employees.

Looking for more seafood recipes? Be sure to check out Chipotle Grilled Fish Tacos. And for more tropical flavors Habanero Mojo Chicken.

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