Blackened Tilipia Fillet w/ Cucumber-Tomato Salad

It’s hard to find frozen fillets in a country where people love fish heads more than the fish meat. I didn’t know that we sell tilapia fillets here until early this week when I dropped by at SM Hypermart. And so, I decided to get a pack and cook something from it.

I have made crispy tilapia with soy vinegar sauce and sweet and sour tilapia before and it’s been a while since I last made something from my blackening spices. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to put blackening spices on tilapia fillets since I have already used it on salmon and chicken before. And to counter the rich flavor of the blackening rub, I made a cold refreshing cucumber-tomato salad 🙂

Here goes my Blackened Tilapia Fillet with Cucumber Tomato Salad.

You will need:

olive oil for pan-frying
4 pcs tilapia fillets
1 pc cucumber, cut into cubes
3 medium tomatoes, cut into cubes
juice of 1 lemon
dash of salt and pepper
2 tbsp of sugar if you like it sweet
blackening rub

First, you need to coat your tilapia fillets with blackening rub. Here’s how you can make your own rub:

2 tsps. Sweet Paprika
4 tsps. Thyme
3/4 tsp. Cumin
2 tsps. Onion powder
2 tsps. Garlic powder
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tsps. salt
2 tsps. black ground pepper
1 tsp. Cayenne powder
1 tsp. dried leaf Oregano
1/2 tsp. ground Nutmeg

Just mix all the spices together. In a pan, heat up some olive oil. Sear your tilapia fillets, two minutes on each side.

Serve your fillets with cucumber-tomato salad. Just mix the cucumbers and tomatoes then drizzle with lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste and add sugar if you prefer it to be a little sweet.