Easy Baked Fish with Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers

This fish with tomatoes, olives, and capers comes together quickly and is full of bright Mediterranean flavors . . .

This combination is such a classic. I grew up eating this dish – it was one of my favorites as a child. It’s also what we’re having for Christmas Eve dinner this year!

Halibut with Tomatoes, Capers, and Olives

I wasn’t quite sure what to name this recipe. We grew up in southern California, and my parents would sort of wing it when they made the recipe. They weren’t too helpful when I asked them what they did.

By the time I was in my 20s, I knew I could probably find some version of the halibut with tomatoes, capers, and olives I remembered online, so I started looking. It was much harder than I thought! I learned I could search under names like Livornese fish, Veracruz fish, Mediterranean fish, or fish Provençal and find echoes of the recipe I remembered in all of them. Sometimes I’d get so frustrated I’d just google the recipe with the names of the most prominent ingredients. (“Fish recipe with just tomatoes capers and olives!!!!”) In the end, that’s what got me closest to the recipe I remembered loving growing up.

So now that I’ve finally managed to approximate the fish recipe I remember growing up, I’ve decided to keep the name simple. Fish with tomatoes, capers, and olives. Easy to find, and easy to understand what it.

Deliciously Simple & Fast

This is a super easy dish to make. It comes together quickly, it cooks fast, you can prep most of it in advance, it’s nearly impossible to overcook, and its incredibly healthy for you. It’s a great recipe to have on hand – as long as you have the fish handy (see my note below on fish options).

I personally like to eat it over a bowl of wilted spinach, so I’ve included instructions for wilting spinach below. The sauce from the fish mixes will with the spinach and works really well. It’s filling, comforting, and super healthy for you. But you can also like to eat it with warm focaccia or toast on the side, to scoop up more of the flavorful sauce.

The Halibut part of the “halibut with tomatoes, capers, and olives”

My parents probably used halibut, but I have converted to using Atlantic cod for this recipe. It’s so cheap and easy to get from our local grocery store, and it’s very healthy for you. There’s much less concern about mercury with cod as well, which is a major plus with so many babies around.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can use pretty much any mild, flaky white fish, such as haddock, pollock, hake, or even tilapia (although I usually try to avoid tilapia as it is not as healthy as the other options).

What White Fish are Healthiest?

From a health perspective, Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, and hake are lean, high-quality proteins. While not as high in omega-3s as salmon or halibut, they are a good source of omega-3s for a white fish. (Relevant because omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA, are critical for brain development in babies.) They also are good sources of B6 and B12, selenium, and phosphorus. Importantly, they are all low-mercury fish (meaning they are safe to consume twice per week). You can find the specific recommendations from the FDA for pregnant or breastfeeding women and for children HERE.

Halibut is an even better source of omega-3s than Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, and hake, but it also typically contains more mercury. That means the FDA advises limiting consumption to once a week. So I usually save halibut for special occasions, and we try to eat sources of omega-3s that are lower in mercury (for our family, typically Atlantic cod or salmon) during most weeks.

Tilapia is low in fat, but also in omega-3s. It has a higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. This is not as healthy because the typical American diet is already high in omega-6 fatty acids, which are common in vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds. While omega-6s are not bad in themselves, you don’t want a ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s that is skewed heavily in favor of omega-6s. Tilapia does not help with that ratio. Tilapia also does not provide the same level of B vitamins or other minerals as the other fish, although it has very low mercury levels.

Kids & Fish

Fish has become one of our go-to dinners recently. I try to cook it 1-2 times per week. It just cooks so quickly! Plus, it’s so healthy for you to eat. My children have become big fans of salmon, although we are still working on white fish.

This dish has taken them a bit longer to get used to (probably because they don’t like tomatoes, which continues to horrify me, so this is part of their remediation plan). They’re slowly starting to like it as we ask them just to try a little bit each time (see the rationale about focusing on getting kids to try a food repeatedly (not necessarily finish it!) here). My kids will like tomatoes! And white fish!

Anyway, on to the recipe.

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