If you’re looking for a quick, low-carb recipe, perfect for lunch or dinner, then this is it! Fried herring and zucchini takes about 10 minutes to make and you have a great nutritious dinner.
I confess this recipe was born out of a fridge clean-up session. Basically, I was looking through the fridge and freezer trying to find food that had been there for a while and that should be eaten soon, when I found two beautiful little frozen herrings and a whole lot of zucchini I needed to eat ASAP. I’ve been making a lot of zucchini noodles recently, so I wanted to change things up a bit.

It is a universally acknowledged fact that the easiest way to cook fish is to fry it. I believe every culture on earth that consumes fresh fish has some sort of fried fish recipe, or at least all the cultures I’ve interacted with. The easiest way to make fried fish is to simply dip your fish in a seasoned flour mixture and drop it into some very hot oil. Cook for two or three minutes on each side, and viola! Dinner is ready! As for the zucchini, I decided to try cooking it the way I cooked the fish. The results were magnificent, and I’m definitely going to make this again and again.
Herring is generally a very nutritious fish. It is a fatty fish, so it’s rich in omega 3 fats and loads of important fats. It’s also a very good protein source. Make sure to choose sustainable herring; you don’t want to contribute to the extinction of this delicious fish!
Ingredients
- Two herrings per person
- Half a cup of all purpose flour
- One teaspoon salt
- Half a teaspoon cumin powder
- One teaspoon garlic powder
- A quarter teaspoon chilli flakes
- Half a cup of canola or any other vegetable oil suitable for frying on high heat.
- One medium zucchini per person

Method
- Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan.
- Wash the herring thoroughly in cold water, you can clean the insides out or leave it as is. Make sure to scrape the scales off. Dab the fish with a paper towel to dry.
- Cut the zucchini into slices or wedges about half a centimetre thick, lightly season with salt
- Mix the flour, garlic powder, salt, chilli flakes, and cumin in a flat plate
- Dip the herrings one at a time in the flour mixture and gently drop them into the hot oil.
- Fry for two minutes on each side or until the skin is golden brown and crispy.
- Keep the oil on the heat, dip the zucchini slices into the remaining flour mixture (if the flour mixture runs out, make some more!)
- Drop the zucchini into the hot oil (gently, make sure it doesn’t splash in your face). Fry for two minutes on each side until crispy and brown. Serve with aioli or a yogurt, lime and chilli dip. Enjoy!
How do you like to make fried fish? Is there a special fried fish recipe from your culture? Let me know in the comments!
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