Homemade Fish Fingers & Sweet Potato Fries

Homemade fish fingers are a thing of beauty – a million miles away from the mass-produced kinds in the best possible way! It’s also a fun way to get the kids interested in cooking. Plus, when combined with delicious sweet potato fries, it makes for a winning family dinner!.

There are some meals that never fail to please everyone in our house.

We have at least one meal a week that features one of these favourites. Pizza night. Enchiladas with leftovers. Veggie lasagne. Fish fingers and chips.

When I say fish fingers, I don’t mean the boxed stuff crammed with greasy breadcrumbs and rancid oils. Those are a rarity for us.

Nope, I mean the homemade stuff that takes an extra 10 mins but tastes so much better that it’s totally worth it.

And you can even make a really big batch at once and freeze some so that they become just as easy a meal as the boxed ones!

I love that I can use ethically good, sustainably caught fish, making them ethical fish fingers as well as delicious and healthy ones.

And they are really easily adapted. If you are gluten free, replace the breadcrumbs with gluten free breadcrumbs or ground almonds and use gluten free plain flour instead of flour. If you are not a fan of white fish, replace them with salmon or trout fillets. If you want to add more spice – add things like Cajun seasoning or paprika or cayenne pepper to the flour.

And paired with delicious sweet potato baked “fries”, you just can’t go wrong. You can prep and cook regular white potatoes the same way (they may take a little longer), but since sweet potatoes count as a portion of veg while white potatoes do not (they are classed as a starchy carb), swapping them out is an easy way to get a little closer to 5-(or 7- or 10-)a-day.

Serve the lot with our homemade sugar free ketchup, BBQ sauce or the simple tartare-style dip in the recipe and your kids will never feel they are missing out!

I hope this becomes as much of a staple meal in your house as it has in ours!

Little hands can:

• help you dip the fish in the egg, flour and breadcrumbs
• help you blitz up the bread into crumbs
• mix up the sweet potato fries with the oil and seasoning
• mix up the dip

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Homemade Fish Fingers & Sweet Potato Fries

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

A healthier take on a family go-to, these fish fingers have none of the vegetable oils and greasy mass-produced stale breadcrumbs of the shop-bought variety. Instead, you have melt-in-the-mouth soft fish fingers made with healthy, wholesome, ethical ingredients and served with baked sweet potato fries. Gluten free option included.

Course: Dinner

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

For the fish fingers:

• 2 large or 4 small white fish fillets (frozen is fine, just make sure to defrost fully in order to cut first)
• 2 thick slices of wholemeal or sourdough bread (gluten free works fine)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup flour (you can use plain, wholemeal, spelt, gluten free, ground almonds, or your flour of choice)*
• 1 tsp each of onion and garlic powder, optional
• salt & pepper, and your favourite dried herbs (I used herbes de provence)

For the chips/fries:

• 3 sweet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch matchsticks
• 2 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
• polenta (cornmeal), for sprinkling, optional
• salt & pepper (cayenne pepper or smoked paprika are also delicious on these)

For the dip:

• 1/2 cup (120g) olive-oil based mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup (120g) creme fraiche, soured cream or yogurt
• 1-2 tbsp capers
• large handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/350F/gas 5.

2. If making the chips, melt the coconut oil and toss the fries in it. Lay them out on 2 lined baking trays, ensuring they are well spread out (ideally they will not touch each other so as to avoid them getting too soggy). If using, sprinkle with a little polenta to help them crisp up better. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins, until browned and and cooked through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. For the fish fingers, cut the fish fillets into 12 fish finger shapes. Blitz the bread slices in the mixer until it forms fine breadcrumbs and pour into a wide, shallow pasta bowl or plate.

4. Break the eggs into a separate wide shallow bowl and beat.
5. Pour the flour into a third bowl or plate and season with salt, pepper and your favourite herbs.
6. Dip the fish fingers into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs until each one is coated, and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
7. Bake alongside the chips for the last 10-15 mins, until breadcrumbs are golden and the fish is cooked and flaky.

8. If you want to make the dip, mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

9. Serve with the fries and some peas or steamed greens, and your choice of sugar free condiments.

Recipe Notes

*if you use coconut flour, bear in mind that you will need to add at least one more egg in as it absorbs a lot more liquid than other flours - I have not tested this recipe with this particular flour so you would need to try it out yourself, but I reckon 1 more egg would be about right.

Need some more family weeknight dinner? Why not glance through our 30-minute meals here.