Swordfish is mildly sweet and requires careful cooking to avoid dryness. It’s also impressively versatile – you can have it grilled, marinated, roasted, blackened, pan-fried, baked, and many other ways. Moreover, it’s noted to have a milder “fishy” taste and better quality than any other seafood.
Thus, swordfish is an excellent choice if you’re looking for great fish to cook and consume. There’s hardly anything to fault with it. Also, it goes well with various side dishes, like rice, salads, and veggies. But if you want some unique sides for swordfish, try the ones in this article!
1. Rosemary Mushroom Rice Pilaf
Swordfish with a great sauce would be amazing on warm white rice. But if you want to elevate the experience, transform that white rice into this rosemary mushroom pilaf instead. It’ll be much more aromatic, flavorful, moist, and heartwarming. Also, you’ll need to add only a few ingredients: garlic, olive oil, rosemary, mushrooms, broth, and onion.
2. Farro Salad
Fresh and bright salads are perfect with swordfish, and one recipe you can try is this farro salad. It combines farro, or chewy and healthy grains, with butternut squash, beets, kale, walnut, and avocados. There’s also a homemade dressing made from apple cider, honey, mustard, lemon juice, and other flavors. Thus, you can expect this dish to be complex, flavorful, and packed with texture.
3. Grilled Caesar Salad
If you have grilled swordfish, try it with this Caesar salad. Although Caesar salad is a classic side, this recipe incorporates caramelized and smoky flavors that introduce a unique and additional depth to the experience. The rich dressing in this recipe is also mayo and dairy free. Thus, this salad is best for those who want a twist on their favorites!
4. Three Bean Salad
Swordfish is recommended with a side of green beans. However, if you want to upgrade from the usual sauteed recipes, try making a three-bean salad instead! It combines kidney, garbanzo, and green beans, thus, giving you a medley of colors, textures, and flavors. All three are brought together by a homemade dressing that consists of onions, parsley, cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
5. Tomato Olive Salad
This tomato olive salad introduces brightness, freshness, and acidity to your swordfish meal. Its flavor palette is mainly Italian, as this salad is reminiscent of puttanesca sauce. Indeed, the ingredients consist of heirloom tomatoes, black olives, capers, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and fresh herbs, typical of the said Italian condiment.
6. Mango Avocado Salsa
Like the tomato olive salad, mango avocado salsa brings bright, fresh, and acidic flavors but does so a la Mexican style. You also get some sweetness and heat from the mangoes, jalapenos, avocado, onions, bell peppers, and other ingredients. You can put this salsa on top of your fish so the juiciness and flavors seep into the seafood meat.
7. Pineapple Salsa
As evidenced above, salsa is a great topping or side dish for swordfish, whether it’s grilled, roasted, or pan-fried. However, there are many other types of salsa, such as this pineapple recipe. It’s the perfect blend of sweet, sour, and spicy. It packs more juiciness than any other recipe because of the brilliant tandem of pineapples and tomatoes.
8. Fresh Peach Salsa
Peaches are usually made into pies and desserts; however, this recipe proves that you can transform it into a delicious side salsa. It combines the peaches with tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Its overall flavorful profile leans more toward sweet flavors than sour, so it’s perfect for those who want to avoid too much acidity in their meal.
9. Caramelized Brown Sugar Cinnamon Grilled Pineapple
If you’re grilling your swordfish steaks, you might want to throw in some pineapples! In this way, the flavor of the entree and sides match perfectly, featuring hints of smokiness and caramelization. It also allows you to maximize the grill. Moreover, these pineapple spears make the meal taste brighter, fresher, sweeter, and juicier with minimal effort on your part.
10. Avocado Feta Dip
Dips aren’t just for chips and crackers; you can use them as a side sauce for your swordfish meal! For instance, this avocado feta dip – served on top, beside, or beneath – provides the fish with a pleasant creaminess, saltiness, and sweetness. Moreover, since swordfish has delicate, mild flavors, dips and sauces are a great way to introduce more flavor without being overwhelming.
11. Basil Pesto with Almonds
If you aren’t too fond of creamy, fruity flavors, swap your avocado feta dip for this basil pesto with almonds. Like the dip, you can have it on the side, but it’s incredibly fantastic on top of the fish so that you can get more of it with every bite. Besides the basil and almonds, this condiment also has parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
12. Lemon Garlic Sauteed Kale
Swordfish goes excellent with many vegetable sides, like asparagus, potatoes, and broccoli, but if you want to try an underrated, leafy veggie, serve some kale! This recipe has it sauteed, so it’s tender, with flavored lemon garlic, it tastes bright yet subtle. You’ll find this perfect if your swordfish is served with lemon garlic sauce or plainly flavored.
13. Roasted Tomatoes
To keep your meal simple yet unique and classy, serve your swordfish with roasted tomatoes. Although they sound plain, roasted tomatoes bring a lot of freshness, brightness, and complexity with the added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, basil, parmesan, salt, and pepper. This recipe is also perfect for those who need to whip up something fast because prep and cooking take only 15 minutes.
