Blackened Snapper with Coconut Crab Cream Sauce
Last weekend, Matt and I were trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner and we decided we wanted to make some sort of fish…snapper to be exact. I haven’t made snapper too many times so I started browsing on Pinterest and one of the first recipes popped up was this one https://coopcancook.com/blackened-red-snapper-pepperjack-crawfish-cream-sauce/
Of course it looked absolutely divine, but I wasn’t quite in the mood for all the heavy cream and richness. So, Matt challenged me to make it a healthier version that I would be happy with. This made my mind go because I really wanted to come up with something a bit different, rather than just substituting lower fat ingredients. I remembered when I was cooking some vegan recipes that they called for coconut milk, rather than cream and I thought this would be a fantastic substitute for the heavy cream! As for the cream cheese involved, I just used the 1/3 less fat kind. The original recipe called for serving it all over pasta and that’s where I got really excited! I decided to put it all over zoodles and then we’d have the extra veggie element as well. This made me a very happy camper 🙂
When we got to the store, we found that they did not have the crawfish that it originally called for so we substituted lump crab meat, one of my favorites! They also only had frozen snapper, but this ended up being just fine.
If you decide to go with the zoodles, I have found my favorite way to make them once they are spiralized is to lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. This gets them just soft enough without them turning to mush!
Blackened Snapper with Coconut Crab Cream Sauce
This is a lightened up version of a rich, decadent meal that is still just as tasty as the original! Plus, it looks pretty nice too if you are having guests for dinner.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: fish/seafood
- Method: easy
Ingredients
For the sauce –
- 8 oz lump crab meat (we didn’t quite use it all so we just added the leftovers for a benedict the next day!)
- 1/3 cup diced yellow onion
- 1/3 cup diced red pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 TBL butter
- 1/2 cup freshly shredded pepper jack cheese
- 2 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
- 1 cup lite coconut milk
- dash of cajun seasoning to taste
For the fish –
- 2 (6oz each) Red Snapper filets
- 1 TBL cajun seasoning
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 TBL butter
- 1 TBL olive oil
Instructions
Begin by starting the sauce –
- Melt the butter in a large sauce pan
- Add the onion and pepper and saute until soft
- Add in garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds
- Pour in the coconut milk and cream cheese and stir until smooth
- Taste to check for necessary seasoning
- Add in the pepper jack cheese and stir until melted
- Finally, toss in the crab meat and keep on low until the fish is ready to be served.
Cooking the fish –
- Mix the cajun seasoning with the black pepper in a small bowl
- Pat the fish dry and coat the filets with the seasoning mixture
- Put the oil and butter into a frying pan on medium high heat
- Once the butter has melted and the pan is nice and hot, add the filets and cook for about 3-4 minutes a side, or until the fish is flaky. Be careful not to overcook! You don’t want the fish to be tough.
- Place the fish on top of a bowl of zoodles and ladle the sauce on top of the fish.
- Enjoy!
Keywords: red snapper, healthy comfort food, seafood zoodles
We were so impressed how this all came together! I was worried that the sauce wouldn’t be creamy enough, but it was. We actually couldn’t imagine it the original way because we thought it would probably be a bit too rich for our tastes. This was just perfect for us and something we will definitely make again! I saw quite a few of you that wanted to try this recipe when I posted it on Instagram and Facebook, so if you do end up giving it a try, please let me know what you thought of it!
