Whole-Roasted Rainbow Trout Recipe

Summer is the season for light meals, best enjoyed outdoors with family and friends. If you need some recipe inspiration to take your summer evening dining to the next level, this whole-roasted rainbow trout will definitely do the trick.

Grilling is fine and dandy, but you can't do that every single night in the summer. Although this recipe uses the oven, you can still take this meal to be eaten outside. "This is a wonderful dish for a warm spring or summer's evening," recipe developer Jennine Bryant says. "It's simple, light and refreshing. It also makes a bit of a showstopper dish for dinner parties with friends, especially with the special addition of the pecan butter."

In terms of how to round out this meal, Bryant recommends pairing this fish "with roasted mixed vegetables, new potatoes or a lovely fresh salad. It's very flavorful and light, so you don't want to pair it with anything too heavy."

To make this whole roasted rainbow trout, you can start by gathering your ingredients. For this recipe, you will need rainbow trout, lemon, dill, thyme, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, and pecans.

Get the oven preheating to 425 F. Then, oil a baking tray with some olive oil before placing the fish in the tray. Remember, you need to gut your trout. Bryant recommends to "check whether the place you buy them from can gut them for you. If not, then gutting trout isn't actually that hard, it can just be a little bit gross if you aren't used to it."

We asked her how she best recommends gutting a fish at home. She said "you need a clean chopping board and a sharp knife. Pressing firmly on the fish to keep it from sliding on the board, make an incision along the stomach (the bottom of the fish), from the tail up to the head. The innards will come out easily, dispose of these, and then rinse out the cavity until the water runs out clear. Then, pat it dry and you are good to go!"

Once the fish are gutted, slice the lemon and garlic as thin as you can. You will be stuffing the fish with these aromatic ingredients so they need to be small enough to fit inside the cavity.

Next, stuff the fish with lemon slices, garlic, and the fresh herbs. By stuffing the fish, Bryant notes that the fish will be much more flavorful "than just sprinkling them around and on top of the fish." Bryant adds that this method is key to make sure "the flavor infuses through the meat of the fish." Next, drizzle the remaining olive oil to the tops of the fish and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Then, bake the fish for about 20 minutes.

While the fish bakes, you can prepare the pecan butter by melting butter in a saucepan until it becomes frothy. Then, add in the chopped pecans and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes, until the pecans darken in color. Bryant loves to serve this trout with homemade pecan butter "as rainbow trout has a slight nutty taste," so the pecans really complement it.

If you have any leftovers, Bryant recommends using them to make a cold salad. "You can remove the flesh of the fish, break it up a bit and mix it with lettuce, new potatoes, beetroot, red onion etc, add a lovely salad sauce and then you have a great summer's day lunch," she explains.