Whole Baked Sea Bass with Potatoes

Sea bass is a type of white fish with a very low caloric intake and excellent nutritional properties. Approximately 100 grams of fish have 90-100 kcal, 18 grams of protein and significant amounts of minerals such as potassium, sodium or calcium. To take advantage of all these nutrients, it is best to cook it on the grill or in the oven, as we are going to explain in this recipe.

We teach you how to cook whole baked sea bass, although if you have fillets you can also follow the recommendations by reducing the cooking times of the fish. To enhance the flavor of the dish, we will add lemon, potato and onion, equally healthy ingredients. Read on and discover with us how to make baked sea bass with potatoes, we promise you’ll love it!

Ingredients to make Whole Baked Sea Bass with Potatoes:

• 2 sea bass
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 1 lemon
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 splash of olive oil
• 1 glass of water or white wine

How to make Whole Baked Sea Bass with Potatoes:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into not very thick slices so that they cook sooner. We also peel the onion and cut it into julienne strips. One trick to making baked sea bass faster is to semi-cook the potatoes before baking. To do this, we can fry them a little or, if we want the dish to be as healthy as possible, cook them in boiling water or microwave them.
2. Trick: If we make them in the microwave, we will have to introduce a glass of water to generate steam, and cook in intervals of 2-3 minutes until they are almost ready.
3. Place the potatoes and onion on a baking sheet previously greased with a little oil. Since we want to make a healthy and light recipe, we have to control very well the amount of oil we use, not exceeding three tablespoons in total. We sprinkle pepper to taste and other spices that we like.
4. Tip: Preheat the oven to 180 ºC, with the option of grill and fan.
5. As we have semi-cooked the potatoes in advance, we can put the fish directly on top. However, if you prefer to cook the potatoes entirely in the oven, you should cook them without the sea bass for approximately 40 minutes, pouring them in the glass of water and the lemon juice before putting them in the oven, and turning them halfway through cooking. Once the potatoes are ready, we place the fish introducing a slice of lemon inside to give it more flavors and bake it for 10-15 minutes, depending on the oven.
6. Tip: Instead of water you can use white wine or even add half a glass of water and half a glass of wine. We have preferred to eliminate wine to reduce calories as much as possible.
7. When we see that the skin begins to brown, we turn it over and continue cooking the sea bass with baked potatoes for 10 more minutes. It is very important to keep an eye on the fish to prevent it from overcooking and becoming dry.
8. Tip: To ensure that it does not dry out or burn, when turning it over we can wait about 5 minutes and turn off the oven, since the whole sea bass in the oven will finish cooking with the heat that remains.
9. We will know that the baked sea bass is ready when we see that the skin is golden and juicy inside. With our oven, the total cooking time for the fish has been 25 minutes but, as we say, each oven is different and can take more or less.
10. Serve the whole baked sea bass recipe with potatoes, sprinkling the juice left over from cooking. With the addition of lemon, the result is a very flavorful fish dish, ideal for dinner. We can accompany it with a green salad or baked vegetables if we want to maintain a balanced and healthy diet.

How to make baked sea bass – Time, tips and tricks

So that the whole baked sea bass with potatoes is perfect, we have asked the fishmonger to clean the fish and scale it. However, if you have to do it at home, you should know that scaling a fish is very simple; you just need to follow these steps:

1. Place the fish under the tap holding it by the tail.
2. Grab a knife and start scratching the fish from top to bottom, hard enough to remove the scales but not too much pressure so as not to break the fish or remove the skin.

Once the fish is prepared, we can follow the instructions described above to cook the sea bass in the oven. Below, we show the cooking times in summary:

• Cooking time for the potatoes alone: ​​approximately 40-45 minutes.
• Baked sea bass cooking time: 20-25 minutes at 180 ºC, at 200 ºC the time is less.
• Total recipe time: approximately 1 hour or hour and a half, depending on the oven.

To save a little time, we can follow these tips and tricks:

• Semi-cook the potatoes in advance, as we have suggested throughout the recipe. This step will save you a lot of time in the oven and will allow you to enjoy the dish much sooner. The fastest way is to fry them in plenty of oil, but if you want to reduce the number of calories, we recommend the microwave option.
• If you choose to add a glass of water instead of wine, heat the water beforehand.
• Preheat the oven so that it is hot when you insert the tray.