This baked cod is super flavorful because of the miso ginger marinade. Plus it’s super easy with only five ingredients. Try our miso cod for dinner tonight.
Cod is an easy, almost lazy fish to cook. So that’s why we like it. Because truth be told, we’re not fish aficionados (afishianados?). Our preferred method of cooking fish is baking it because it’s easy and it doesn’t make our apartment smell fishy. Cod lends itself well to this preparation.
We also like cod because it’s healthy (have you read how much cod The Rock eats?).
But cod has pretty much no flavor. So to make this a delicious fish dish, we made it a little less healthy by marinating it in a miso ginger marinade. We succeeded. It’s rich and savory and altogether tasty.
It should be noted, this is NOT a take on the famous miso black cod recipe. That isn’t even cod. This is.
Ingredients
This is a simple recipe with only five ingredients, but they each have an enormous amount of flavor (aside from the cod itself, of course).
Miso paste (we like the white variety for this recipe) does the most work in the marinade and glaze. It is very well supported by its friends dark soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.
Ginger, cut in relatively large pieces, adds a fresh zing and is especially delicious after being baked in the oven.
Julienned green onions serve as a bed for baking the cod and get a bit roasted along the way.
Recipe tips
Follow these easy tips to make perfect baked cod.
The miso ginger marinade is made in a few steps. First, mix together the miso paste and the dark soy sauce to make a paste. Be sure to incorporate the miso paste entirely. Second, slice the ginger thinly and cut those slices into pieces of ~1 cm. Put the cod in a resealable bag or a bowl with the ginger and pour in 2/3 of the marinade. Make sure the cod and the ginger are entirely covered by the marinade. Refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the cod from the fridge and add the rice wine vinegar, mixing or mushing (depending what marinating vessel you are using) to make sure everything is incorporated.
Prepare the green onions by julienning the firmer white and light green parts and chopping the green floppy parts. You want your julienned pieces to be 2-3 inches in length. Put them in a baking dish with a tiny bit of flavorless cooking oil, forming a bed for the cod.
Lay the cod fillet(s) on the onion bed. Push the ginger pieces to the bottom so they hang out with the onions. Glaze the top of the cod with the rest of the marinade.
And then you bake it and then you serve it and then you taste it and then you thank us for helping you make flavorful baked cod!
Serving suggestions
We have eaten this baked cod with a variety of sides, but most err on the Asian side due to the miso ginger marinade.
It was tasty alongside our Yaki Udon with Miso Roasted Eggplant. And, as you can see, it all made for one gorgeous plate.
We also recently (as in, just tonight) ate it with roasted green beans and decadent miso mashed potatoes. They were pretty great, and we’ll be writing that recipe up soon.
Of course, it would also go beautifully with a simple bowl of rice.
Baked Cod with Miso Ginger Marinade
This baked cod is super flavorful because of the miso ginger marinade. Plus it's super easy with only five ingredients. Try our miso cod for dinner tonight.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp white miso paste
- 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp ginger, chopped into 1-cm pieces
- 2 ~5 oz cod fillets, 1 1/2-2 inches thick
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 large green onions
- 1/4 tsp flavorless cooking oil
Instructions
- Mix the miso paste and soy sauce together. Take 2/3 of the paste and put it in a bowl or a resealable bag with the cod and the ginger. Marinate for 1 1/2 hours.
- Add the rice wine vinegar to the marinating cod and let sit for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Cut the green onions in half where the floppier green part meets the firmer, lighter green and white part. Julienne the bottoms and finely slice the tops. Put the onion bottoms in a baking dish and toss with the oil and form them into a bed for the fish.
- Take the fish out of the fridge and lay it on top of the bed of green onions. Push the ginger pieces down to the bottom of the baking dish so they’re hanging out with the onions too. Spoon or brush the rest of the miso paste/soy sauce mixture on top of the fish.
- Bake for 13 minutes.
- Sprinkle with raw green onion tops when serving.
Notes
- If you only have light soy sauce, use 2 tsp instead of 1 Tbsp.
- If you want to cut the salt a tiny bit, skip the step where you brush the cod with the rest of the miso/soy sauce paste before baking. You can cut the recipe by 1/3 or save what’s left to use as a the base of a new sauce.
- We haven’t tried this recipe with another type of fish yet, but we’re pretty sure it would go great with salmon.
Do you think it will still taste good if I replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos?
We haven’t tried that ourselves, but if you’ve replaced soy sauce with coconut aminos in other recipes with good results, we can’t see why not. Let us know how it turns out!
I’m going to be honest… this recipe looks delicious and I will definately be giving it a try. BUT your pictures are not all that appetizing. One looks like a big bug, the other has worms on it. Sorry, but I tought you might want to know.
Looks good to me. But haters gonna hate.
Do you think it would be good if I marinated overnight?
Cod is delicate and will break down if you marinate it too long.