This is one of those dinners that tastes special, like you’ve gone to extra trouble.
Good news! This dish is quick to fix. I had it finished in about 30 minutes and that included time to line up ingredients, take photos and jot down my recipe. Not bad.
I did start with another recipe as inspiration. I wasn’t sure what should go into the Pineapple Salsa, so I searched Tasty Kitchen and came up with a recipe for Tropical Chicken and Coconut Rice Bowl. It’s from Katie at The College Culinarian.
I wanted fish instead of chicken, so I turned the marinade into a sauce for the tilapia. And I tweaked her salsa recipe a bit too. The result was delicious!
Here’s what you’ll need: 
Tropical Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Rice – Easy & Special!
Servings: 6 -8 servings
Ingredients
For the coconut rice
- 1 can Coconut milk
- Water to bring liquid to 3 cups
- 2 cups White rice
For the salsa
- 8 oz. Pineapple tidbits lightly drained
- 1 Tbs. Red onion minced
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup Red bell pepper diced
- 1/2 jalepeno pepper seeded and diced
- 2 tsp. Cilantro minced
- Salt to taste
For the fish
- 6-8 Tilapia fillets
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 Tbs. Brown sugar
- 2 Tbs. Soy sauce
- 3 Tbs. Lime juice
- pinch dried Ginger
Instructions
For the coconut rice
- Pour the coconut milk in a measuring cup. Add water to bring the level to 3 cups.
- Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add the rice, turn the heat to low and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes.
For the salsa
- Combine all the ingredients for the salsa in a small bowl. Set aside while you fix the fish. This can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge, if you like.
For the fish
- Stir the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger and lime juice together in a small bowl.
- Salt and pepper the tilapia fillets.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil and the crushed garlic.
- Place the tilapia in the skillet (work in batches, if necessary).
- Cook a few minutes, then flip. Cook another couple of minutes.
- Pour the sauce over the fish in the skillet.
- Cook for 2-3 more minutes, until the sauce is reduced a bit and the fish flakes easily with a fork.
- Serve fish on bed of Coconut Rice, topped with Pineapple Salsa.
The title of this dish got my attention, then my kids’ attention when I read it out loud. When I said coconut milk, their mouths started watering. Grace’s wheels are spinning now, trying to figure out how to make a dessert with the rice and milk.
We have tilapia in the freezer. I think I’ll try this recipe next week. Thanks!
Can’t wait to try this! I’m always looking for new things to do with fish, which is kind of a hard sell around here.
Can’t wait to make this weekend! How many servings? I couldn’t figure out if it was four with 1/2 rice per piece and 2 filets or 6-8 with one filet a piece!
Thanks!
Betsy, it’s 6-8 servings. 2 cups of dry rice makes quite a lot of rice. I’m really bad about remembering to add serving sizes, but most of my recipes feed 6-8 people.
Wonderful! Thank you 🙂
I made this last night and it was wonderful. I wonder how it would be with chicken.
Sounds good