Source: RF's all-time favourites doc (Honey Hi) listed "Baked Cod Topped with Shakshuka, Roasted Carrots & Side of Sautéed Chard"; the method was cut off in the screenshot, so this is the house version built on the same shakshuka sauce. Written 2026-10-18 for the week of 19 October.
Serves: 2 + baby · 10 min prep · 20–25 min oven
The sauce does the work. Cod is lean and dries out fast, and baking it in a wet sauce is the most forgiving way to cook it — it poaches rather than roasts.
Ingredients
2 cod fillets, about ¾ lb total
2 cups shakshuka sauce (see the shakshuka sauce recipe — a frozen portion is fine)
1 lb carrots, in sticks
1 small fennel bulb, in wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Parsley or cilantro to finish
Method
Heat the oven to 425°F.
Toss the carrots and fennel with the oil, salt and pepper. Single layer on a sheet pan.
Roast them 15 minutes before the fish goes in — they need the head start.
Spread the shakshuka sauce in a baking dish, about ½ inch deep.
Pat the cod dry and season it, then settle the fillets into the sauce so they are half submerged.
Spoon a little sauce over the top of each fillet.
Bake 12–15 minutes, until the fish flakes with a fork at its thickest point. Check at 12 — overcooked cod goes from silky to cottony in about two minutes.
Both come out of the oven together. Lemon and herbs at the table.
Notes
Safa: a flake of cod with no sauce and a soft roasted carrot. Pull them before the lemon.
Thaw frozen cod overnight in the fridge. Cooking it from frozen in sauce makes the sauce watery.
Chard, wilted into the sauce for the last 5 minutes, is the green version of this and was in the original.
Works with any firm white fish — halibut, haddock, hake. Not salmon; it fights the sauce.