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If you’re looking for a new way to serve traditional gefilte fish loaves, Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa is a refreshing, crispy, delicious way to change up your fish appetizer. Fried, coated gefilte fish is topped with freshly homemade tomato, lime and cilantro salsa. It’s loaded with flavor. Your family and friends will love it and you for serving something traditional with a tasty twist.

Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa

Name: Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Gluten Free
Ingredients: 3 large tomatoes, diced; 1 medium white onion, diced; 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped; juice of 2 limes (around 4 tablespoons); 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced (optional); 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt; 1 tablespoon avocado oil (optional); 2 loaves frozen gefilte fish, defrosted (gluten free, Kosher for Passover); 2 cups corn flake crumbs or panko crumbs (gluten free, Kosher for Passover); 1 baby carrot; avocado or safflower oil for frying; Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish; Lime wedges, for garnish

Looking for a new way to remake boring gefilte fish? Tired of the same old, same old? Want to spice up your traditional appetizer with something crunchy, delicious and fresh? Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa takes traditional frozen fish loaves and turns them into surprisingly crispy and tasty gefilte fish patties topped with a fresh, homemade salsa bursting with flavor.

How I came up with Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa

How did I come up with Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa?

The truth is I didn’t!

Many years ago, I was speaking on the phone with Dear Cousin Gail and she gave me her recipe for Crunchy Gefilte Fish. Originally it’s made with cornflake crumbs, which was what my first version was made with.

Later, when I was writing for Mishpacha Magazines “Kosher Scoop” in 2011, I added Tomato Cilantro Lime Salsa to the recipe. It added a natural, homemade twist to the recipe. This recipe was later incorporated onto the Kosher.com website and you can find my original recipe here.

My original “Kosher Scoop” Crunchy Gefilte Fish. Note my gorgeous Shabbat plate. Now this recipe can be found on kosher.com.

Additionally, in the first version, the loaves are cut into 12 pieces rather than eight, making the patties much smaller. I felt that for the updated recipe, eight pieces worked better but you can also make smaller ones as well.

This version makes 16 Crunchy Gefilte Fish Patties. You can make them smaller if you like by cutting the loaves into 12 pieces each, resulting in 24 patties.

Making Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa

This recipe can be made for Passover or year round with a few changes.

The Gefilte Fish Coating Crumbs

Dear Cousin Gail’s recipe calls for cornflake crumbs. My first version did too, and when I became a GFE (Gluten Free Eater) I switched to gluten-free corn flake crumbs.

In translating the recipe for Passover, I ended up just using a Kosher for Passover gluten-free panko (Jason brand this time) and it worked great. Almost surprisingly so. The gluten-free panko easily stuck to the uncoated gefilte fish, fried up beautifully to a golden brown, and turned out wonderfully crunchy as well.

Crunchy Gefilte Fish turned out to be really crunchy using Kosher for Passover gluten-free panko.

The Gefilte Fish Loaves

As a GFE (Gluten Free Eater) Passover is the best time to stock up on gluten-free products that aren’t necessarily gluten-free all year round. Gefilte Fish Loaves are one of those items. As they’re frozen, they actually last a long time in the freezer, making this recipe not only great for Passover, but for year round – as long as you have the gluten-free loaves or are a glutenous eater.

Kosher for Passover Gefilte Fish – Gluten Free/Non-Gebroks. I stock up to use even after Passover.

The Onion and Cilantro

While I’m normally not an onion eater, this recipe really is way better with freshly diced onion. White onions are best, but if you don’t have one, a small yellow one will suffice. If you really don’t/can’t eat actual onions, you could theoretically substitute sliced green onion.

The jalapeno gives the salsa a nice little kick, not too much, but it’s enough to add some extra flavor to the normally kind of bland fish. If you aren’t a spicy/jalapeno fan, you can leave it out of the recipe.

Tomato Lime Salsa Ingredients. I used my “Hindy Chopper” back in 2011 and now. It is the easiest way to get evenly diced vegetables for your salsa!

The oil

I normally am a fan of frying in either peanut or avocado oil as they both have fairly high smoke points and don’t add any additional taste to the food. As an Ashkenazi Jewish person, I don’t use kitniyot (legumes) on Passover, so I’m sticking with either avocado oil or safflower oil to fry these up. The avocado oil worked especially well.

The Crunchy Gefilte Fish was very happy being fried in the avocado oil. It’s even smiling 🙂

That Cilantro

There are those in my family that are genetically pre-disposed to have cilantro taste like soap. It’s not their fault. They can’t help it.

In the case that you have an anti-soap tasting cilantro person at your table, feel free to leave the cilantro out or to substitute flat leaf parsley.

Here’s the recipe for Crunchy Gefilte Fish with Tomato Lime Salsa

Crunchy Gefilte Fish is a great substitute for traditional gefilte fish. Dear Daughter tasted my demo’s and suggested that you could also use the Cucumber Dill Sauce from the Salmon Rolls with Cucumber Dill Sauce. I think that would be fabulously tasty as well. If you’re a purist, you could even top the fish with Traditional Horseradish – I’ve already got mine started, or with the Horseradish Cream from Ceviche with Horseradish Cream or Chopped Steak Patties with Horseradish Cream.

Any way you serve the Crunchy Gefilte Fish will be a totally different experience for the family and friends at your table.