Tunisian Roasted Garlic and Harissa Fish Rice

About This Recipe

Tunisia has a genuine, deeply rooted seafood tradition thanks to its long Mediterranean coastline, with cities like Sfax and Bizerte famous for fish couscous and grilled catches served with harissa on the side. This rice dish channels that coastal Tunisian style — harissa-forward, garlicky and bright with lemon — while using rice instead of the more traditional couscous, giving it a slightly different but equally authentic Tunisian flavor profile. Whole garlic cloves are roasted until soft and mellow, then mashed and stirred into the rice along with harissa and a little tomato paste, building the same fiery, tomato-based backbone found in Tunisian fish stews. The rice absorbs all that flavor as it simmers, while the fish is seared separately, skin-side down first, so it stays crisp on top of the rice rather than steaming into it and losing texture. A generous scatter of fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon at the end mirrors how fish is traditionally finished at Tunisian coastal restaurants.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 4 filletswhite fish(such as sea bass or grouper, skin on)
• 1 headgarlic(roasted)
• 3 tbspolive oil
• 1onion(finely chopped)
• 2 tbspharissa paste
• 1 tbsptomato paste
• 1.5 cupslong-grain rice
• 3 cupsfish or vegetable stock
• 1 tspfine sea salt
• 1lemon(cut into wedges)
• 3 tbspfresh parsley(chopped)

Instructions

1. 1

   Roast the garlic

   Drizzle the garlic head with a little olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 200C (400F) for 35-40 minutes until soft. Squeeze out the cloves and mash into a paste.

2. 2

   Build the rice base

   Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Cook onion 6 minutes until soft, then stir in harissa, tomato paste and the roasted garlic paste, cooking 1 minute.

3. 3

   Cook the rice

   Add rice, stock and salt, stir well, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 18-20 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.

4. 4

   Sear the fish

   Pat the fish fillets dry and season with salt. Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and sear skin-side down 4 minutes until crisp, then flip and cook 2 minutes more.

5. 5

   Rest the rice

   Let the rice stand covered off heat for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

6. 6

   Serve

   Spoon the rice onto plates, top with the crisp-skinned fish, and finish with fresh parsley and lemon wedges.

Variations

• •

  Couscous swap: serve the harissa-garlic sauce over steamed couscous instead of rice for a more traditional Tunisian presentation.

• •

  Shrimp version: substitute large shrimp for the fish fillets, added in the last 5 minutes of the rice cooking.

• •

  Extra vegetables: stir in diced bell pepper with the onion for a more substantial one-pot meal.

Storage

Refrigerate fish and rice separately in airtight containers up to 2 days. Reheat the rice on the stovetop with a splash of water; reheat the fish gently to avoid drying it out, or serve it cold over the reheated rice.

Frequently Asked Questions