Lebanese-Style Tilapia & Turmeric Rice
with Lemony Roasted Carrots & Onion, Hazelnuts
- Tree Nuts
- Fish
- Shellfish
This Middle Eastern-style dish was inspired by sayadieh, a rice dish with roots in Lebanon and Syria. It starts with a bed of fluffy golden rice cooked with earthy turmeric and flavorful seafood stock. You’ll serve seared spiced tilapia fillets over the rice along with a colorful jumble of lemony roasted carrots and red onion. Finish this beautiful plate with a shower of crunchy hazelnuts and a sprinkle of fresh parsley for a homestyle meal that may just become your new favorite.
Ingredients
½ ounce
Hazelnuts
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
1 unit
Red Onion
1 unit
Seafood Stock Concentrate
(Contains: Fish, Shellfish)
6 ounce
Carrot
½ cup
Jasmine Rice
11 ounce
Tilapia
(Contains: Fish)
1 teaspoon
Cumin
1 unit
Lemon
1 teaspoon
Turmeric
¼ ounce
Parsley
1 teaspoon
Garlic Powder
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
3 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 425 degrees. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a small pot over medium-high heat. Add rice and half the turmeric (all for 4 servings). Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 20-30 seconds. • Stir in stock concentrate, ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4), and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a low simmer. Cook until tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• While rice cooks, wash and dry produce. • Trim, peel, and cut carrots on a diagonal into ¼-inch-thick pieces. Halve, peel, and slice onion into ¼-inchthick wedges. Zest and quarter lemon. Roughly chop hazelnuts. Roughly chop parsley. • Toss carrots and onion on a baking sheet with a drizzle of oil, ¼ tsp sugar (½ tsp for 4 servings), a squeeze of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and as much lemon zest as you like. Roast on top rack until tender, 15-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pat tilapia* dry with paper towels; season generously all over with garlic powder, half the cumin (all for 4 servings), salt, and pepper. • Heat a large drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add tilapia and cook until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes per side. TIP: Lower heat to medium if fish starts to brown too quickly.
• Divide rice and roasted veggies between plates or shallow bowls in separate sections. Top rice with tilapia; sprinkle with hazelnuts and parsley. Serve with remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Tilapia is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 145°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the turmeric rice and spiced tilapia, though some found it bland and wished for a sauce to tie it together.
- Ease of prep: Simple to make, but a few noted the cooking times for components didn't align perfectly.
- Suggestions: Consider adding a lemon-yogurt sauce or adjusting seasoning to taste. Some recommend cooking fish less to avoid dryness.
- Portions: Several mentioned wanting more vegetables, especially carrots. A few found the rice portion small for two people.
- Freshness: Most praised the fish quality, though a handful received less-than-fresh produce.
Reviews from our home cooks
This dish should be a hall of fame pick! The turmeric rice pairs so well with the carrots and onions. The sweetness of the vegetables with the acidic lemon is a perfect side. When you taste the fish it's perfectly seasoned, but then you take a bite with the rice and vegetables. It's like the garlic and cumin play with the turmeric. Then the carrots and onions come in and say "Hey!" Then the delicate fish finds its turn and follows all the way to the end. The spices and vegetables carry the tilapia flavor until it all comes crashing into your taste buds! Well done!
Wow! Amazing flavor! The tilapia was so flavorful. And the turmeric rice was a very nice change. We loved this dish! The carrots were also amazing. The lemon added a new zest to their flavor.
Very dry dish. The fish was tasty, and we enjoyed the spices in the dish. This one would have been a winner with some sort of drizzle on top -- yogurt and lemon sauce or a gremolata. Probably would not be "Lebanese-Style" then, but as it was prepared, one of our least liked recipes in a long time.
Tilapia is always a good weeknight fish dinner and this turned out good. Sometimes I don't have luck with roasted carrots but these turned out good. Love the tumeric rice. Overall a nice meal.
We swapped chicken for the tilapia (used the tilapia in a soup instead) and the whole meal was SO tasty! We also cooked the hazelnuts inside the rice - gave the rice a nice nutty flavor.
Very tasty! My husband and I both enjoyed it! I roasted potatoes for him, as he does not like carrots, so I did both with the onion! The rice was very tasty, and I did not use the fish stock because it contains shellfish, which I am allergic to, but the rice was still great! Vegetables and fish were grilled, not oven roasted! So good! A very nice addition to your offerings!
I bought these meal kits for my 10 yr old son to learn how to cook. This was his first recipe and his favorite so far! He had never had tilapia before and he loved it!
For what looked like a flavorful dish, this meal was really boring. It cooked fine, and was edible and felt very healthy. But way too much red onion and the fish, rice, and carrots all felt like they had no seasonings other than salt/pepper/lemon. It didn't feel exotic or interesting in any way.
Delicious! Will order this again! Nice big pieces of tilapia too!
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