Tips on enjoying affordable, quality seafood at home

With food prices rising, you may see seafood as an unnecessary luxury and start cutting it out of your diet. But let’s bust that myth – there are plenty of ways for savvy seafood lovers to still enjoy their fish dishes (and get all the nutritional benefits) without breaking the bank. 

Here are our favorite ways to enjoy seafood while reducing your food bill. 

❄️ Buy frozen, not fresh – frozen seafood has the same nutritional benefits as fresh but lasts much longer and typically costs less – win win! For bigger savings, look for larger packs of individually frozen fish. This way, you can defrost fillets when you need them. 

Keeping a supply of seafood in the freezer is also really helpful on those days when you need to whip up a speedy dinner – a salmon fillet takes less than 30 minutes to bake in the oven and is simply delicious with a squeeze of lemon, boiled potatoes and some leafy greens. Try our Salmon niçoise recipe!

🥫 Stock up on tinned fish – if you think tinned fish is just for tuna sandwiches, think again! Tinned seafood is a great budget-friendly cooking hack that can help you get the protein and Omega 3s you need while still saving your pennies. It has a long shelf life so it’s super convenient, and it can be used in all sorts of fish dishes. 

For easy and nutritious meals, add a tinned fish atop a salad or try ready-to-eat Cole’s Seafood Salmon Chowder! Hosting a gathering? Look for ASC labeled tinned fish or smoked fish to add to a charcuterie board. Try our Seafood snack board recipe for a crowd-pleasing and filling snack! 

 

🧑‍🍳 Embrace batch cooking – batch cooking is the best way to create family meals on a budget and simultaneously take the pressure off your week! Stews, sauces, soups, baked pasta dishes and curries are great options for batch cooking as they typically freeze well. 

To be a batch cooking pro, look out for supermarket offers when you do your shopping. For instance, if you find salmon on sale, use it to whip up a large batch of Salmon Chowder and freeze it in portions so you have hearty and healthy dinners on demand for the coming week!

Extra money-saving tip – if you have a fishmonger or fish counter in your local supermarket that sells fish at reduced prices when it’s approaching its sell-by date, snatch up that seafood for batch cooking or freezing to enjoy later. 

🐟 Look beyond fillets – fillets are the easiest way to prepare and enjoy fish so they tend to be the most expensive option. Look beyond these to a world of exciting and affordable seafood! Some fishmongers will sell offcuts or irregular shaped fish pieces at reduced prices, and these are amazing for fish pies, soups, stews and curries like our Coconut Fish Curry Soup. 

Whole fish are also a great option as they are often cheaper than the equivalent amount of filleted fish. You can either cook your fish whole or fillet it yourself. It might feel intimidating, but filleting a fish is simple if you know how – check out our trout filleting video for a step by step guide. Remember to keep the fish bones for making stock that you can then use to add flavor to soups or risotto. 

📋 Meal plan – having a plan for your week’s meals is an easy way to keep costs down. It means you have a clear shopping list and avoids unexpected costs and stress from deciding what to eat each day. Try to factor in two portions of oily fish like salmon, trout, mackerel, anchovies and sardines into your meal plan, and use the other hacks in this article to reduce your grocery bill. 

💰 Get familiar with less popular fish – well known fish like salmon tend to be pricey, but broadening your fish cooking to include lesser-known types of fish can be a gamechanger when it comes to enjoying seafood on a budget. 

Look out for tilapia or grouper, which both cost less than salmon but are delicious and really versatile. We love Sweet and spicy fried tilapia with peanut crunch and this recipe for Blackened grouper. Seafood like mussels and clams can also be inexpensive ways to get plenty of protein into your diet. 

🥣 Learn to love leftovers – reducing food waste helps save money as well as the planet! Leftover seafood can be added to soups, pasta dishes, sandwiches and salads to help it go further. 

There are plenty of ways to reduce the cost of your grocery shop without missing out on eating seafood dishes. Just be sure to look for the sea-green ASC label when you shop to be sure your seafood has been raised responsibly. 

So what will you have for dinner? For fish dish inspiration, take a look at our recipe collection, and follow us on Instagram where we share cooking tips and recipes to help make seafood a bigger part of your family’s diet. Shopping for responsible seafood is easy when you look for ASC’s sea green label.