Hi, Seafoodies!
Grab a hard hat (or an oven mitt)—it’s time to renovate your weeknight menu. The premise is simple: walk through the meals you already make, keep what works and swap seafood in for the protein. Same layout, same finishes, same 30-minute timeline—only the main ingredient gets the makeover!
A quick look at the blueprints before demo day. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend at least three servings of seafood per week, and most of us fall short by a wide margin. The fastest way to close that gap is a renovation rather than a rebuild: burger night is still burger night when the patty is salmon, and taco Tuesday keeps its name when the filling is crispy white fish. Nothing gets totally torn down, so nobody at the table even notices the change on their plate.
In the Dish on Fish kitchen, we believe every good flip follows a few rules. Keep the seasonings—if the sauce, spice blend or marinade already works, it will typically also work on seafood. Keep the tools—the Instant Pot, air fryer and skillet stay exactly where they are— because who wants to master a new complicated cooking method just to get dinner on the table?! Change the protein first, and only the protein. Shrimp and white fish slide into almost any chicken recipe with a shorter cook time, canned tuna and crab step into anything that calls for shredded chicken and salmon holds its own wherever beef used to be.
Want to see the renovation in action? Eleven awesome before-and-afters, coming right up.
Before: avocado toast with a fried egg.
After: avocado toast crowned with garlicky sautéed shrimp.
Simple Shrimp & Avocado Toast
The egg keeps its spot if you like—shrimp simply move in as a topper. This five-minute flip turns a snack into a wholesome meal while adding some real extra protein to the plate.
Before: a basic beef smash burger.
After: salmon patties pressed thin and seared until the edges crisp.
Salmon Smash Burgers with Sriracha Mayo
Inspection notes: an excellent crust, sriracha mayo throughout and zero structural issues. Burger night stays burger night (but better!), and your crew might just get hooked.
Before: the internet-famous Marry Me Chicken.
After: the same creamy sun-dried tomato sauce, poured over salmon.
Marry Me Salmon
Salmon cooks in a fraction of the time chicken needs, and honestly, that sauce was always going to work better with something tender and flaky to get lost in it. Do you hear wedding bells yet?!
Before: dried-out chicken quesadillas.
After: juicy canned tuna and melted cheese, crisped in the air fryer.
Air Fryer Tuna Quesadillas
All the omega-3s and in only 15 minutes with zero prep beyond opening a can. An exceptional place to start when it comes to seafood swapping—simple, quick and impossible to regret.
Before: ground beef walking tacos.
After: crispy air-fried white fish in the same snack-bag setup.
Open-concept dining at its finest: every guest gets their own bag, their own toppings and their own fork. The fish brings a lighter, flakier bite than beef ever could.
Before: chicken tortilla soup.
After: tender white fish simmered in a smoky tomato broth.
Instant Pot Fish Tortilla Soup
A cozy renovation for the first cold week of fall. Your Instant Pot will handle the heavy lifting, and the fish flakes into the broth in a few minutes instead of the extra cooking time that chicken demands.
Before: takeout chicken fried rice.
After: a sizzling skillet, starring shrimp.
Those pink shrimp against the golden rice look far better than they ever did in the delivery container. Day-old rice is the key to the crisp edges, which also makes this an awesome leftover upgrade option.
Before: lemon chicken pasta.
After: grilled shrimp tossed in the same bright, buttery sauce.
Grilled Shrimp and Pasta with Lemon-Garlic Sauce
The sauce stays. The pasta stays. Shrimp take over the lead and cook in about three minutes—it doesn’t get much quicker than that!
Before: a greasy patty melt.
After: light sweet crab and melted cheese on toasted sourdough.
Good bones, but with even better filling. Canned crab means you can pull the recipe out of your back pocket without needing an extra trip to the fish counter and the sourdough delivers that crunch that only a patty melt promises.
Before: pasta with chicken and veggies.
After: Mediterranean flavors with canned tuna, olives and tomatoes.
This one will receive high praise every time you make it. Pantry-driven, ready in minutes and equally good warm tonight or cold from the fridge tomorrow.
Before: boring spinach artichoke dip.
After: bubbling spinach artichoke dip with shrimp folded in.
Baked Spinach Artichoke Shrimp Dip
The rare flip that adds a room instead of swapping one. Shrimp elevates this party staple into something closer to a crave-worthy meal, and the chip-to-dip ratio remains exactly as generous as before.
One last tip before you start: canned tuna, canned crab and frozen shrimp match fresh seafood nutritionally and keep for months, so a flip is always possible on short notice. Begin with one swap a week, and once a renovation earns repeat requests, it stops being a swap and becomes a regular house recipe. It’s that easy!
Happy flipping, Seafoodies!
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