Ryan Cole’s BBQ fish and curried salad recipe

Ryan Cole is the executive chef at Salsify at The Roundhouse, in Cape Town, South Africa. Twice winner of Africa’s Best Landmark Restaurant at the World Culinary Awards, his restaurant is also no. 88 on 2025’s Top 100 list from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Here, he shares a recipe for fish – cooked on an traditional South African open charcoal barbecue, known as a braai – with a summer curried salad.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

For the fish:

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• 1 2kg whole fish, preferably sea bass, butterflied, with collar on and belly whole (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 tbsp Maldon sea salt
• white pepper, to taste
• 50g butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 clove garlic, finely grated

For the curried salad (you will need a juicer)

• 1 apple, juiced
• 1 carrot, juiced
• 1 tsp medium curry powder
• 40ml olive oil
• 30ml apple cider vinegar
• 100ml Greek yoghurt
• 1 head butter lettuce, leaves loosened
• 30g salted roasted cashew nuts
• 1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons
• 1 pomegranate, cut in half
• 1 tub ricotta
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

• Light a fire and allow the coals to burn down to embers.
• Season your fish with the zest and juice of both the lemon and lime, the Maldon sea salt and a good crack of the white pepper. Place the fish skin-side down on the grid over the coals. Cook for 4-6 minutes, then flip onto the other side and cook for 1 minute. Allow the fish to rest for 3 minutes.
• Mix the grated garlic into the soft butter, then brush it over the fish flesh.
• To make the salad, mix the apple and carrot juice together and heat in a heatproof pan.
• Reduce the juice by two-thirds, then remove from the heat and add the curry powder, olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Allow the mixture to cool, then stir through the Greek yoghurt.
• In a bowl, mix the lettuce leaves, cashew nuts and cucumber. Scoop out the pomegranate seeds and add them in. Then add the yoghurt sauce and the ricotta, and toss. Season to taste.
• Serve the salad alongside your fish.

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