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Draft: not yet reviewed by a clinician

Use this page to prepare questions for your care team. It does not replace their advice. Your own targets and doses come from your nephrologist, diabetes team and renal dietitian.

Herb-crumb baked cod with lemon couscous and cucumber salad

Cod is one of the lower-potassium fish: about 207 mg in 3 oz cooked, against about 330 mg for salmon. Fresh breadcrumbs made from white bread, butter, dill and garlic powder make a crisp topping without the sodium of shop-bought seasoned crumbs.

Serves 4 · 30 minutes · Lower potassium · Lower phosphorus · Dialysis-friendly

Carbohydrate per serving

40 g carbohydrate (about 2½ carb choices of 15 g). Most of it comes from the couscous and the crumbs. For about 55 g, add ¼ cup more couscous (9 g) and ½ cup of strawberries for dessert (6 g).

Per serving

Energy Carb Protein Potassium Phosphorus Sodium Fluid Fiber
363 kcal 40 g 25.9 g 421 mg 179 mg 147 mg none 2.7 g

Checked by scripts/build_handbook.py: sodium at most 600 mg per serving; "lower potassium" means at most 600 mg and "lower phosphorus" at most 300 mg per serving. See how recipes are checked.

Ingredients that are not in the app's food list (herbs, spices and a few others) add about 20 mg potassium per serving; they are counted above.

Ingredients

Ingredient Amount Grams
Cod, Atlantic, cooked 4 cod fillets, about 12 oz cooked (about 1 lb raw) 340 g
Bread, white 2 slices white bread, made into crumbs 58 g
Butter, unsalted 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted 28 g
Dill weed, dried 1 tsp dried dill 1.0 g
Garlic powder ½ tsp garlic powder (not garlic salt) 1.6 g
Paprika ½ tsp paprika 1.2 g
Lemon juice, fresh 2 tbsp lemon juice 30 g
Couscous, cooked 3 cups cooked couscous, made without salt (about 1 cup dry) 471 g
Olive oil 1 tbsp olive oil 14 g
Cucumber, with peel, raw 2 cups thinly sliced cucumber 208 g
Onion, raw ¼ cup thinly sliced onion 40 g
Vinegar, cider 2 tbsp cider vinegar 30 g
Sugar, granulated 1 tsp sugar 4.2 g
Black pepper, ground ¼ tsp black pepper 0.6 g

Steps

  1. Make the salad first: toss the cucumber and onion with the vinegar, sugar and pepper and leave it in the fridge.
  2. Heat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Mix the breadcrumbs, melted butter, dill, garlic powder and paprika.
  3. Put the fish on a lined tray, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and press the crumbs on top.
  4. Bake for 12–15 minutes, until the crumbs are golden and the fish flakes easily and reaches 145 °F (63 °C).
  5. Cook the couscous in water without salt, then fork in the olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice. Serve each fillet with ¾ cup couscous and ½ cup salad.

Why it works for kidneys

  • Fresh or frozen plain cod has about 66 mg sodium in 3 oz. Breaded frozen fish sticks often contain phosphate additives.
  • Garlic powder adds flavor with almost no sodium (under 1 mg per ½ teaspoon); garlic salt is mostly salt.
  • ¾ cup of couscous has about 70 mg potassium; a medium baked potato has about 930 mg.

Make it fit you

  • Other fish: tilapia or pollock work the same way, but they have more potassium: about 320–390 mg per 3 oz cooked, against about 210 mg for cod.
  • Before dialysis: 2 oz of fish per person, with a little more couscous, if your team set a lower protein target.
  • Rice instead of couscous: ¾ cup white rice has about the same carbohydrate.

Log it in the app

Log one serving as these foods from the app's food list (grams per serving), or save them once as a meal (Planning and menus):

  • Cod, Atlantic, cooked: 85 g
  • Bread, white: 15 g
  • Butter, unsalted: 7.1 g
  • Lemon juice, fresh: 7.6 g
  • Couscous, cooked: 118 g
  • Olive oil: 3.4 g
  • Cucumber, with peel, raw: 52 g
  • Onion, raw: 10 g
  • Vinegar, cider: 7.5 g
  • Sugar, granulated: 1.1 g

Sources

Not yet reviewed by a clinician. Facts and sources last checked 2026-10-06.