Whole Grass Carp with Vegetables and Orange, Oven-Baked

Name: Whole Grass Carp with Vegetables and Orange, Oven-Baked
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: Grass carp – 3.8 kg. Orange – 1 pc. Lemon – 1 pc. Carrot – 1 pc. Bell pepper – 1 pc. Tomato – 1 pc. Garlic – 3 cloves. Parsley – 0.5 bunch. Fresh thyme – 5 sprigs. Bay leaf – 3 pcs. Salt – to taste. Ground black pepper – to taste. Vegetable oil – for greasing the tray.

Published: 05.09.2026

Updated: 05.09.2026

🤤 Здорові рецепти щодня

Cooking time 100 minutes Portions 8 servings

A large fish on a bed of vegetables looks like a festive dish and is made simpler than almost anything else: everything you need gets sliced into rounds and goes onto the tray together. There's exactly one difficulty here — time, and that's exactly where the source recipe goes wrong.

The orange next to the lemon isn't there for exoticism. Grass carp's meat is sweet because of its plant-based diet, and pure lemon acid reads as harsh against it; the orange restores the balance, keeping a citrus note while removing the sharpness.

The head is wrapped in foil separately. It's thinner than the body and manages to char black within an hour in the oven — it doesn't affect the taste, but there's no point serving a whole fish with a charred head.

The same large fish also works without the citrus sweetness — whole grass carp with lemon and ginger leans on the root's heat instead. No time for an hour twenty in the oven? Try grass carp baked in pieces.

Caloric content: 120kcal

Ingredients

Grass carp – 3.8 kg.
Orange – 1 pc.
Lemon – 1 pc.
Carrot – 1 pc.
Bell pepper – 1 pc.
Tomato – 1 pc.
Garlic – 3 cloves.
Parsley – 0.5 bunch.
Fresh thyme – 5 sprigs.
Bay leaf – 3 pcs.
Salt – to taste.
Ground black pepper – to taste.
Vegetable oil – for greasing the tray.

Prepare the fish

Take a large whole grass carp, clean it, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry with paper towels.

Cut the vegetables and citrus

Cut the orange, lemon, and carrot into thin rounds, the garlic into slices, the bell pepper into strips, and the tomato into quarters.

Make the bed

Grease the tray with oil and spread the sliced ingredients loosely over it, together with the parsley, bay leaves, and thyme sprigs. Set part of them aside for the filling.

Stuff the fish

Fill the fish's belly cavity with the reserved citrus, vegetables, and herbs.

Close the belly cavity

Press the edges of the belly cavity together tightly so the filling doesn't fall out onto the tray.

Place on the bed

Transfer the fish onto the vegetables, salt it, and sprinkle with ground black pepper.

Protect the head

Wrap the head in foil — this way it won't burn and will stay intact.

Bake

Place the tray in an oven preheated to 180 °C for an hour twenty — at a rate of twenty minutes per kilogram.

Serve

Serve the grass carp whole, together with the baked vegetables, and garnish with fresh herbs if desired.

Notes

Count time by weight, not by the clock. The source gives an hour for a fish weighing 3.8 kilograms — that's sixteen minutes per kilogram, and it will stay raw near the backbone. The norm is about twenty: we set it at an hour twenty.
Wrap the head in foil. Otherwise it will burn before the back is done.
Set part of the vegetables aside for the filling. A belly cavity packed with citrus and herbs works from the inside — without this, a large body stays bland at the center.
Close the belly cavity tightly. Filling that falls out onto the tray will burn and carry bitterness into the drippings.
Check doneness near the dorsal fin. On a four-kilogram fish, the difference between the sides and the backbone is large, and the outside appearance tells you nothing here.

Questions and Answers

How long to bake a large grass carp?

About twenty minutes per kilogram at 180 °C. A 3.8-kilogram body takes an hour twenty.

Why orange if there's already lemon?

Grass carp meat is sweetish, and pure lemon acid reads as harsh against it. Orange smooths this out while keeping the citrus note.

Why does the head burn?

It's thinner than the body and heats through faster. It's wrapped in foil for the entire baking time.

Can I use a smaller fish?

Yes, recalculate the time using the same rate. For a body weighing one and a half kilograms, that's thirty minutes.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.