If you’re looking for something a bit different – but utterly delicious – for your dinner tonight, give these scampi, samphire and tartar sauce tacos a go.
This is a bit of a fusion meal. We’ve moved well away from Mexican flavours to fill these tacos and have instead gone for the taste of a traditional English seaside. Sounds strange, but trust me – it works!
Using simple frozen breaded scampi, crispy taco shells, salty samphire and store cupboard ingredients for a flavourful tartar sauce, you get something really quite special.

Ingredients, Substitutions and Variations
- Frozen breaded scampi – you could of course bread your own scampi, but we’re going for ease here. Any breaded fish will work nicely – fish fingers would be great!
- Samphire – samphire is one of my favourite vegetables, but it can be tricky to get hold of. If you struggle, replace with some finely chopped cucumber and a handful of watercress.
- Hard taco shells – you can use soft shells if you like, but I think the texture of hard taco shells works really well here.
- Mayonnaise, gherkins, capers, dill, Worcestershire sauce, mustard – these are your tartar sauce ingredients. You can use English or Dijon mustard, but aside from this I wouldn’t change up the ingredients (to make sure you get the full flavour whack).

Top Tips
- Cooking the seafood Make sure you follow the packet instructions here in case your scampi is a different size to mine. You want the outside to be golden and crisp.
- Cooking the samphire Samphire needs just three minutes to cook – it just needs to heat through. Don’t cook any longer than this – it can become bitter.
- Get ahead You can make the tartar sauce well in advance – in fact, it’ll keep in the fridge for up to a month so why not double up the ingredients and make extra!
More delicious fish recipes:
- Pan Fried Sea Bass with Lentils
- Pan Fried Sea Bass with Olive Linguine
- Salmon and Beetroot Flatbreads
- Pan Fried Salmon with Coconut Noodle Broth
- Soy Glazed Salmon with Miso Noodle Broth
- Thai Fish Curry
- Smoked Fish Chowder
- One Pan Baked Cod and Noodles
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Scampi, Samphire and Tartar Tacos
June 11, 2024An incredible fusion dish featuring hard taco shells stuffed with samphire, scampi and a delightful tartar sauce.
Ingredients
- 300 g frozen breaded scampi
- 90 g samphire
- 8 hard taco shells
- 100 ml mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp chopped dill
- 1 tbsp capers
- 3 small gherkins
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp mustard English or Dijon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Put the scampi on a baking tray and cook according to packet instructions – usually around 20-25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the tartar sauce. Finely chop your gherkins and capers and put in a bowl. Add the mayonnaise, dill, Worcestershire sauce and mustard and stir well to combine.
- Three minutes before the scampi will be cooked, put the samphire in a nonstick frying pan. Cook over a medium heat, stirring often, for three minutes.
- Put the taco shells in the oven for the last 30 seconds of the scampi cooking time.
- To serve, evenly share the samphire between the taco shells. Top with the scampi, then drizzle over the tartar sauce. Enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

This taco is definitely not ordinary. I love trying new recipes throughout the week. Thanks!
The crunch of the tacos and the scampi was delicious.
Such a delicious twist on tacos, the samphire really makes this dish a sure winner! Thank you!
Samphire was a bit hard to find but I’m glad I chanced upon it! It was a unique the ingredient that truly elevated the sauce! Thank you!
This is an excellent dinner! The best part about these scampi tacos is the homemade tartar sauce! Simple yet delicious!