Quick and Easy Salmon Dinner

Salmon is considered a superfood; the health benefits of salmon is lauded throughout the medical world. Salmon is rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids and is a great source of protein.

Cooking with salmon is one of the easiest thing to do. If you can turn on the stove then I am pretty sure you can make this dish.

The rice is cooked in a rice cooker. The vegetables are quickly steamed and the salmon is seared and flipped.

Salmon is considered a superfood; the health benefits of salmon is lauded throughout the medical world. Salmon is rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids, is a great source of protein, is high in B Vitamins, is a good source of Potassium, is loaded with Selenium, and salmon contains the antioxidant Astaxanthin.

You can find fresh salmon daily at Whole Foods Market, Urban Fare, Safeway, pretty much at most neighbourhood grocery stores, and of course at most fishmongers.

Farm-raised salmon should be a top choice when choosing your fish for dinner. Here’s why:

Your salmon can be traced from the fishmonger right back to its smolts days, and even before that to the broodstock.
You have access to every bit of information regarding the feed.
Farm-raised salmon’s carbon footprint is so minuscule it is almost nonexistent.
Your salmon is raised in its natural environment, the ocean.

Now that you feel so much better about buying and cooking your salmon, let’s start you off easy with this quick and satisfying recipe.

Quick and Easy Salmon Dinner

Ingredients:

Protein:
2 fillets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup olive oil to sear the fish
lemon and dill to finish the dish

Vegetables:
4 heads Bok Choy
1 handful green beans
1 cup chicken (or vegetable) broth

Starch:
1.5 cups uncooked Jasmine rice

Before we cook the fish and vegetables, you must cook the rice.
Follow the directions of your rice cooker for cooking 1.5 cups of Jasmine rice. Set it to cook and leave it to do its thing while you prepare your dinner.

Unwrap the 2 fillets of salmon, give them a quick rinse and pat them dry with a paper towel, set aside on a plate, sprinkle with a bit of salt and a few good screws of pepper.

Rinse the vegetables and drain in a colander.

Cut one lemon in quarters. Pull the dill off the main stem. Set aside.

Let’s get cooking…

Method:

Salmon:

Pour the olive oil into a heavy bottom frying pan, lay the salmon, skin side down, into the pan.
Place the pan on the stove, turn the heat to Gas mark 4 (the setting just before medium) and let it slowly sear (I know, sounds like an oxymoron slow-sear) and cook to halfway through.
You will see the fish turning to a lovely cooked pink to the halfway point. Now gently flip the fish over to the flesh side and remove from the heat.
Here are a couple of things that will happen – the skin will most likely be stuck to the pan, you don’t need it for this dish so leave it there – the fish will continue cooking in the hot pan after it is removed from the heat. You now have perfectly cooked salmon.

Vegetables:

Add the broth to a saucepan, put the green beans in the broth first, add the leafy greens next.
Place the pot on the stove, crank up to gas mark 8 (the setting before High) and cover the pot.
Let it steam for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Plating:

Pasta dishes are great for the plating of your yummy dinner.

Divide the Bok choy into 2 servings, place them into the two dishes.
Divide the broth from the vegetables into 2 servings, pour into the dishes. Lay one serving each of the salmon into the plates.
Next, place a ball of sticky rice onto the leafy parts of the Bok choy.
Top the salmon with green beans and dill.
Squeeze as much lemon juice as you like over everything. A quick sprinkle of salt and you are good to go.

Enjoy, my friends!

MORE RECIPES:

Broiled Salmon with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes

Shelter Point Sunshine-Glazed Salmon

Caribbean Split Pea Soup with Salmon & Canna-Pumpkin Puree