Quick, Easy and Healthy Salmon Recipes
If you love to eat salmon, or at least know it’s super healthy, and are looking for new ways to cook it, here you go!
Salmon is great for us - 175 calories for 3 ozs., which has about 18 grams of protein, and wonderful amounts of Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamins B6 and B12. It also has good amounts of the minerals Phosphorus and Selenium as well as healthy fats and a hearty dose of Omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-3s are important for brain, skin, heart and eye health and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends eating at least 2 servings of fish a week - especially those low in mercury and high in Omega-3s (which also includes tuna, lake trout, herring, and sardines). According to a recent AHA report, those who do so have a much lower risk of heart problems, including coronary heart disease, strokes, and sudden cardiac death.
As an aside, whenever I want to look up nutrition data on something, I usually go to the nutritiondata.self.com site, which has tons of information.
So eating a lot of fish, especially salmon, is great - but how do you make it interesting? We have a quick and easy formula for creating a marinade/sauce for salmon with what you have on hand in your pantry and fridge.
Ingredients:
For every serving of fish (3-4 ozs.), select one flavor from each of the following bullets:
● 1 teaspoon of something sweet: maple syrup, fruit preserves (my favorite is peach, but
I’ve used every fruit there is), or honey - just not white sugar, which is not healthy
● 1 teaspoon of something spicy: Dijon mustard, sambal oelek (see description below),
pepper jelly, or your favorite chili or hot sauce
● 1 teaspoon of something salty: soy sauce, capers, miso paste, fish sauce or ponzu
sauce (see description below) - just not plain salt
● 1 teaspoon of a fat (use less if the fish is fatty, and more if it’s wild salmon which is not
fatty): olive oil, mayonnaise, sesame oil or butter
● 1 teaspoon of an acid: lemon, rice vinegar or cider vinegar, sherry, even pickle juice
It works best to keep the flavors somewhat aligned - so using mostly Asian flavors such soy, sesame, rice vinegar, and chili sauce together. Or using French flavors such as mustard, capers, and mayo together. But I’ve mixed and matched with good success as well!
Some new discoveries are sambal oelek, which is a Southeast Asian flavor with red jalapenos and garlic. It’s nice because it adds heat without too much flavor - it doesn’t take over the dish the way some spicy condiments can. And you only need a little.
Another new favorite is ponzu sauce, which is a Japanese sauce which has all 5 flavors merged - sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory all together. Lovely! Essentially this marinade /sauce for fish is about that balance of multiple flavors - so you could use ponzu all by itself, but that’s less fun.
Directions:
Preheat oven to high broil
Mix your selected ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together.
Pour the marinade into your baking disk and place salmon on it with skin side UP. This allows the fish to start marinating while the skin side is cooking.
Broil for 5 minutes, or until the skin is crispy and brown. Take is out of the oven and remove the skin (yum! If you like it -salmon skin is loaded with omega 3)
Flip the fish over and broil for 5 minutes on the other side.
Check it for doneness - depending on the size of your fish, it may need more time to cook through. You want it to be uniformly light pink (no deep pink in the middle) and flaky. If you are using wild salmon, it will take less time and be a darker color. Because the marinade is cooked with the fish, it’s safe to use it as a sauce. And leftovers are delicious cold (if there are any!)
