Hands down, salmon is my favorite fish. Nothing comes close. I’ve been eating salmon for as long as I can remember and there have only been a handful of occasions where I didn’t like what I prepared. That’s because I screwed something up. In general, if you properly cook salmon, it’s delicious.
Did you know there are health benefits to eating salmon? Salmon provides a good amount of the antioxidant amino acid taurine. It’s also a source of vitamin B12, vitamin D, and selenium, as well as niacin, omega-3 fatty acids, protein, phosphorus, and vitamin B6. I’d say that’s pretty good. So, the health benefits combined with some of the best taste out there leads me to believe it’s a super food. Super tasty, that is.
If you’re interested in learning about salmon’s nutritional value, take a look at this resource:
What’s New and Beneficial about Salmon?
The Recipe
The recipe I’m about to share with you comes from my new cookbook by Curtis Stone called What’s For Dinner? It’s a super easy recipe to put together and it’s virtually guilt free. It uses a fair amount of vegetables, some nice pieces of salmon and a flavorful vinaigrette. It really doesn’t take too long to prepare either. Much of the time is used during the preparation, but once that’s done, the cooking is fast.
If you aren’t aware of how poaching cooks fish, I’ll try to explain it to you. Basically, you boil water. Once it’s boiling, you place the pieces of fish into it, making sure they’re totally submerged. Then, lower the heat to low and let the hot water do its trick. After 6 minutes, the fish is finished. What you’re left with is wonderfully tender goodness.
This recipe uses poaching to cook the fish and blanching to cook the green beans. Both techniques are easy and effective and leave you with some wonderful textures to enjoy. The remaining ingredients are left raw, hence the word “salad” in the name of this recipe.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
1 Lemon
10 Pearl White Onions
4 5-Ounce Pieces of Salmon Fillet (Skinless)
Regular Table Salt
Ground Black Pepper
24 Ounces Green Beans
6 Radishes
1 Tablespoon Dried Tarragon
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
4 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Step-by-Step Instructions
I would suggest prepping the vegetables before you begin. Slice the lemon into 1/4 inch thick pieces, peel and thinly slice the 10 white pearl onions, cut the skinless salmon fillet into 4 equally sized pieces, trim the beans and clean and slice the radishes so they’re paper thin. Set everything aside in their own bowls and you should enjoy smooth sailing from here on out.
Cook the Salmon
Place the slices of lemon around the bottom of a 12 inch skillet. Then, sprinkle about 1/3 of the sliced white pearl onions on top of the lemon slices. Then, fill the skillet with water until it’s two-thirds of the way full.
Once that’s finished, cover the skillet and bring the water to a boil over high heat. After the water begins to boil, reduce the heat to low and place the 4 pieces of evenly cut salmon in the pan.
As you can see, the salmon begins to cook rather quickly. I wasn’t even finished placing the pieces in the skillet and one was changing color.
Now, make sure the salmon pieces are completely submerged. If you need to add hot water to the skillet, you can do so. Once everything is in place, cover the skillet and cook over low for 6 minutes. This should poach the fish perfectly. Once they are finished, remove the salmon from the skillet, place on a plate and refrigerate for the remainder of this recipe.
Blanch the Beans
Bring about 8 cups of water to a boil, over high heat, in a large pot. Once boiling, add in the green beans and let cook for 3 minutes.
While the beans are cooking, fill a large bowl with ice and water. Then, after three minutes of boiling, strain the beans in a colander. Right after that, add the beans to the ice water. The purpose of this is to stop the beans from cooking, so it has to be done quickly.
Stir the beans up a bit too. You want the cold water to be consistent throughout the bowl.
After a few minutes of sitting in the cold water, strain the beans again in the colander.
Prepare the Salad
Take the same large bowl you just used and dump the ice water out of it. Make sure it’s dry too. Then, add in the green beans, all the sliced radishes, the remaining two-thirds of sliced white pearl onions and the 1 tablespoon of dry tarragon. Also add in the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and the 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Once everything is in the bowl, toss it together so it’s all evenly coated.
Once the green bean salad is made, go ahead and divide it up evenly among 4 plates. Then, take the salmon out of the refrigerator and add them to the bean salad. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
The Final Dish
This dish was very simple to photograph. The colors are wonderful and the taste is even better. It’s light, healthy and very tasty. I plan on preparing this one again – definitely.
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