Once upon a time there was a girl who had serious ADD when it came to cooking. She did not make the same thing twice practically her entire marriage. And when she really liked a meal she usually forgot how to make it anyways so she couldn't repeat it ;).
Guess who we're talking about here?
I blame it all on my mom. She is the exact same way. I literally can count on one hand the meals we had more than once. I tell you all this to stress the awesomeness of this meal - I make it at least twice a month!! Whenever I see that salmon is on sale I get giddy because I freakin love this dinner. And it takes all of 20 minutes. BOOM.
Lemony salmon with a kale and wild rice salad. The bomb.
You can always throw in another carb for good measure, though there's already the wild rice in the salad. Tonight we really went for it with chipotle twice baked potatoes.
This is seriously the easiest meal on the planet and so so tasty!
My mom's uber classy best friend talked to the head chef at some fancy Parisian restaurant (did you follow all that?) who apparently served an incredible salmon. The key? Just a little butter and lemon pepper, then let the salmon do the talking. (Obvs really high quality wild salmon = better taste.) So ever since then we've just been baking our salmon with simple butter and lemon and it always comes out amazing! Also this salad is basically what my sister in San Francisco lives off of. You can make it Sunday night and then eat it all week for lunches, since kale just gets better the longer it soaks in the dressing. Try this and serve it with a nice loaf of bread and a diet coke! I bet you'll like it as much as we do.
*Disclaimer - we actually tried grilling our salmon for the first time in these pics. It turned out really yummy! Though we slightly over cooked it by about 2 minutes.
Simple Baked Salmon
- Preheat oven to 415*
- Place salmon, skin side down, on a baking sheet and slip mat
- Spread a very thin layer of butter (or olive oil) over the entire surface of the fish
- Generously sprinkle lemon pepper over all of it
- You can also drizzle a little lemon juice if desired
- Bake at 415* for approximately 12 minutes (rule of thumb is 12ish minutes per inch thick? so check how thick your fish is at its biggest point)
- Check frequently - fish should flake with a fork but still be super tender and slightly on the rare side! We always leave ours a little rare in the thickest part. Over-done salmon is just sad and dry. Perfect salmon is delish and moist.
- Enjoy!
Best Kale Salad
- Optional: Cook a cup of wild rice, let cool
- Wash and dry kale and remove stems, tearing into bite sized pieces
- Add to a bowl
- In a mason jar combine equal parts lemon juice and olive oil (I actually go a little heavier on the lemon juice than oil)
- Add a pinch of minced garlic and a sprinkle of pepper
- Add white sugar to taste (a lot - you are eating kale here ;) )
- Shake well and pour over your bowl of kale - mix mix mix!
- Add craisins, slivered almonds (I always use the honey roasted Trader Joe's kind!), grated parmesan cheese and sliced red onions
- If using wild rice, add in
- Mix mix mix and enjoy!
