Roasted Salmon with Cucumber Sour Cream Sauce

The warming spring weather is coaxing us to eat outside and celebrate the change in seasons. We invited friends over for a spring lunch last week, enjoying this roasted salmon dish along with new potatoes and snap peas. Our dessert was the lime fool that I wrote about earlier.

Betty Rosbottom, a talented cookbook author and food writer, created this recipe for Bon Appétit magazine back in April 2003. We have enjoyed it for our Easter lunch, for Mother’s Day, and for Father’s Day several times over the ensuing years. The dish has a short ingredient list, is easy to prepare, and yet is very special.  It is rich and light-tasting at the same time.

The base for the cucumber sauce that accompanies the fish can be made several hours ahead of time. A food processor does most of the work at the beginning, combining the spinach, arugula, and shallot with the sour cream and mustard.

Right before serving, you stir in finely chopped cucumber, and you have a lovely accompaniment for baked, grilled, or roasted salmon. The sauce brightens the dish with its fresh color and flavors, and is delicious with simply prepared potatoes.

The salmon marinates for only a couple of hours in a mixture of orange juice, soy sauce, and white wine. While Rosbottom recommended marinating individual 6 ounce fillets, we chose to keep the larger salmon fillet whole.

We baked the salmon this year, as Rosbottom’s recipe directs.  But we have had great success using the grill to cook the fish in the past.

Simple ingredients put together well can make a special dish worthy of return performances. (In our case, for over a decade now!)

Roasted Salmon with Cucumber Sour Cream Sauce

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Flavorful fish with a bright green sauce

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

For the cucumber sour cream sauce

• 1 cup baby spinach leaves --packed
• 1 cup arugula leaves --packed
• ½ shallot chopped in large pieces
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 3 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
• ½ cup finely chopped seeded peeled cucumber

For the salmon

• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• Salmon fillet with skin (either one 2 ½ pound fillet or 6 6-ounce fillets)

Instructions

 

For cucumber sour cream sauce

• Combine spinach, arugula, and shallot in food processor. Process, using on-and-off pulses, until finely chopped.
• Add sour cream and mustard to processor bowl. Pulse until just blended.
• Transfer to bowl. (Can be made up until this point 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.)
• Right before serving, stir chopped cucumbers into sour cream mixture. Blend well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For the salmon

• Mix wine, juice, and soy sauce to create marinade in 13 X 9 X 2 glass baking dish. Place salmon fillet, flesh side down, in marinade. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours. Turn from time to time.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Lift fish from glass dish, removing extra marinade. Place salmon skin-side down on foil-lined sheet.
• Bake until opaque in the center, about 15 minutes for individual fillets, 20 minutes for larger one. Season salmon with salt and pepper to taste.
• Place serving size pieces on plates and top each with some cucumber sour cream sauce.

Notes

Adapted from Betty Rosbottom in Bon Appétit (April 2003)