Mediterranean Salmon & Fresh Veggies

Even though I haven’t been gardening lately, we are still spoiled when it comes to vegetables and will try to find good fresh ones, so today we made the 60 mile round trip to the farmers market run by the Englewood Mennonite Community and we came home with a car load.

For this meal, the items used from the market were just red onions and cucumbers, plus we also had some fresh picked asparagus from neighbor, Steve.  For the entrée we chose wild caught salmon from the freezer and decided to make it into Mediterranean Sheet Pan Salmon using the recipe from Sue at The View From Great Island blog.  I made a few minor adjustments for the amount of fish we had and for our taste but made it pretty much by her recipe which, along with some great pics, can be found by clicking on the link.

Mediterranean Salmon – Adapted from The View From Great Island

Ingredients:

4 salmon servings, about 1½ lbs, skin on

1 large lemon, thinly sliced

½ cup pitted assorted olives, (Note 1)

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

A few marinated sweet or hot peppers, (Note 1)

2 T capers

2 slices red onion, thinly sliced, rings separated

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Fresh oregano and thyme, chopped

Note 1: Bev bought a pint of mixed olive bar items that included olives, roasted red pepper, and sun dried tomatoes so I used everything except ½ of the pepper.  I drizzled the dish with the liquid from her items plus some good olive oil.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. Line baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, lay out your fish (skin down) with the asparagus along the sides, and salt and pepper them both.

3. Top the fish and asparagus with the lemon slices, olives, tomatoes, peppers, capers, and onions.  Drizzle olive oil over all, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Bake until the fish is at an internal temperature of 125F and flakes easily about 15 minutes.  The exact cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of your fish, and how done you like it.  If your fish is especially thick, or heavier, it may take longer.

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle on fresh herbs.

We thought the salmon was good but I used the 20 minute minimum cooking time in the original recipe and when I checked the internal temp it was already at 140F so overcooked for us (I like 125F), so I’ve adjusted the time in the above recipe.  We also thought it could have used more herbs and capers for our taste and I think I should have used less of the tomatoes.  The asparagus was very good as was the cucumber salad using the following recipe.

2 English cucumbers

4-5 slices of sweet onion, cut to desired size

½ C mayo

½ C sour cream

4 t. apple cider vinegar

1 T lemon juice

2 T fresh dill weed, fine chop

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/7/18 Meal Date