Description
Simple grilled salmon with a delightful basil-spinach pesto.
Ingredients
Scale
Pesto:
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup fresh baby spinach
- ¼ cup freshly shaved or shredded Parmesan
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts, walnuts or almonds
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
Salmon:
- 1-pound fresh salmon, skin-on
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat a grill or grill pan to medium. Brush oil on the salmon and season with salt and black pepper. Grill flesh side down first for 5 minutes, then flip and cook another 5 minutes or until salmon skin is crispy and the flesh flakes easily when pressed with the back of a fork.
- While the salmon cooks, place pesto ingredients, except olive oil, in a small blender and puree, drizzling the olive oil in through the vegetable shoot until pesto-like consistency is achieved, scraping the sides as needed. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- During the last 5 minutes of cooking, brush the salmon with the pesto. Serve immediately.
Notes
Cooking Tip: I add spinach to my pesto to cut back a bit on the cost, as basil is more expensive than spinach, but the basil flavor still overpowers the spinach so flavor is not sacrificed. Spinach also adds a boost of nutrition!
Substitution Tip: Try this recipe with chicken or flank steak! Use nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan cheese for a dairy free version.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Calories: 322
- Sugar: 0g
- Sodium: 490mg
- Fat: 24g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 20g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 4g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 24g
- Cholesterol: 51mg
Keywords: Mediterranean, salmon, fish, pesto