Except from Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics
Three cheers for the return of spring produce! I can’t tell you how excited I was to see nice, fat spears of fresh, organic asparagus in the market yesterday.
With asparagus as my starting point, I paired it with Vital Choice Petite Wild Alaskan Sockeye Portions for a light and healthy lunch for two, but it would easily double for four. It would also work well with larger sockeye portions.As you can see, this dish, while quick and easy, is colorful and just lovely. It would be wonderful for a festive spring brunch or Mother’s Day celebration.
A few notes for the cook
Vital Choice pure, wild-caught sockeye salmon packs a powerful nutritional punch, with over 1,000mg of omega-3s, over 700 IU of vitamin D3 and 4-5mg of astaxanthin (a powerful carotenoid) in every 4-ounce serving.
By roasting the salmon directly on the asparagus spears, you impart a bit of that rich, “classic” flavor of Wild Alaskan Sockeye to your veggie (feel free to substitute other healthy greens if asparagus hasn’t appeared in your market yet).
The lemon and caper sauce below, inspired by Bon Appétit, is much lighter than a more traditional beurre blanc sauce (which is made with a copious amount of butter), but it still captures the brightness of the lemon and the delightful tang of capers.
You have some options with your sauce – you can either pour the sauce over the salmon and asparagus before it goes in the oven or spoon it over the dish once it’s done.
I chose to roast the salmon and asparagus with just a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, then top them with the sauce once it was out of the oven – it would be delicious either way (or both!).
Sockeye Salmon and Asparagus with Lemon Caper Sauce
Makes 2 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil (or cooking oil of choice)
1 tablespoon minced shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon drained capers, roughly chopped
½ pound asparagus, trimmed
2 4-ounce portions Vital Choice Wild Alaskan Sockeye, thawed
Olive oil (or similar) to coat asparagus
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons fresh dill, minced
Lemon zest to garnish
Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
Whisk together olive oil, shallot, lemon juice and capers and set aside. You can make this a few hours ahead if you like and refrigerate. If you’re using zest as a garnish, be sure to zest your lemon before you halve and juice it.
Trim asparagus as needed and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper to coat and arrange in a single layer on a roasting pan.
Pat salmon portions dry with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper and arrange on top of the asparagus.
Roast until the salmon is just opaque (or cooked to your ideal level of doneness), 6-10 minutes. Mine was perfect after 8 minutes. The asparagus will still be quite crisp – if you prefer it more well-roasted, start it 4-6 minutes before adding the salmon to the pan.
To serve, arrange asparagus spears and salmon fillets on the plate, top with sauce and garnish with minced dill and lemon zest. Enjoy!