Baked Lemon Salmon & Asparagus

Baked Lemon Salmon & Asparagus

With the New Year upon us, we all swear we will eat healthier but quickly is tossed to the wayside. That’s why this year instead of New Year’s Resolutions, we are calling them lifestyle changes. Why? Because when you make a lifestyle change you are more apt to stick to it. Is it easy? NOPE! But even if you make one small change a week, that could mean huge changes in as little as a month. So one of the things that we have been doing is eating cleaner meals. One of Brady’s favorite fish is Salmon so we have had this yummy meal a couple of times a month.

Ingredients:
1 salmon fillet, with skin

1/2 T lemon pepper seasoning (or more to taste if you like)

1 teaspoon kosher sea salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper medley

16-20 spears of raw asparagus, trimmed

1 T cornstarch (only if you want crispy skin)

2 T butter

2 T coconut oil

Whole lemon

Preheat oven to 400° Farenheight.

Season your asparagus with 1 tablespoon coconut oil and lemon pepper in a bowl, set aside.

Preheat one oven-proof pan for searing your salmon on the stovetop and add in 1 tablespoon coconut oil. (We use a grill pan for this recipe to get those grill marks)

Take your salmon fillet out of the fridge and have it sitting out to get close to room temperature for even cooking. Salt and pepper the salmon on the fillet side only.

If you want crispy skin on your salmon, dust the skin with cornstarch (see pic).

Place the salmon in the pan, skin side down. The goal is to get a crispy skin here so cook for at least 3-4 minutes. You’ll know when it’s done when you try to remove using tongs and it doesn’t bend in the middle.
(When placing the salmon into the pan for searing,  place a slice of lemon next to it as well. Once the lemon is caramelized, it’s also a good indicator that the salmon skin is done or close to done as well)

Once salmon skin is crispy, put the pan and salmon directly inside your oven. (make certain your pan is oven-safe)
When placing the pan and the salmon into the oven, take the caramelized lemon slice and place it on top of the salmon fillet, char side up. Take 1/2 tablespoon of butter and place it on top of the lemon slice. This will baste the salmon as it finishes baking.

At this time, you’ll want to preheat a second pan/grill pan on your stove top. Once heated, add your asparagus to your second pan/grill pan. Using a grill pan will give you those char marks on the spears. Cook your asparagus for a total of about 10 minutes, turning every minute or so. Once done, pull from stove top and plate. You can even add tomatoes and carrots like we did below for more veggies!

After your salmon has been baking for 8 minutes or so in the oven, use a meat thermometer and check the internal temperature. Your target temp to finish cooking is 145 degrees. You can also rebaste with more butter if you feel it needs it.
Once your salmon reaches the internal temp of 145 degrees, it’s done and ready to be plated. You can top with more butter and a squeeze of lemon if you choose to at this point in time.
Serve and enjoy!

 

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