Healthy, easy to make salmon with broccoli and cherry tomatoes

This is one of my favorite recipes. It’s healthy, easy to make, and doesn’t take long to make it. During my first trimesters of my pregnancies I was pretty sick for 6 full weeks. I didn’t have the energy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I did want to eat healthy so we eat a lot of salmon with broccoli varied with (brown) rise, potato’s or even a pasta version. What is great about this recipe is that if you don’t want to add any carbs, which I do a lot, you only have to add a bit more vegetables.

You can add more broccoli or maybe some slices of cucumber, or if you have the time you can make a large salad with baked salmon on top. I will share the salad version in another blog post to make it easy for you to find and create.

Frying vs roasting

In this recipe I fry my salmon in olive oil instead of roasting it in the oven. The main reason for frying instead of roasting the salmon is that I can control the bake. Furthermore, I personally favor the taste of pan fried salmon over roasting in the oven. I tried roasting but find it more time consuming (preheat oven and the baking time in the oven) and it easily dries out the salmon. So for this recipe the frying pan is your way to go.

Save time on preparing food

If you want to save time on preparing your food you can buy bag(s) with broccoli florets, you only have to add the broccoli florets into the saucepan with water and a pinch of salt. Although, cutting a broccoli into florets yourself doesn’t take long.
The same for potatoes, if you don’t want to peel and cut the potatoes you can buy the small bite potatoes. They even come with herbs included for a nice taste, and you can even microwave them, 5 minutes and your done. If you chose this option I would recommend to buy small bite potatoes with herbs included for a great taste. Just follow the instructions on the pack.

For this recipe I use brown rise but please feel free to choose any carb you like and let me know in the comments below what your carb of choice is and how you like this recipe.

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 4 pieces of 6 oz salmon with skin
• 1 1/3 lbs (600 gr.) of broccoli or a large bag of precut broccoli
• 1 small pack of cherry tomatoes
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• (brown) rise (optional)
• 1/3 oz fresh curl parsley (fine chopped; optional)
• garlic and onion powder (optional)

Materials:

• Frying pan that fits 4 pieces of salmon
• 2 saucepans with lids

Instructions:

1. Cook the rise following the instructions on the pack. I usually add fine chopped parsley 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Parsley gives a nice fresh taste to your rise.
2. Cut the cherry tomatoes into four and set them aside for later.
3. Season the salmon according to your taste. Start with salt and pepper, you can add a bit of garlic powder and/or onion powder if you like. This gives more flavor to the fish. Be careful not adding too much seasoning.
4. Cut the broccoli into crowns and add them in the saucepan with a small amount of water. Boil the water, add the lid and simmer the broccoli for 6 to 8 minutes. Depending on how large the broccoli crowns are. Adding the lid will create steam and the steam will cook the broccoli.
5. In the meantime, add olive oil into the frying pan over medium heat. Once the frying pan is warm put the salmon skin up into the frying pan and bake the salmon for about 1,5 minutes on this side. Flip the salmon onto its skin and increase the heat of the frying pan a bit to bake the salmon further for about 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon pieces.
6. Lower the heat and flip the salmon back to the other side. You can remove the skin by hand (yes it is hot) before serving it.
7. Once everything is baked and cooked start plating your dished. Finish plating with adding the fresh cut tomatoes and a bit of fresh parsley (if you have any left over parsley). Enjoy!