What We're Making: Salmon with Fresh Herbs

Throughout the summer, we seek out simple, healthy recipes that highlight fresh flavors and allow us to take advantage of the abundance of herbs available in our backyards. Salmon is one of our favorite ingredients, so when we discovered Michele Gelman’s recipe for Salmon with Fresh Herbs, we had to try it. A holistic health educator, coach, speaker, and the founder of Michele Gelman Wellness, Gelman is also a gardener and cook whose motto, mens sana, copore sano, terra sana, captures her vision of wellness: a healthy mind in a healthy body in a healthy earth. She works with clients to develop individualized lifestyle and diet plans to help them achieve wellness, and has gained a following thanks to her popular cleanse programs.

We made this recipe over the weekend, and can attest that it is light, fresh, and delicious. (And we felt great afterwards, having recently learned about the health benefits of eating fish from Michele!).

Ingredients:

Yields approximately 5 servings
1 salmon fillet, approximately 2 lbs
5-6 cloves of garlic (about 2 Tbsp) minced very fine
2 large shallots (about 5 Tbsp) minced very fine
2 Tbsp olive oil
5 Tbsp chopped herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and parsley (or any combination of those)
1 ½ Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mince the shallots and garlic. I n a skillet, combine the minced shallots, garlic, and olive oil and cook over very low heat for about 45 minutes until translucent (you may need to add a little water or extra olive oil if it becomes dry).
3. While the shallots and garlic are cooking, chop the herbs and sun-dried tomatoes.
4. Place the salmon on a piece of parchment paper, then place the parchment paper on a wide piece of foil that is about 3 inches longer than the piece of fish on each end. (The parchment is used to keep the salmon from absorbing aluminum—plus it looks pretty).
5. Season the salmon with salt and pepper, then spread the shallots and garlic, which will be almost like a paste, over the salmon. Sprinkle on the herbs and sun dried tomatoes. Optional: add a few dollops of crème fraiche if you tolerate dairy.
6. Wrap the salmon up to create a packet, leaving space for steam, and bake for approximately 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and slide the parchment paper onto a platter and fold down the edges. Garnish with herbs.

Gelman recommends serving the salmon with cauliflower florets smothered in olive oil, ground cumin, salt, and pepper either baked on the top rack of the oven at 425 degrees until crispy or grilled outside and a simple Boston lettuce salad with an olive oil and lemon dressing with chives and black pepper. For a lovely presentation, she arranges the lettuce in a bowl with the big leaves on the outside and the tender little ones in the middle so it looks like a rose, drizzles the leaves with the dressing, and sprinkles finely chopped chives and fresh ground pepper on top. A meal that’s healthy, tasty, and dressed to impress? Yes, please.

Michele Gelman Wellness // Chicago, IL // 312.255.8633