Dinner, Faster

20 Best Salmon Recipes For Hearty Winter Dinners

The best salmon recipes we know are almost always the simplest.

December  4, 2020
Photo by James Ransom

Salmon is an excellent go-to weeknight protein, because it cooks quickly no matter how you prepare it and works beautifully with a wide range of flavors. Our favorite salmon recipes are hearty, rich-tasting, and easy to make. When it comes to this versatile, user-friendly fish, it's worth refreshing the recipes you have in your repertoire.

Pick a new recipe (or two or three) and poach, pan-fry, or roast your way to a better dinner (now with less fishy smell!). Believe it or not, it will take you the same amount of time to make these salmon recipes as it would have taken to boil and drain pasta. And while we're on the topic, make some pasta too and eat it with leftover fish tomorrow for an easy, filling lunch.

Here are 20 salmon recipes we can't stop making:

1. Joanna Gaines' Salmon With Baby New Potatoes

Break out your trusty sheet pan to get Joanna's simple salmon and potatoes on the table in no time, flat.

2. Slow-Roasted Ginger Scallion Salmon

Slow-cook this aromatic salmon for ideal succulence, and serve with short-grain or jasmine rice for a simple meal that pops.

3. Crispy Coconut Kale With Roasted Salmon

Coconut and kale are a natural flavor match. Perch simple roasted salmon on this delightful bed, and taste the harmony.

4. Miso and Ginger Poached Salmon & Soba

Nutty buckwheat noodles set the scene for delicately flavored poached salmon with classic Asian flavors to shine on the plate.

5. Salmon Fillet with Snap Peas

Salmon and lemon are a well-established pair. Freshen up this friendship with tangy crème fraîche (a quick trick to enliven any simple supper).

6. Mike's Hot Honey Glazed Salmon

Hot honey is well-established on our list of "condiment trends we stand by 100%" Treat your salmon to its zingy, sweet goodness, but save some for...well, everything and anything else!

7. Perfect Roast Salmon

Roasting fish with the skin on helps ensure an extra-flavorful finished product that's more forgiving to the kind of accidental overcooking we've all experienced.

8. Garlicky Salmon with Ginger, Lime & Peanuts

Fish sauce, peanuts, lime, and cilantro pack a ton of savory-tangy flavor into this fantastic, quick-to-prepare dinner.

9. Salmon Moqueca

This warm, nourishing Brazilian fish stew works perfectly with salmon instead of white fish and sweet potatoes instead of the traditional yams (which can be hard to find).

10. Salmon In Sorrel Sauce

This verdant fish-friendly sauce comes together in ten minutes or less, and spinach seamlessly subs for sorrel.

11. Grilled Salmon Tacos

Salmon takes to fish tacos like a fish to...tacos! You'll be very happy with these avocado-sauced grilled salmon tacos, is what we're getting at.

12. Sally Schneider's Slow-Roasted Fish

Master the art of "carryover heat" with this slow-roasting technique that laser-targets the perfect internal temperature for flawlessly flaky salmon.

13. Spicy Garlic Lime Baked Salmon

This genius technique for infusing salmon with fresh jalapeño color and flavor includes a fail-safe measure for keeping intense heat at bay.

14. Salmon with Kale and Sweet Potato

Think of this recipe more as a roadmap. Got salmon, kale, and sweet potatoes? Here's how to bring them together for a fast, filling meal any day of the week.

15. Salmon Burgers With Avocado Aioli

If you love the combination of salmon and avocado as much as we do — sushi, tacos, toast, you name it — this extra-savory salmon burger will become a regular in your sea-faring repertoire.

16. Crisp-Skinned Salmon With Creamy Leeks

Silky creamed leeks add color and richness to simple crispy-skinned salmon for a meal that's as rib-sticking as it is elegant.

17. Salmon with a Thai Curry Sauce

Poach salmon in an aromatic Thai curry to keep this recipe quick, infuse the fish with flavor from the get-go, and ensure it's cooked exactly to your liking. This is one of those dishes that's even better the next day, so make a big batch!

18. Sesame Encrusted Salmon

Drizzle this reader-favorite salmon with a rich red wine sauce for a show-stopping effect. That's right, red wine with fish. Go ahead and let it sink in (the Pinot reduction, that is).

19. Roasted Salmon with a Cheat's Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

Savory Vietnamese caramel gets its complex, funky essence from fish sauce. Reduced into a savory-sweet glaze, it's the perfect complement to simple roasted salmon.

20. Seared Salmon with Cinnamon and Chile Powder

Warm spices amplify salmon's umami flavor and contribute a complex mounting heat. If you have 10 minutes and a craving for extra-flavorful fish, this recipe is your one-way ticket.

What's your favorite way to make salmon—on a weeknight or for a special occasion? (Or both?) Share a mini-recipe in the comments.

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See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • scruz
    scruz
  • ChefJune
    ChefJune
Writing and cooking in Brooklyn.

2 Comments

scruz May 23, 2016
the best way to prepare salmon? the fewer ingredients the better. let it shine!
 
ChefJune May 23, 2016
I'm really surprised you didn't include this recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/4532-falafel-crusted-salmon-on-a-bed-of-spinach It's so easy, so impressive and so delicious.