5 Ingredients or Fewer

Cold Salmon & Potatoes With Dill Yogurt & Paprika Oil

by:
July  6, 2020
5
11 Ratings
Cold Salmon & Potatoes With Dill Yogurt & Paprika Oil
Photo by Ty Mecham. Prop Stylist: Veronica Olson. Food Stylist: Kate Buckens.
  • Prep time 6 hours
  • Cook time 35 minutes
  • Serves 2 to 3
Author Notes

This summery recipe can be tackled in parts and pieced together whenever desired. The salmon is slow-roasted—a Genius technique from Sally Schneider that works equally well hot, warm, or cold. Here, we’re serving it cold, which means you make it advance, and reap the rewards later on. The herb yogurt, paprika oil, and boiled potatoes can all be taken care of days ahead too. Just keep the yogurt and potatoes stored separately in the fridge, and leave the oil in a jar on the counter. How much you accomplish (or don’t) at one given time is up to you.

A few notes about the ingredients: The salmon can be in one larger piece or two smaller ones, depending on what’s available. The latter will take less time to cook through, so start checking earlier. If you aren’t a fan of fresh dill, basil makes a really lovely substitute here. And if you only have unsmoked paprika, that works too. The only thing I wouldn’t recommend is using nonfat Greek yogurt—whole milk’s richness goes a long way here—but 2% is a-okay.

This is one of our Big Little Recipes, our weekly column all about dishes with big flavor and little ingredient lists. Do you know (and love) a recipe that’s low in ask, high in reward? Let us know in the comments. —Emma Laperruque

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 12 ounces salmon fillet, skin removed
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 pound small yellow potatoes, halved or quartered
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 3/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup roughly chopped dill, divided
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 275°F. Sprinkle the salmon all over with salt. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of a baking dish. Add the salmon and drizzle more on top. Roast for 15 to 25 minutes, flipping halfway through, until an instant-read thermometer reaches 120°F in the center. (If you don’t have a thermometer, it should flake easily with a fork.) Let cool until just warm, then cover and transfer to the fridge until completely cold.
  2. Whenever you’re ready to eat, cook the potatoes in salted boiling water (I estimate 1 tablespoon of kosher salt per quart of water) until knife-tender—start checking at 8 minutes, though it may take closer to 12.
  3. While those are cooking, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a tiny saucepan or skillet. As soon as it’s hot, cut the heat and use a fork or mini-whisk to stir in 1 teaspoon paprika and a big pinch of salt.
  4. Blend the yogurt and 2/3 cup dill in a food processor, scraping down as needed, until the dill is completely incorporated and the yogurt is bright green. Season with salt to taste.
  5. Once the potatoes are done, drain them and sprinkle with salt. Let cool for a bit while you use a fork to break apart the salmon into flakes. Swoosh the dill yogurt on the bottom of the plates, then top with the flaked salmon and potatoes. Drizzle with some paprika oil and sprinkle with the remaining dill. Serve with the rest of the paprika oil to drizzle as you eat.
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Emma Laperruque
Emma was the food editor at Food52. She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

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19 Reviews

Mariel S.
Mariel S. March 20, 2024
Just made this tonight and it is as delicious as it is simple. I did sub harissa for the paprika as others have suggested and it is an excellent substitution. I used warm salmon instead of cold and threw in some diced cucumber I had in the fridge which added a nice texture. 10/10 will absolutely make again.
 
Cmorrell
Cmorrell May 2, 2023
One of the best recipes I have tried. the Smoked paprika oil was soooo good! Looking forward to trying more of her recipes.
 
Naciem
Naciem April 21, 2023
Love love love love this recipe. So easy with so few ingredients, yet it looks so elaborate and is super tasty. This is now one of my favorite summer dishes.
 
Marthastrieby
Marthastrieby December 22, 2020
This has become part of our regular rotation. I’ll even make it on weeknights, just serving everything warm, and I think it’s even better! The two sauces are easy and really make this dish stand out. So delicious!
 
Megan J.
Megan J. September 9, 2020
Just made this tonight. I actually ate it immediately after cooking so it was still very warm and it was DELICIOUS! I used some leftover fresh pesto mixed with the yogurt instead of dill and also added some lemon juice to the oil/paprika mixture. I found myself scooping up as much flavor as I could off my plate. Thanks for sharing!
 
em O.
em O. September 8, 2020
Great use for leftover fish - - which I had in preparation for this dish . I didn't care for the paprika oil - the paprika didn't melt into the oil and had a gritty and bitter taste even though I removed from heat. The other comment to use harrissa sauce sounds interesting - I used oil only on potatoes and it could be left out IMO. Because I am currently obsessed with crunchy texture, I laid the potatoes and fish over a bed of chopped romaine lettuce dressed with lemon and olive oil. Because they are in season and super delicious right now I added chopped cucumbers halved cherry tomatoes and put the dill yogurt sauce in tiny dollops across the top. It was super delicious - thanks for the inspiration!! Oh, I almost thought I didn't have potatoes, so for a minute I thought to sub some homemade croutons - found the potatoes and used romaine to get my crunch on. ;-)
 
Kevin S.
Kevin S. July 21, 2020
I used a bit of smoked salmon I had & added a medium sized, grated clove of garlic to the dill yogurt. Smoked salmon was great and cuts out a step if you're in a rush, garlic was too strong - don't try it.

Altogether I'm very fond of this recipe, it's something new, different, tasty and easy. This is one I'll come back to.
 
jddc
jddc July 15, 2020
If you're out of (or don't like) smoked paprika, harissa spice blend is a great substitute!
 
Hmoshman
Hmoshman July 11, 2020
I made this for dinner. Really nice and simple., and definitely will make again. Omitted the paprika evoo. It will be even healthier tomorrow when the potatoes are cold, giving me resistant starch for my gut! Next time, will make with my homemade kefir, giving it more of a tangy bite (and superior probiotics).
 
Judi L.
Judi L. July 11, 2020
Made this for dinner tonight after a very hot and humid few days. Made it exactly as recipe states and it was delicious and perfect for a hot night. I did not do any advance prep other than roasting salmon. Next time I will do more things in advance as it took a lot of dishes to do all at once...too much clean-up.
 
Katie P.
Katie P. July 8, 2020
This was fantastic!! We had leftover smoked salmon which worked great with these flavors. I added cucumber to the yogurt schmear, sprinkled chives on top, and threw in some chopped kale leftover from last week’s CSA box. What a great lunch!
 
Siena H.
Siena H. July 7, 2020
Hey, I not understanding where the 6 hour prep time comes in?
 
Siena H.
Siena H. July 7, 2020
Im*
 
Emma L.
Emma L. July 7, 2020
Hi Siena! That's just a rough estimate accounting for refrigerating the fish (and potatoes and dill yogurt, if you'd like). You can speed it up or slow it down according to your schedule.
 
Sarah H.
Sarah H. July 7, 2020
One of our best summer staple meals growing up was grilled salmon with a cucumber sauce - just blended cucumber with sour cream/yogurt and dill. The sauce was the perfect accompaniment to warm and then leftover salmon the next day. Will be trying this technique out for easy summer lunches to capture that summer meal taste!
 
Emma L.
Emma L. July 7, 2020
Yum—love cucumber, love sour cream, love dill!
 
Regine
Regine July 7, 2020
Looking forward to making this dish. However, you probably want to correct the amount of olive oi (1/4 cup) in the list of ingredients because in the instructions, we are asked to use oil for the salmon and then " heat the remaining ¼ cup of olive..." Thanks.
 
Emma L.
Emma L. July 7, 2020
Hi Regine, thanks for this! The 1/4 cup olive oil is used for the paprika oil. And for the salmon, olive oil is just drizzled in the roasting pan to sight. But see how the phrasing could be confusing here and can adjust with that in mind.
 
Regine
Regine July 7, 2020
Thanks Emma. Looking forward to making it.