everyone-loves-this-salmon
and broccoli!
When life and my brain are feeling extra chaotic, I love a straightforward recipe for dinner. This meal is simple in the best way possible — a delicious salmon filet + side of roasted veg. It uses just a parchment-lined sheet pan and small bowl, it’s ready to eat in 30 minutes, and it requires zero multitasking or bouncing around the kitchen. You simply prep a baking sheet full of food, stick the baking sheet in the oven, then dig into a nutritious, filling, and tasty dinner 15-ish minutes later. To clean up, you’ll just throw away the parchment and stick the bowl in the dishwasher along with your plates and forks.
We’re topping salmon filets with not one but two layers of flavor: a brown sugar and Dijon rub, followed by a buttery panko mixture. The rub gets locked in by the crunchy topping, and the topping crisps up beautifully in the high-heat oven. On the other half of the sheet pan, you’ll roast broccoli to crisp perfection.
You can choose your adventure with the broccoli — use a bag of pre-washed and prepped broccoli florets (like the recipe calls for) or a bunch of broccolini (like what is pictured above with the salmon!). I originally wrote the recipe using broccolini, hence the photos, but I changed it during my final test to a bag of prepped broccoli florets. Eliminating the need to wash and prep the veg felt more in the spirit of this incredibly easy recipe — I want you to have truly zero resistance to cooking this healthy dinner.
That said, if you don’t mind washing, drying, and trimming the rough bottoms off a bunch of broccolini, she’s the more elegant choice. Or you could, of course, use a head of broccoli that you cut into florets yourself.
For fast weeknight cooking, any grain would be great here — quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, farro, etc. I most often go with a microwaveable bag of frozen wild or brown rice, then stir in a pat (aka a small slice) of butter and a pinch of salt. Or you could grab a fresh sourdough loaf, toast it, and serve it topped with butter and flaky salt. Yum.
If you’re cooking this recipe for a dinner party — it’s absolutely worthy of a special occasion! — you could serve it with my Boursin risotto. Cook the risotto in the oven ahead of time, or in a slow cooker (see the notes here for a slow-cooker how-to).
Here are two more meat + veg recipes you’ll love: sesame-ginger grilled steak with a cucumber pepper avocado salad and chicken paillard with a pear and manchego salad. And for another delicious salmon dinner, try sheet-pan spring salmon — bookmark it for when spring arrives in a few weeks!
Serves 4
Cook time: 30 minutes
Tools:
Small microwaveable bowl
Ingredients:
