Simple Cooking: Garlic and Lemon Salmon

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 27, 2008 8:15PM

Healthy, tasty meals with few ingredients are the name of the game here at Chicagoist. Next time you’re looking for a new fish dish, or you find yourself with salmon in the freezer and no idea what to do, try this simple recipe! It’s impressively tasty, and takes under an hour.

Garlic and Lemon Marinated Salmon
2 6 oz salmon steaks (or filets)
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Dill, for garnish (optional)

Combine oil, garlic, lemon, mustard, pepper and salt in a shallow dish. Whisk together. Add in the salmon steaks, and coat them with the marinade. Let the whole mess sit for about 30 minutes.

Tip: If your guests don’t like semi-raw garlic in their food, put whole garlic cloves in the olive oil for about 20 minutes before, then remove and use the flavored oil. Alternatively, if you’re lazy like us, just scrape off the garlic before serving.

Pre-heat your oven to 350. Transfer the salmon to a baking dish (or even better, marinate them in it!) and bake for 8-9 minutes on a side. Remove, add salt and pepper to taste, slap on a pretty sprig of dill and you’re done!

Whole Foods brand Wild Alaskan Salmon fillets are perfect for this recipe, and 2 of them sell for around $8. They come already frozen, but thaw very nicely.