Coconut Salmon with Roasted Kale and Rice

Coconut salmon with baked kale, coconut rice, and sweet potatoes.  Yum.

I am always looking for new ways to cook salmon and stumbled upon this one at Food52.  This recipe is a great example of why I decided to record my cooking adventures on a blog.  I wanted to challenge myself to use new and interesting ingredients.  The new ingredients that do not usually grace my recipes are: coconut aminos, sesame seed oil, coconut oil and sriracha chili sauce.  The new cooking method in this recipe that is not typical in my world is roasted kale.

One of the reasons we do not eat kale frequently in my household is that the only ways I know how to make it yummy are to sauté it with olive oil and garlic, or to throw it in a salad with a bunch of other greens to shield the taste.  These methods get really boring.  Enter....baked kale with a yummy sauce on top.  So delish.  The ingredients of the sauce are shown in the photo below.

For this dish, you need to "de-rib" the lacinato kale and then cut into strips.  The de-ribbing sounded confusing at first, but its actually really easy.  Hold the top of the kale leaf and run two fingers along each side of the leaf.  The kale leaf falls away from the rib fairly easily.  It reminded me of how easily thyme falls off from its stem when you run your fingers along the sides.

I've also learned the trick to coconut rice - basically, for one cup of uncooked rice, swap a cup of coconut milk for one of the cups of water, and you have the most delicious coconut rice.  I will be making this rice for many other dishes as well.

Do not let the many steps in this recipe scare you off.  If you follow them one by one, they are not difficult, and you will have a delicious dinner to serve to friends and family.  They will love you for this one.

Recipe

5 from 1 vote

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Coconut Salmon

Course Dinner

Author Five Silver Spoons

Ingredients

• 1 cup jasmine rice uncooked
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ⅓ cup coconut oil melted
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons coconut aminos or tamari
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha
• 3 sweet potatoes cubed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil melted
• 1 bunch lacinato kale ribs removed and sliced into strips
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 to 1 ½ pounds salmon sliced into 4 fillets

Instructions

1. Rinse rice in cold water and drain.
2. Place in a saucepan with coconut milk, water, and salt.
3. Bring to a boil and stir.
4. Reduce to the lowest heat, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes, or until ready to serve (it will stay warm for up to an hour).
6. While the rice is cooking, heat oven to 400° F.
7. In a lidded jar, combine the melted coconut oil, sesame oil, coconut aminos, and Sriracha.
8. Seal the jar and shake vigorously until emulsified.
9. Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet.
10. Drizzle with a tablespoon of melted coconut oil and sprinkle with paprika.
11. Toss to coat.
12. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender.
13. Place kale and coconut flakes on a baking sheet.
14. Drizzle with about ⅔ of the dressing.
15. Toss until well coated. Drizzle salmon with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the remaining dressing.
16. Bake the salmon and coconut kale mixture during the last 15 minutes of the sweet potato's baking time, or until cooked through, being careful not to let the kale burn.
17. Remove sweet potatoes, salmon, and kale from oven.
18. Serve over fluffed rice with an extra drizzle of dressing. Enjoy!!

Recipe Notes

Source: Food52