I told my husband last night that I loved him but what I really need is a 1950’s wife. Someone who will hand me a cocktail and my slippers when I walk in the door so I can relax, pat the kids on the head and send them off to bed while sipping my scotch. Sadly, my reality is more along the lines of leave work, pick up the baby, drive drive drive drive drive, come in, immediately rush to find dinner for the Nuni and Bootsy, feed the kids, bedtime routines, fix grownup dinner (if we didn’t eat with the kids), eat grownup dinner, and then start in on the laundry before I even get to think about a cocktail.
Since weeknights are a little crazy (to put it mildly), I’m always on the lookout for meals that are a) healthy and b) quick to prepare. And that doesn’t mean 30 minutes or an hour quick. I mean on the table in 20 max, so I can get to my cocktail faster. This easy salmon on curried spinach, which is an old recipe of my mom’s, just fits the bill.
One of the great things about doing a challenge like the year of living vegetally is not only discovering new recipes, but rediscovering old ones. Years ago, I carefully copied this recipe into a little book (remember when we used to collect recipes in little books, instead of word documents or blogs? Ha! I tell my daughter that I am older than the internet and then she asks if I am also older than cars, like Laura Ingalls. But I digress.) Anyway, I had this easy salmon dish in my painstaken handwriting, but I hadn’t made it in years, and I don’t know why. It hits all the right notes – simple, flavorful, healthful, with easy-to-find ingredients and minimal preparation. Even the kids liked it (though Bootsy eats everything, so that’s hardly an accomplishment. I’ve got a post coming up about that.)
The first thing to do when you come in the door is preheat the oven. While that’s going, assemble your ingredients (I use bagged, pre-washed baby spinach), chop your apple, and remove the skin from your salmon (I usually apply a knife to the seam between the skin and the flesh and sort of peel off ths skin) Pop the salmon in the oven while you’re preparing the spinach, and the whole thing will come together about 10 minutes later.
It’s easy enough that I could even sip a cocktail WHILE making dinner, which is probably the closest I’m ever going to get to that Don Draper idyll. I’ll take it though!
- 1 lb. salmon filet
- ¼ c. teriyaki sauce
- ¼ cup chopped scallions or leeks
- ½ large or 1 small apple
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ c. golden raisins
- 1 Tablespoon mango chutney
- 1 teaspoon curry powder (I like Sun Brand Madras Curry Powder)
- 2 Tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar
- 10 ounces baby spinach
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove the skin from the oven, section the filet into portions, place the portions in a baking dish and coat each portion with teriyaki sauce. Place the salmon in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Chop the apple and the scallions.
- In a large skillet, saute the scallions or leeks in the oil over medium heat until softened. Add the apples and the raisins, and saute for two minutes. Add the chutney, curry powder and vinegar, then add the spinach and saute until wilted.
- Serve the salmon on top of the spinach.
Love it! My kinda meal!
Kate, love this dish and curry goes so well with salmon. One thing …. you forgot to add to your list, keeping up a gorgeous blog!!! 🙂 How you do it all is beyond me.
Love a simple salmon and spinach meal. And CURRY. My complete weakness, growing up in asia. You’ve put three of my favourite things together. Came across your blog from a friend’s tweet. Lovely stuff all round x
I’m totally making this tomorrow.
This was delicious! Even danny, who ‘doesn’t like fish other than sushi’ ate it. I am making it again tomorrow AND bringing it to a friend as well.
Yum the curried spinach sounds divine! What a great idea 🙂