My simple, but delicious, loaded with vitamins salmon, on a bed of spinach will knock your socks off. Pretty enough for a romantic dinner for two to rival any fancy restaurant, but easy enough for any night of the week for the entire family.
When making this cranberry walnut salmon, do not spin or dry the spinach, the water that is on the leaves will provide the steam to cook it.
Use the Jamie Geller Hungarian Rub instead of the salt, paprika, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s a perfect dish now even easier.
Cranberry Walnut Salmon on a Bed of Spinach
Servings
8 Servings
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 8 6-ounce pieces salmon filet
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- ½ cup walnuts coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small shallot finely chopped
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 8 6-ounce bags fresh baby spinach,rinsed and not dried
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly spray a jelly-roll pan with cooking spray.
- Salmon:
- In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, cumin,cinnamon, and nutmeg. Rub spice mixture on each piece of salmon.
- Place filets on prepared pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until salmon is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.
- Topping:
- Toast nuts in a small saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring continually until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low.
- Add orange juice and honey. Cook about 10 minutes.
- Add cranberries and cayenne pepper. Stir until combined. Remove from heat, add nuts and pour over salmon.
- Spinach:
- Heat oil in a very large sauté pan over low heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, less than 1 minute.
- Add spinach to the pan. With tongs, toss spinach around as it wilts. Add lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Toss well
- To serve, evenly distribute spinach among 8 dinner plates. Top each with 1 salmon filet. Spoon cranberry walnut topping over all.
I have been making this dish for years. It’s always the dish my daughter requests for her birthday.
YAY YAY YAY!!!!
What a fish recipe!!! Not all are winners but this one sure is! All the flavors and colors make is such a pleasant experience to eat and savor! This has been made many times in our house now!
SO SO SO awesome Laura thank you! I actually think I prefer using grapefruit juice (hadn’t thought of that!) or lemon or lime juice in place of the orange to offset the sweetness and brighten the dish! Awesome swap!
thanks so much for sharing your adjustments – I actually adore pistachios and salmon so love that swap!
it is more of a patchke but thrilled that at least you found the end result worth it!
OH YAY Monica! So happy you enJOYed this recipe! (BTW: a salmon share, how cool!)
GORGEOUS picts and LOVE your adjustments!!!! Thanks for sharing all.
Well you do know your taste buds BUT it’s always good to try something new every now an again (just to be sure 🙂 hope you enJOY the spice rub on something else.
so happy you think so!
This dish has a beautiful presentation. It was delicious and loved by all. I didn’t have orange juice so I squeezed a grapefruit and it was really delicious. I think the idea was to have a citrus flavor to offset the cinnamon an cumin. I have passed this recipe on to 3 friends today!
We had this salmon dish for dinner tonight. We enjoyed it very much; I used pistachio nuts instead of walnuts and cooked the fish 5 minutes longer. I will definitely make this again.
I wanted to make this for my daughter who can’t raw nuts so the cooked walnuts seemed great… However This was too much of a patchke for a weeknight! I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg cuz I don’t like those spices. Pleasantly surprised- Final product was delish!!!
We participate in a salmon share, and I am always looking for new salmon recipes. I used a thick piece of Coho salmon, and I had to cook it about ten extra minutes. This recipe has a perfect melding of flavors. It’s sweet but not too sweet. The topping sets off the spinach perfectly. A great, complete meal.
My husband does not usually like salmon dishes but this dish was a winner. A few minor changes. I found the sauce too sweet so I added the juice of a lemon to the sauce before pouring over the salmon. I also added a little more cayenne pepper to increase the kick. Finally when plating the dish I finished the fish with a sprinkle of Trader Joes Pyramid Finishing Salt. Enjoy it is worth the effort.
We generally do not care for sweet protein (meat, chicken, fish) but I decided to try this salmon dish. Didn’t have lemon, so used lime sparingly. Plate looked pretty but we still don’t care for sweet fish. It was too much patchkeeing. Plain broiled or grilled salmon or baked with a few vegs, works for us. Will try the spice rub on something else.
This recipe is delicious, and oh so pretty!