Roasted Wild Salmon & Asparagus with Double-Lemon Oil

By mynance

This is the type of super-easy, cooks-in-one-pan, tastes-amazing recipe that always appeals to me. Since it also has three of my favorite ingredients (salmon, asparagus, and lemon), I knew it had to be a winner. And while I'm on the subject of favorite ingredients, possibly I should warn you that I've been on kind of an asparagus binge lately, so there will be several more asparagus recipes coming over the next few weeks. If you really don't like asparagus, for this particular recipe I'd recommend substituting fresh green beans, which are also delicious roasted and would taste great with the lemon oil.

Ingredients

• 1 large lemon
• 1 1/2 T + 2 tsp. + 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb. fresh asparagus
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, both for asparagus and salmon
• 2 wild salmon pieces, about 6 oz. each (preferably with skin)
• fish rub for seasoning the salmon (optional, but good)
• Preheat oven to 450F/230C. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray or brush with olive oil.

Preparation

Step 1

1. Zest the lemon into a small bowl. Squeeze the juice into a different bowl and add 1 T of lemon juice to the zest. (I love lemon zest, so if you don't you might not want it all.)

2. Whisk 1 1/2 T extra virgin olive oil into the lemon zest and juice and set the lemon oil aside.

3. Break one piece of asparagus to see how much of the stem to trim, then trim all the other pieces to that point. Cut asparagus into pieces about 3 inches long.

4. Toss the asparagus with 2 tsp. olive oil, salt, and fresh ground black pepper.

5. Spray baking sheet with oil or non-stick spray, then spread the asparagus out in a single layer and start to roast in a preheated 450F/230C oven.

6. While asparagus roasts, rub each salmon filet with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (or your favorite fish rub. I love Pride of Szeged Fish Rub, so I used some of that.)

7. After asparagus has roasted about 5 minutes (or a couple of minutes longer for thick spears) push it over and put the salmon filets on one end. Continue to roast about 10 minutes more.

8. My salmon was perfect after 10 minutes, but thicker pieces might need 1-2 minutes more. The fish should feel barely firm when it's done.

9. Drizzle salmon and asparagus with the lemon oil and serve.