Baked Mushroom Salmon with Wild Rice and Aspargus - RECIPE

On a night like any other I had to come up with some new creative way to cook an entree we've had a hundred times. In the past, I knew of only one way to bake salmon - sprinkle some garlic powder on it, a small slab of butter, wrap in aluminum foil, and throw it on the grill or in the oven.

There's only so many times that can be done before salmon becomes boring. We've all heard it (or even said it) at some point, "Oh, that again. <sigh> Can we order out?"

So I thought it would be great to put some kind of sauce or something on it to change things up. I decided to stay with butter since it gives the salmon a nice flavor, and honestly, who doesn't like butter. Then I thought mushrooms would be a good choice because we love mushrooms around here and I knew we had a paper bag of them left unused from a previous night. I also had some scallions that needed to be eaten before they went bad and became slimy. Finally, instead of cheese and broccoli rice (because The Boss had had steamed broccoli the night before), I chopped up asparagus and mixed it in wild rice. Wah-lah! I looked like I knew what I was doing.

This is what makes cooking fun - creating something new and delicious using just random bits about the kitchen.

Baked Salmon with Mushrooms and Scallions
Ingredients 
- six salmon fillets
- three tablespoons butter
- one cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced
- half cup of scallions (green onions), sliced
- crushed cloves of garlic or garlic powder (to taste)
- one-quarter cup tarragon

Wild Rice with Asparagus
Ingredients
- chopped asparagus
- box of Rice-a-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Melt butter in a medium sized pan, add the sliced mushrooms, scallions, garlic, and tarragon. About two minutes until butter is melted and ingredients are well coated.
2. Place salmon fillets in a baking dish. Pour sauce over salmon, distributing as evenly as possible.
3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil to retain moisture4. Place in 375-degree oven for 20-25 (which is about how long the rice will take)
5. Prepare the Long Grain and Wild Rice per the instructions on the box
6. When there are only about five minutes or less left on the rice, add the chopped. Any sooner and you risk the asparagus becoming too soft.
8. Plate and serve

Entree Calories
Salmon
100 calories; 10 calories from fat;
Total Fat 2.5 g
Sodium 7.5 g
Protein 20 g

Side Dish Calories
Wild Rice
240 calories, 50 calories from fat;
Total Fat 0.5 g
Sodium 750 mg
Total Carbs 43 g (1 g Fiber)
Protein 5 g

Asparagus
3 calories;
Protein 0.4 g

It's quite a quick and simple dish and well worth a try. Low calories yet high in protein and the good fats from the salmon.  

Until Next Time,
Spring is here and summer is coming, time to move some of this cooking outdoors. So here is a great video on how to grill shrimp without a plank (because those planks are expensive) and includes a link to a nice sauce to top your salmon.

Salmonly Yours,
Michael