Roasted Salmon with Greek Yogurt Sauce

by Millie Bentley

Greetings. Here is a different way to prepare your salmon if you are looking to tickle your taste buds. This recipe will fill the bill once or twice. A nice feature is that it can be adjusted to make the sauce low-fat and can also be made into a slow-cooked dish. (Although salmon doesn’t take long even slow-cooked; it’s perhaps just a little juicier.)

Roasted Salmon with Greek Yogurt Sauce

4 one-inch thick salmon filets with skin (about 1 ½ to 2 pounds)

Olive oil (optional; see Note 1)

1 onion, thinly sliced (optional; see Note 1)

½ of a large cucumber, seeded and peeled (or an English cucumber)

2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (See Note 1). Set salmon out to bring to room temperature. Prepare sauce. Grate the cucumber and squeeze out the excess juice in a kitchen tea towel or a strainer. Place in a small bowl and add sour cream and yogurt (see Note 2). Stir well and add dill, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and set aside. (I like to prepare this sauce a few hours ahead of time and refrigerate to let flavors combine.)

Line a baking pan with foil. Spread with thinly sliced onion if using the slow-roasted cooking method (Note 1). Wash and dry salmon filets; place skin side down in pan. Sprinkle with remaining garlic clove and lemon juice. Sprinkle over with salt and pepper to taste. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until just opaque in center. Serve warm or cold with yogurt sauce.

Note 1: To prepare slow-cooked salmon, preheat oven to 225 degrees. Brush salmon with olive oil and lay on bed of onions, skin side down. Bake for 10 minutes for almost-raw salmon or 30 minutes for fully cooked salmon. Onions may be discarded.

Note 2: Substitute non-fat or low-fat sour cream and yogurt for regular sour cream and yogurt.

Until next time, dear Reader, vaya con Dios.