This healthy, and delicious date night salmon is a perfect way to show someone you love them. Food, after all – is love – and good food is true love.

For a Keto-friendly version of this recipe, simply substitute the Cannellini beans with Black Soybeans, or leave them out altogether.

While there are a lot of elements to this recipe, I promise they’re simple and easy to create.

If you know how to cook a piece of Salmon, you already know how to do the hardest part.

Ingredients

Salmon 2 pieces
4-5 large ripe Tomatoes
Spinach 9oz
Fresh Garlic 6-8 large cloves
Cannellini Beans 1 can
Sour Cream 1/4 cup
Cream (Half n Half) 1/4 cup
Lemon Juice 1 tsp.
Liquid Smoke 6 drops
Smoked Paprika 1/2 tsp.

Roasting

Let’s begin by roasting our tomatoes and garlic.

Preheat the oven to 450℉. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet along with 3 cloves of unpeeled garlic.

Place the sheet tray in the oven, and set a timer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, check the garlic, it should be soft, almost as if it has turned to paste inside. If it’s not ready, leave it for a few more minutes until it softens up. It’s ok if the skin chars a bit.

Reset your timer for 30 more minutes to finish roasting the tomatoes.

When they’re done, they should have a bit of char on the skin, this means flavor.

While our tomatoes are roasting, we can prepare some of the other elements of this dish.

Give the spinach a rough chop. Just enough to break it down a bit, so it will fit in a sauté pan later.

Next, peel and chop the rest of the garlic cloves into little “chips” and set those aside.

Now, we can prepare the lemon cream. This is mostly a garnish, but it really makes the finished plate look amazing.

Take your 1/4 cup of sour cream, and combine it with the 1/4 cup of cream, then add 1 tsp. of lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. of salt, and a little fresh ground black pepper.

Stir until the mixture has a smooth creamy consistency.

If you have a squirt bottle with a narrow nozzle, add the cream to that.

Refrigerate the cream until we need it later.

Now, open up your can of cannellini beans, then drain and rinse them. Now set those aside.

Setting Up For Success

You should have a bit of time to kill while waiting for your tomatoes to finish roasting.

So let’s get set up so that when it’s crunch time everything is ready.

Get a 12 inch to sauté pan on the stove, and a non-stick skillet on the next burner – be sure it is large enough to hold both pieces of salmon.

Don’t turn on the heat yet.

Get a small saucepan, and a mesh strainer ready for the tomato broth process.

The Star Of The Show

When the tomatoes are done roasting, pull them out of the oven.

Take your mesh strainer and put it over the saucepan.

One by one, you need to mash the tomato’s through the strainer, this will remove any fibrous bits, the skin, and the seeds.

Scrape any bits of tomato that stick to the bottom of the strainer into the broth.

Now, take your roasted garlic and squeeze it into the strainer. It should come out like a paste.

Mash the garlic through the strainer, and again, scrape any that sticks to the bottom of the strainer into the broth.

We need to flavor the broth.

Add 1/2 tsp. Smoked Paprika, and 6 drops of liquid smoke to the broth, along with 1 tsp kosher salt.

Put that on the stove over medium-low heat and let it simmer.

You want it to reduce by half.

This will concentrate the flavor, and thicken the broth.

When the broth is ready, it’s time for action.

Take the broth off of the heat and check its flavor. If it needs a bit of salt, add a pinch more.

Turn the heat to medium-low under your sauté pan, and medium-high under your non-stick skillet.

Multitasking

Add a few tbsp. vegetable oil to the sauté pan along with your garlic “chips”, then add a tsp. of kosher salt to the oil in the sauté pan.

Let the garlic cook in the oil until it begins to brown, then add the spinach.

By now the non-stick skillet should be good and hot, so add a few tbsp. of vegetable oil, lightly salt and pepper the salmon, and add the salmon to the non-stick skillet.

Everything is happening at the same time, I know.

It’s stressful but focus on the salmon.

Put a lid on the spinach and let it wilt down. Once it’s fully wilted, add the beans from earlier and mix it all together. Put the lid back on and turn off the heat.

Continue focusing on the salmon.

Cook Both sides for 2-4 minutes depending on how thick your cuts are.

You want the interior no longer translucent, and nice and flakey.

Fancy Pants Plating

Now it’s time to plate the dish up.

Begin by gently spooning some broth into a large rimmed bowl.

You want it to be only 1/2 inch deep or so. We aren’t doing soup, the broth is a sauce element to this dish.

Take the lemon cream, and draw a circle near the outer border of the bowl.

Next, using a toothpick make gentle slashes through the cream from the inside to the outside.

Then make slashes between the first ones from the outside in.

If you do not have a squirt bottle to dispense the lemon cream this way, try using a small spoon and make drops around the border of the broth.

Using a chopstick make little paisleys or teardrops.

Place the tip of the chopstick in the center of a large drop and gently drag it through the broth, until you have made a nice “tail”.

The fancy part is done.

Next, take some spinach and make a pile in the center of the bowl. Take care to not disturb the cream pattern.

You’re creating a pedestal to display your perfectly cooked salmon.

Once you’ve done that, place the salmon on the pedestal, and voila, it’s ready to serve and enjoy!