So I made us some fish. And I couldn’t be more excited to tell you about it. Why? Because this fish is smothered in honey, mustard, almonds and quinoa.
Basically, all the things I eat on a daily basis. Which makes me wish that I had a piece of this salmon sitting in front of me right now. It’s filling, satisfying, delicious and couldn’t be easier.
Only 5 ingredients!
It will taste like a gourmet meal, but lucky for us it’s as simple as can be.
And what I’m seriously loving? This recipe is a total crowd pleaser. If you’re planning a soiree with your friends soon, then you should totally serve this salmon (along with a garden salad, maybe an easy quinoa risotto, and a fabulous bottle of wine, of course). Trust me, your friends will think you slaved away in the kitchen all day preparing this meal, but the whole thing will take you less than 40 minutes to prepare.
But that will be our little secret… I won’t tell on you.
I’m a big fan of fish. We try to have fish at least once a week – and we pretty much always choose salmon. Salmon is usually our Monday meal because we grocery shop on Sundays and want to make sure we have the freshest possible ingredients. The fish just tastes better that way.
Plus, with Monday being the first workday of the week, we like to make something simple. Something that doesn’t take a lot of effort; that you can just throw into the oven, leave it for 20 minutes and have dinner ready. This is totally one of those recipes.
The first thing I want to talk about with this recipe is the mustard. Mustard and salmon are such a good match, don’t you think? And then when we add honey to the mix? YES! It’s a party in your mouth kind of meal.
But the mustard actually serves two purposes in this recipe. First, we like the flavor (read above). But second, it helps all those other toppings stick to the fish. It acts like glue; albeit an utterly delicious and semi-spicy kind of glue.
On top of the mustard goes the honey-almond-quinoa crust. Truthfully, when I first made this recipe, I was going to skip the honey at first, but laziness took over. I knew I wanted to use almonds and quinoa in a crust, but I didn’t want any of it to fall off, so instead of carefully placing them on the fish, which would have avoided to falling off part all together, I put them in a bowl, grabbed the honey, dumped some in and stirred it together.
The result? An ooey-gooey, super sticky mixture that was so easy to place on the fish and didn’t move anywhere. Mustard glue be dammed, we had an awesome quinoa crusted salmon on our hands.
Finally, once it was baked, we dove in. I think I finished my whole piece before Matt had even taken two bites. I virtually inhaled it. And then promptly got up from my seat and started dancing around the kitchen because it was so good (one day I’ll show you what that happy dance looks like…be afraid).
And yes, moral of this story: honey, almond and quinoa crusted salmon will give you the uncontrollable urge to let your happy dance out. You’ve been warned.
Oh and P.S. you can definitely make this crust with whatever fish you like – doesn’t have to be salmon! A white fish would be just as tasty 
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh salmon, skin on (wild caught when possible)
- 2 - 3 tablespoons dijon mustard (I like this brand)
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 - 3 tablespoons organic honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place salmon skin side down in a baking dish and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Spoon mustard onto salmon and spread until flesh is almost completely covered.
- In a small bowl, combine almonds, quinoa and honey. Stir to form a sticky mixture.
- Cover mustard-covered salmon with almond-quinoa crust.
- Bake on center rack for 20 - 25 minutes, until salmon flakes easily with a fork.
- Remove and let sit for 2 - 3 minutes. Serve along with a fresh garden salad and my quinoa mushroom risotto.
- And, as always, enjoy!
What other recipes make you dance? Would love to see links to them in the comments below!