the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 6: pesto baked salmon.

im going to let you in on a the number one secret to how we live on an insanely tight grocery budget without going insane: once a week (usually sunday night), we have a really nice dinner at home. even the tightest weeks of rice and bean combinations and freezer soups can be tolerated when we know that nice dinner is on the meal plan. and that nice dinner is usually salmon. because 1. salmon is delicious, 2. alice freaking LOVES salmon, and 3. even though the salmon itself may be kind of expensive (though sprouts usually has a pretty great price on it), you can pair it with the cheapest most in-seasonest vegetable and BOOM. dinner. 

for a long time when i made salmon id just blacken it in the cast iron skillet with some lemon pepper, which is great and all, but sometimes you want to change things up a bit (also blackening fish in a frying pan makes a huge mess). one of my sisters told me about my mom baking salmon with mayonnaise on it, and obviously i was way into that because im always looking for more excuses to eat mayonnaise. i made something like this a couple of times before my wheels started turning about how i could make it even better. 

and then i noticed the jar of pesto in my fridge. BIG lightbulb moment there. pesto goes great with salmon. it also goes great with mayonnaise. so why not combine the three into a glorious trifecta of deliciousness? now we have a new favorite dinner for fancy dinner night. 

pesto baked salmon. 

serves 4

heres what you need: 

1 lb salmon filets (honestly i just buy one big piece because its cheaper and cut it when i serve it but im lazy and dont like touching raw fish)

2 tablespoon mayonaise (the real kind, obviously)

1 tablespoon prepared pesto

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

heres what you do: 

preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 

place your salmon filet(s) in a foil-lined baking pan (note, the foil isnt technically necessary but it DOES make the clean up a million times easier). 

mix the mayonnaise, pesto and lemon juice together in a small bowl and spread the resulting mixture on the salmon, then top with the parmesan cheese. 

bake for 20-25 minutes or until salmon is cooked through. 

i feel like i should add here that this method of cooking salmon is especially fantastic because the mayonnaise seals in all the moisture and keeps things from getting to dry, which tends to happen if you end up with a piece thats not quite fatty enough. 

looking for the perfect side dish to complement this salmon? stay tuned for next week's recipe because thats exactly what im doing!