Tuscan Salmon with Coconut Basil Sauce

Okay, so this Tuscan Salmon with Coconut Basil Sauce was seriously fun to make. And fun to photograph with my new DSLR!

I've still got a lot of learning to do with this new piece of equipment, but some of the pictures turned out pretty dang well (although, let's face it, I'm probably going to retake pictures once I get more practice). I haven't had a ton of time to play around with my camera, but now that I've moved and I have more space for fun hobbies like this, the learning curve will be drastic.

Admittedly, I haven't posted a recipe in a while. I hope this one makes up for it. I seriously miscalculated how much time and energy moving would suck out of me. We've been living at the new (totally awesome) apartment for a little over a week now, and the creativity and motivation is just starting to trickle in again.

It's not that I haven't had energy since the move. I've been sleeping - a lot - and waking up pumped and ready to tackle the day. This new apartment is awesome. I felt right at home the first night. The struggle is simply that I want to just lie on the floor of the new apartment (because it's so spacious I can actually do that...couldn't in the old place) or on the balcony and just soak it all in. I live here. And I'm living here with my favorite person in the world.

So that's where I've been the last week or so. Relishing completely in the joy of my life.

And that's my life advice right now - if you find yourself wanting to just stop, take a step back, and soak everything in...DO IT. Those feelings can be fleeting, so take the opportunity to lean in to it. Anyway, busy-ness is overrated.

Luckily for you, I made this Tuscan Salmon recipe before I moved, so I just had to edit the pictures and write this post before sharing it with you all. Otherwise, it would likely have been another week until I got around to it.

This recipe is fairly easy despite looking super fancy. The hardest part is the sauce, which is 4 ingredients and all you have to do is let it simmer a bit!

The whole dish was inspired by an entree I had at a local restaurant - Tuscan salmon in a simple cream sauce. I knew I could easily recreate a paleo version at home (although, if you tolerate dairy, you can totally use cream in place of the coconut milk). Right before preparing the sauce, I chopped up a bit of basil and threw it in as a spur-of-the-moment decision. That was one of my better spontaneous choices!

In the pictures, you'll see that I served this with sauteed spinach - I highly recommend doing so! It makes a complete meal, and the spinach (or whatever greens you use) soak up some of the sauce, too, creating something reminiscent of "creamed spinach".

If you have leftover sauce, you can save it in the fridge (for a couple days) and spoon it over other cooked veggies to kick them up a notch. However...I loved the coconut basil sauce with the salmon so much that I didn't have any left over!

Did you try this Tuscan salmon recipe? I'd love to hear what you think! Please leave a comment and rating or tag me on Instagram - I appreciate your feedback.

📖 Recipe

Tuscan Salmon with Coconut Basil Sauce

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• Author: Chelsea Joy
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Frying
• Cuisine: Mediterranean
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the salmon:

• 2 salmon fillets (4-6oz each)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 Tb capers
• ½ c jarred/canned artichoke hearts, chopped

For the Basil Coconut Cream:

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• ¼ c packed basil, chopped
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½-1 teaspoon lemon zest

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Instructions

1. First, prepare the sauce. Heat a medium saucepan over low heat and pour in the coconut milk. Add the pepper and let the sauce come to a simmer. Add the basil and lemon zest. Cover, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the salmon.
2. Heat a skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat. Sprinkle salmon with salt. Melt your preferred cooking fat (I always use ghee for salmon, but avocado oil would work well here too) and add the salmon, skin side down. Let cook for 4-6 minutes on each side or until the flesh flakes easily with a fork.
3. Remove the basil coconut sauce from heat. Transfer each salmon fillet to its own plate, flesh side up. Top each fillet with capers and chopped artichoke hearts. Finally, spoon desired amount of sauce over each fillet. Garnish with fresh basil leaves if desired and serve.

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Notes

I served this with sauted spinach. Of course I smothered that with the basil coconut sauce as well - it was incredibly good!

If desired, you can grill the salmon instead of pan-frying it. Because summer grilling.

If you are AIP and very strictly avoiding black pepper, you can omit it from the sauce. I feel comfortable tagging it as AIP because The Paleo Mom lists it as a spice to be cautious of, but not avoid outright.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 salmon fillet + ½ coconut basil sauce