I figured you guys might be pretty excited for another one pan, crazy easy meal. I mean, I know I am! Let’s be honest, even me, who loves cooking gets totally tired. There are plenty of days and nights when the thought of dirtying a gazillion dishes makes me just want to run and hide under my cozy, awesome, completely heaven-like covers (yes, I REALLY LOVE my bed). Dishes are my worst enemy, I really dislike them, I somehow seem to make the most giant mess when I cook. Ask anyone that walks through my house between the hours of 9am and 5pm and they will agree, my kitchen is a disaster…let me rephrase that, my kitchen and me. Basically the only clean and tidy thing in site is the plate of food I am shooting. Everything around me looks like a giant bomb went off. It’s SCARY. Thank God for my awesome dad who has been my right hand man lately and helps with everything and anything I could possibly need. Why are dad’s the best?? I feel so lucky to live so close to my family. I keep saying I need to move to southern California, where there are farmer’s markets year round and the temps typically never dip below 60 degrees, but I dunno if I could do it. Truth is, I am all about family and this probably sounds totally lame, but right now, life would be pretty hard without them. I used to be the type of person that was too stubborn to ask for help, but umm, life got super busy and I got to the point where I realized I can’t do it all. SOOO, let me tell you, help is a GOOD thing. You can’t get where you want to go without a little help. <–life lessons. Also, if I moved to Cali, I guess I could say that I have my brother Kai there, but he’ll be the first to tell you, he’ll probably be of little to no help at all…unless there’s a lot of moola involved. <–brothers.
But back to this recipe. On the days and nights when everything just seems all too much, this is my go-to. If I am cooking for the family, which I almost always am, I make one pan with salmon and the other pan with chicken. Salmon for the fish people, chicken for the picky eaters. This has quickly become a weekly meal for us. It’s SO super simple and the flavors are spot on. Lemon, salmon, potatoes, asparagus, parmesan and fresh herbs… all the good things. 🙂 Here’s how this one pan lemon salmon works – start off with the potatoes. I like to put them in a little before the salmon because I like my potatoes super crisp on the outside and super soft on the inside. I’ve found that the salmon gets overcooked before the potatoes are ready if you add everything all at once. So potatoes go in first! While those are cooking, I mix together the sauce/spice mixture for the salmon. It’s basically like a blackened salmon rub, a little chili powder, paprika and tons of lemon zest. Once the potatoes have cooked a bit, you then add the salmon and asparagus. I had plenty of room on one pan for the salmon, potatoes and asparagus, but if for some reason you have, like a ton of potatoes (which I can understand, the potatoes are my fav), then you might need to separate everything between two pans. Kind of defeats the whole one pan thing though. Like I said, I got mine all on one pan, so you should be good to go! Okay, so you have the salmon on the pan, then just rub on the spices, add the asparagus, toss them with the potatoes, sprinkle on some parmesan…or a lot parmesan, add some lemon slices and roast. Simple as that!
You have a complete, all-in-ONE, done in under forty-five minutes meal. Man, we are just KILLIN it this Wednesday. 🙂 I also like to make a quick basil chimichurri while everything is cooking to drizzle over the salmon and potatoes. I think it’s just the right finishing touch, but it’s definitely not a must. With the chimichurri your dish count comes to a grand total of three, plus maybe a spoon or fork and a spatula. I’d say that’s still pretty dang good though. If only all meals could be this simple… and be made with as few dishes. VERY RANDOM SIDE NOTE: I feel like I should have talked about the Oscars by now, but I didn’t even get to watch them. Anything good happen? I heard Leo finally won, but umm, don’t hate me, I’m not really a huge Leo fan. I know, what?!? I dunno, maybe he is not really my era?! And in true Gerard family fashion we like to just dig in…
Plates?? Nah, those would be for civilized human beings… aka NOT us.
