Grilled Salmon with Creamy Pesto Sauce
This is an easy weeknight salmon recipe that is brimming with flavor! Salmon fillets are cooked over a hot grill for a nice light char, then they're covered with an easy cream cheese based pesto sauce. So good!
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 - 6 (6 oz.) skin on or skinless salmon fillets
- Olive oil, for brushing salmon and grill
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 oz. cream cheese, diced into small cubes
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 Tbsp homemade or store-bought pesto, plus more for serving* (I used homemade)
Instructions
- Preheat a grill over medium-high heat to about 425 degrees F. Brush both sides of salmon with olive oil (about 1 Tbsp total) and season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Brush grill grates with oil and grill salmon about 3 minutes per side or to desired doneness (if using skin-on salmon grill skin side up first).
- While salmon is grilling, heat cream cheese with milk in a saucepan set over medium heat, stirring constantly until melted, about 1 - 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pesto.
- Serve salmon warm with creamy pesto sauce. Spoon about 1 tsp pesto over creamy pesto sauce for added color and flavor.
Notes
- For a homemade pesto (which you'll have just a little excess left): in a food processor pulse to mince 1 cup (18g) slightly packed fresh basil leaves, 1 clove garlic, 2 Tbsp finely shredded parmesan, 1 Tbsp pine nuts or chopped walnuts, salt and pepper. Pour in 1/4 cup olive oil and pulse until well blended. Store in refrigerator.
-
If you don't want to grill the salmon, you can definitely pan sear it as well. To do so:
- Pat salmon dry with paper towels, season with S&P.
- Cook the salmon in 2 tsp of olive oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat (about 3 minutes per side).
- Recipe source: adapted from Kraft.