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Teriyaki Salmon with Charred Spring Onions and Rice

Salmon fillets pan-seared and glazed in a quick homemade teriyaki sauce of tamari, honey, ginger and garlic, served with fluffy rice and sweet charred spring onions. On the table in 30 minutes.

Dinner

30

Serves 2

Two plates of glossy teriyaki-glazed salmon fillets sprinkled with sesame seeds, served with white rice and charred spring onions

Ingredients

  • 2 skin-on salmon fillets (about 130g/4½oz each)
  • 120g/4oz/⅔ cup jasmine or brown rice
  • 8 large spring onions (scallions) or salad onions (about 150g/5oz), trimmed
  • 1 tsp (5ml) rapeseed (canola) oil
  • 1 tsp (3g) sesame seeds, to serve
  • For the teriyaki sauce
  • 2 tbsp (30ml) reduced-salt tamari (labelled gluten-free)
  • 1 tbsp (15g) runny honey
  • 2cm/¾in piece ginger (about 10g), finely grated
  • 1 small clove garlic (about 4g), finely grated
  • 1 tsp (3g) cornflour (cornstarch, made from maize) mixed with 2 tbsp (30ml) water

Method

  1. Cook the rice according to the packet (usually 10 to 12 minutes for jasmine; brown rice takes 25 to 30, so start it 15 minutes earlier). Keep covered.
  2. Mix all the teriyaki sauce ingredients in a small jug.
  3. Heat half the oil in a large non-stick frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat. Add the spring onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, turning, until softened and charred in places. Lift onto a plate.
  4. Add the rest of the oil. Cook the salmon skin side down for 4 minutes, until the skin is crisp, then turn and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more.
  5. Lower the heat, pour in the sauce and let it bubble for 1 minute, spooning it over the fish, until thick and glossy. The salmon is ready when it is opaque and flakes easily in the thickest part.
  6. Serve the salmon on the rice with the spring onions, spoon over any sauce and scatter with sesame seeds. Leftover salmon keeps in the fridge for up to 2 days. Cool any leftover rice within an hour, keep it in the fridge, eat it within 24 hours and reheat it only once until steaming hot.

Why it works

A plate gives you about 34g of protein for 578 calories, including the rice. Salmon is an oily fish rich in omega-3 fats and one of the few foods that contain vitamin D.

Homemade teriyaki. Ready-made teriyaki sauces are often high in sugar and salt. This quick version uses reduced-salt tamari, a tablespoon of honey for two, ginger and garlic, thickened with a little cornflour.

Why the sleep tag, and its limits. In a 2014 trial in a secure forensic hospital in the USA, 95 men were given Atlantic salmon or chicken, pork or beef three times a week from September to February. By the end of the winter the meat group took longer to fall asleep while the salmon group did not, and the salmon group reported better daytime functioning. It was one study in an unusual setting, so treat this as a sensible evening meal rather than a sleep cure.

Charred spring onions. Cooking spring onions until they char turns them sweet and soft, a simple vegetable side that cooks in the same pan.

Not tagged for blood sugar, because the rice brings most of the 61g of carbohydrate; brown rice adds fibre (timings and nutrition are for jasmine). Use tamari labelled gluten-free; ordinary soy sauce contains wheat. Contains fish, soya and sesame. For other salmon dinners, try the salmon traybake with new potatoes or the chicken teriyaki power bowl.