Oven Roasted Salmon with Cucumber Dill Sauce

Hey guess what?  I'm celebrating over 50 followers and over 600 blog views!!!

That may not sound like much but I am pretty darn excited :)  So, what more reason to give my blog what it has lacked up until this point - a fantastic fish dish!

Oven Roasted Salmon

with Cucumber Dill Sauce

For those of you who think you don't like fish, and especially for those of you who do, this salmon is so delicious and easy!  Salmon and dill are a classic combination.  However, most of the cucumber dill sauces that I have tried in the past involved a LOT of mayo.  Way more mayo than I care to ingest in a lifetime.  So, I've lightened up this sauce but trust me when I say it is not lacking in flavor whatsoever.  The sauce is tangy and very refreshing!  And the salmon is flaky and cooked to perfection.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs salmon fillet

1/3 cup chopped fresh dill plus six sprigs

1 medium cucumber

12 ounces greek yogurt

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 lemon

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.

Slice the large fillet of salmon into six evenly sized smaller fillets.  Spray a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  Place the salmon fillets in the dish, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and lay one sprig of fresh dill on each fillet.  Place in the heated oven for about fifteen minutes until pink, opaque, and medium rare.

While the salmon is in the oven, combine the greek yogurt, mayo, and dijon mustard in a medium bowl and mix well.  Slice the cucumber in half and use a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds.  Finely chop the cucumber halves and finely mince the clove of garlic and add both to the yogurt mixture.  Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of both halves into the bowl.  Chop the fresh dill, add to the mixture and mix well.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to chill for as long as possible.  

Right before serving, remove the cucumber dill sauce from the refrigerator and season with salt and pepper.  Wait until the sauce is chilled before seasoning because foods tend to taste differently when they are cool as opposed to room temperature.  Before serving the salmon, remove the sprig of dill, and top with a healthy spoonful of cucumber dill sauce.  Enjoy!

Footnote:  I know I left the sprig of fresh dill on the fillet in the top picture but that was just for aesthetic beauty...you don't need to eat it.  Also, in writing this post I learned that the word refrigerator does NOT have a letter d before the letter g.  20 years old and still learning to spell!