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Oven Roasted Salmon with Vegetable Lentil Ragout and Mustard Horseradish Sauce

This is a lot easier than it looks and don't be deterred by the number of steps and ingredients. Follow each step in order and you will get a restaurant-quality meal from your own kitchen!

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

For the Lentil Ragout:

  • 3 cups lentils rinsed and drained
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion finely diced
  • 5 carrots chopped
  • 3 ribs celery chopped
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1/3 cup fresh thyme leaves chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
  • 2 bay leaves snapped in half
  • 1 ½ cups red wine
  • 2 ½ cups chicken stock or water

For the Salmon:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 ½ pounds salmon cut into 4 pieces
  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • freshly ground pepper

For the Sauce:

  • 2 cups white wine
  • 2 shallots finely chopped
  • 5 sprigs thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 ½ cups fat free half and half
  • 3 tablespoons coarse Dijon mustard
  • 1 ½ tablespoons horseradish

For the garnish:

  • 2 cups baby arugula
  • ½ small red onion very thinly sliced and soaked in ice water for 10 minutes
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon whole grain Dijon mustard

Instructions

For the Lentil Ragout:

  1. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onions, carrots and celery for 2-3 minutes until they are starting to sizzle. Stir in the garlic and let cook for another two minutes, stirring constantly. Add all of the herbs and stir them around until they are fragrant, about another minute.
  2. Add the wine and water and bring the lentils to a boil. Lower the heat to medium low and cook the lentils, covered, for 15 minutes. Do not overcook them.
  3. While the lentils are cooking, make the sauce and oven roast the salmon.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the sauce:

  1. In a medium saucepan, bring the wine, shallots, thyme and bay leaves to a boil. Reduce the liquid by one-half. Strain the liquid into a one cup measuring cup and put the liquid back in the saucepan.

  2. When the oven roasted salmon is done cooking, in a small bowl whisk the cornstarch and cold fat free half and half. Make sure to get all of the lumps out.

  3. Heat the reduced wine mixture over medium heat until it simmers. Pour in the cornstarch mixture and whisk well until the sauce just starts to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk in the mustard and horseradish.
  4. Keep the sauce warm over low heat.

For the salmon:

  1. Dry the salmon filets well with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  2. In a medium ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the salmon to the hot skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes until the filets are brown on the bottom.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat and turn the salmon filets over. Place in the preheated oven and cook them for about 7 minutes until they are cooked through.
  4. While the salmon is roasting, make the garnish.

For the garnish:

  1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the oil, lemon juice, maple syrup and mustard.
  2. Dry the onions well on paper towels. Toss the arugula and onions into the bowl and toss the greens with the dressing.
  3. To plate the dish:

  4. In an individual serving bowl or on a dinner plate, spoon about 1 ½ cups of lentil ragout. Top with a piece of the oven roasted salmon, removing the skin if desired. (I do!)

  5. Spoon about 1/3 cup of sauce over each oven roasted salmon filet and place the greens in the center of the salmon on top of the sauce.

  6. Serve with any remaining sauce on the side.