Crisp-skinned salmon in a bright golden coconut broth with wilted spinach, burst cherry tomatoes, and fresh mint. Comes together in a single pan in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
Salmon
- 4salmon fillets, 6 oz each, skin-on
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 1 tbspneutral oil
Broth
- 1 tbspfresh ginger, grated
- 3garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tspground turmeric
- ½ tspred chili flakes
- 1 cancoconut milk, 13.5 oz, full-fat
- ½ cupchicken or vegetable stock
- 1 tbspfish sauce
- 1 tbsplime juice
To finish
- 4 cupsbaby spinach
- 1 cupcherry tomatoes, halved
- fresh mint and cilantro, torn, for serving
- jasmine rice, for serving
- lime wedges, for serving
- 1
Pat the salmon fillets completely dry with paper towels. Season the flesh side with salt.
- 2
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place the salmon skin-side down and press flat with a spatula for 30 seconds. Cook undisturbed for 4–5 minutes, until the skin is deeply golden and releases easily from the pan. Flip and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate.
- 3
Reduce heat to medium. Add the ginger and garlic to the same pan. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring, until fragrant. Add the turmeric and chili flakes; bloom for 15 seconds.
- 4
Pour in the coconut milk and stock, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5–6 minutes, until slightly thickened at the edges. Stir in the fish sauce and lime juice.
- 5
Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes until they begin to burst. Stir in the spinach and let it wilt — about 1 minute.
- 6
Return the salmon fillets to the pan, skin-side up, nestled into the broth. Spoon some sauce over the flesh, cover, and cook for 90 seconds to finish through.
- 7
Serve over jasmine rice in shallow bowls. Top with torn mint and cilantro, with lime wedges on the side.
Nutrition
Per serving · estimated
- Protein35 g25%
- Carbs42 g30%
- Fat28 g45%
More detail
- Fiber3 g
- Sugar5 g
- Saturated fat14 g
- Cholesterol75 mg
- Sodium720 mg
Nutrition values are estimates based on standard ingredient databases. Actual values may vary depending on brands, substitutions, and serving sizes.
This is the kind of weeknight dinner that looks like it took an hour and actually took thirty minutes. The salmon gets a hard sear on the skin side to stay crisp, then sits in a glowing turmeric-coconut broth that does most of the cooking for you.
The flavor profile borrows from Thai and South Indian cooking — coconut milk, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, lime — but it is not strictly any one thing. The point is a quick, fragrant, restorative bowl that you can throw together with what is in the fridge.
Get the skin crisp first
Pat the salmon dry. Season with salt. Place in a hot oiled pan skin-side down. Press it with a spatula for the first 30 seconds so the skin makes full contact and does not curl. Let it cook undisturbed for 4–5 minutes — most of the cooking happens here, with the heat conducting up through the fillet from below. Flip for 30 seconds, then remove. The skin should be a deep golden brown, almost the color of a perfectly toasted bagel.
This is the technique. The rest is making the broth.
Building the broth
Same pan, do not wipe it. The salmon fond — the bits stuck to the bottom — is flavor. Add ginger and garlic, then turmeric and chili. Bloom for 30 seconds. Pour in coconut milk and stock, scrape the bottom, and let it come to a gentle simmer. Squeeze of lime, splash of fish sauce, taste. Adjust salt.
The salmon goes back in for the last 90 seconds — long enough to finish through the middle without overcooking. The broth should be bright yellow and just barely thickening at the edges of the pan.
What to serve it with
A scoop of jasmine rice next to the bowl. Soft herbs — mint, cilantro, basil — torn over the top. Lime wedges on the side. A few burst cherry tomatoes if you have them. Wilted greens — spinach, bok choy, swiss chard — get added at the end and just need 60 seconds in the hot broth.
Substitutions that work
No fresh ginger? Use a teaspoon of dried. No lemongrass? Skip it. No coconut milk? Whole milk plus a splash of cream and a teaspoon of toasted coconut oil gets you 80% of the way. The dish is forgiving in every direction except one: the skin must be crisp.