Dukkah Crusted Salmon with Charred Kale

This Dukkah Crusted Salmon is definitely a delicious and easy dinner to throw together for a dinner party, that will undoubtedly impress. It’s packed with flavor, and a variety of textures that really makes it stand out!

Dukkah is an Egyptian nut and spice blend, traditionally used as a condiment. It is often served as an hors d’oeuvre, or as a dip with bread. I decided to bake it over salmon, as an interesting alternative to breadcrumbs by keeping it a little more textured and not as finely ground.

Charred Kale

Kale is sadly a misunderstood leafy green. Everyone knows its a superfood and great for your health, but it has a bad rep for tasting like death. It’s a common misconception that the only yummy way to eat kale, is kale chips, otherwise you gotta basically force it down your throat. The problem is, people aren’t cooking it right.

Kale is on the tougher end of greens, and it has a pretty distinct bitter taste when you eat it raw. So I found a way to transform both of those aspects.

In this recipe, the kale is sautéed with ginger, and dressed in a chili honey oil. The sweetness of the chili honey oil ends up helping to lessen the strong bitterness of the greens, and adds just a touch of heat along with the ginger.

To tackle the texture of the kale, this recipe calls for briefly sautéing the kale until wilted, and then baking it with the salmon. The kale develops a really nice texture in the oven, taking away its naturally tough quality.

Dukkah

As mentioned before, dukkah is an Egyptian condiment, made of a variety of nuts and spices. Here I decided to include toasted walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. The recipe also calls for toasted sesame seeds and fennel seeds. If you are unfamiliar with fennel seeds, they have a little bit of a minty kind of taste, brightening up the mixture of predominantly warm spices.

As far as spices go, I included ground coriander, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of cayenne pepper according to your spice tolerance!

Salmon

This is a great recipe to share and make for a big group of people, since you don’t have to worry about portioning out individual salmon fillets; perfect for a dinner party on a time crunch. I think its just a whole lot easier having the whole large fillet, and then easily cutting pieces at the end.

But of course, if you are only making this for two, you can absolutely use fillets instead. Just be sure to adjust the cooking time accordingly!

In this recipe, I decided to keep the flavoring on the salmon pretty simple so that the flavors of the dukkah really stood out. All I did on the salmon was season it generously with salt, and brush it with that chili honey oil we used earlier on the kale, and the result is phenomenal!

My Notes and Tips

• Take your time with the ginger: When sautéing the ginger and kale stems, be sure to cook them down well until they get nice and soft. If the ginger hasn’t softened in the pan before going into the oven, it’s going to have that really sharp and strong heat on your plate. Another way to make sure you don’t end up eating raw ginger, is to slice the ginger very thinly. The ginger will have this subtle heat at the end while keeping its ginger-y flavor, when done right.
• Cooking the salmon: Ovens always vary, so be sure to keep an eye on the salmon since it can go from just right to overdone pretty quickly. The salmon is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 145°F in the thickest part of the fillet. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, you can check the salmon with a fork. You’ll know it’s cooked perfectly if it flakes easily!

Substitutions

• Kale: If you aren’t able to find dinosaur kale, you can use curly kale, or any other type of kale really. Swiss chard, mustard greens, collard greens, or any other heartier leafy greens are great replacements for kale.
• Nuts: You can add or substitute any nuts you have at home! Pecans, pine nuts, hazelnuts, etc. Whichever nuts you choose, make sure to toast them!
• Spices: As mentioned earlier, you can adjust the amount of cayenne pepper to your taste. Add as much or as little as you would like! Also, if you have whole spices instead, toast them along with the nuts, and add the whole spices to the food processor before the nuts to give them a head start in getting nicely ground.

Print Recipe

Dukkah Crusted Salmon with Charred Kale

Entrees, Dinner

By Sahar Kapasi – Serves: 6-8

Prep Time: 20 minutes – Cooking Time: 40 minutes – Total Time: 1 hour

Baked salmon, topped with dukkah, an Egyptian nut and spice blend, over charred kale, drizzled with chili honey oil. Perfect to share!

Ingredients

• Dukkah
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup pistachios
• 1/4 cup fennel seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp ground coriander
• 3 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• Salt, to taste
• Chili Honey Oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Assembly
• 2 bunches dinosaur kale, ribs and stems separated and finely chopped, leaves separated
• 1 6-8" piece ginger, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 skinless salmon fillet, 2 1/2-lb, cut in half
• Salt, to taste

Instructions

1

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

2

In a dry medium pan over medium heat, toast the walnuts, almonds, pistachios, fennel seeds, and sesame seeds tossing frequently, until slightly darkened in color and very fragrant, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly for 2 minutes.

3

Transfer toasted nuts and seeds to a food processor, pulsing until just short of finely chopped. The largest pieces should be about the size of a pea. Add ground coriander and cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt, to taste. Pulse 3-6 more times. Set aside.

4

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, extra virgin olive oil, and red pepper flakes. Set aside

5

Meanwhile, in large pan preheated over medium heat, add 2 tbsp oil. Once the oil comes to temperature, add the finely chopped kale stems and ginger, seasoning with salt. Cook for 8 minutes, or until the ginger and kale stems have developed some color and softened. Add the kale leaves, roughly tearing them with your hands, and cook until wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice over the kale, stir in the chopped mint leaves, and season with salt. Take off heat and drizzle over 2 tbsp of the chili honey oil, and stir until coated. Set aside.

6

Prep the salmon, seasoning both sides of the fillet generously with kosher salt. Brush the top and bottom of the fillets generously with the remaining chili honey oil.

7

On a large baking sheet, spread out the kale mixture until distributed evenly. Place salmon fillet over the kale. Generously, spread the dukkah mixture over the top of the salmon. Drizzle remaining 1 tbsp olive oil over top of the salmon. Bake for 25 minutes until the internal temperature registers 145°F, or until it flakes easily with a fork.

8

Serve and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy trying out this recipe! Let me know who you shared it with! I would absolutely love to hear your experience, so please leave a comment down below!