Crispy Skin Salmon with Nori Vinaigrette

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Updated on November 10, 2014

Nori is known and loved as a wrap for sushi, but you don’t need a gob of rice to enjoy the mild-flavored, toasted sheets of seaweed. Toasted nori sheets can be ground into powder (a coffee grinder works well for this) and the powder can sprinkled liberally as a seasoning for meat, seafood, vegetables, sauces and dressings. In other words, if you like the flavor of seaweed you can add nori powder to just about anything.

Like other types of sea vegetables, nori is a good source of healthy minerals, so the more ways you have to add it to your diet, the better. Mash nori powder up with butter (and melt it over meat and roasted veggies), blend it with sea salt, or, follow this recipe and whisk nori into a vinaigrette.

Here, this inky black dressing adds intriguing flavor to a simple salmon and avocado salad. It would also be delicious over steak and greens or as a dressing for Asian flavored coleslaw.

Servings: 2

Time in the Kitchen: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 to 2 toasted nori sheets (“yaki nori”)
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar (30 ml)
2 tablespoons coconut aminos (30 ml)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (1.2 ml)
1/4 cup cold pressed high-oleic/high-stearic sunflower oil (60 ml)
2, 4 to 6 ounce salmon fillets, skin on (113 g to 170 g)
1 or 2 avocados, cut into chunks
1 cucumber, cut in half moons
Salad greens

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 ºF/177 ºC.

Rip nori sheets into pieces. Blend the nori in a coffee grinder (or blender) into a fine powder.

In a medium bowl, whisk the rice vinegar, coconut aminos, salt and sunflower oil into a dressing. Whisk in a little bit of the nori powder at a time, until the flavor is to your liking. Set aside.

Season salmon with salt and pepper. Heat a drizzle of oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Place salmon in the skillet skin side down and cook until the skin is crispy, about 5 minutes. Don’t move the fish as it cooks, but do press down gently a few times on the fillets with a spatula so the skin is in full contact with the pan, helping it get crispy.

Once the skin is crispy, put the skillet in the oven (don’t flip or touch the fillets, just leave them alone) and roast until the salmon is just cooked through the middle. Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the fillets, but is likely to be between 4 and 7 minutes.

In large bowl, toss together the salad greens, avocado, cucumber and nori vinaigrette. Place the salad greens on individual plates and top with salmon.