Roasted King Salmon with Cashews and Apricot Couscous Along with a Spicy Yogurt Sauce

4 servings

This makes a lovely fairly easy dinner or lunch to serve for guests. I decided to make my couscous plain because of the accompanying sauce however below is one other idea for a another couscous that would also go well with this salmon and sauce. Vegetable wise, I served it with the Lemon Lovers Asparagus and as you can see, this whole assemblage made for a very appetizing serving.

Ingredients for the salmon:

1. 1 ½  lb. Pacific King Salmon-cut into 4 pieces
2. 1/4 C. Toasted Chopped Cashews

Directions for the salmon:

1. Toast the cashews in a dry pan till fragrant and lightly browned.(2-4 minutes).
2. Place salmon in an olive oil sprayed pan and spray the salmon generously with olive oil.
3. Place in a 350 degree pre-heated oven and bake for about 25 minutes until just cooked through and it flakes just a bit.  DON’T OVERCOOK IT—it’ll continue to cook when you remove it, so better underdone than overdone oven wise.  Watch it carefully.
4. Sprinkle the cashews over the salmon just before serving.

Ingredients for the Apricot Couscous #1 (see below for another recipe):

1. 1/2 C. up to 2/3 C. chopped small dry apricots soaked in 2/3 C. hot water till soft and then drained
2.  1 C. dried couscous
3. 1 ¼ C. water
4. 1 Tblsp. or more of sweet butter

Directions:

1. Add water to pan and bring to a boil. Take off burner, add couscous and butter and cover.  Let sit for 5 minutes (till couscous is done) and then gently fold in the apricots.
2. 2.    Please see below for another couscous recipe giving you another choice.

Ingredients for the Spicy Yogurt Sauce which is sort of like an Indian Raita:

1. 1/2 C. plain yogurt (can be non-fat)
2. 1/2 C. sour cream
3. 1/4 C. scallions, minced
4. 1/4 C. minced cilantro leaves
5. 1 Tsp. minced fresh ginger
6. 1 Tsp. ground cumin
7. 1/4 C. finely chopped cucumber
8. Cayenne to taste (optional—I didn’t do this for the salmon)

Instructions:

1. Mix all of your ingredients in a small bowl and be sure to use this sauce within the same day that you want to serve it since it doesn’t keep that well.

Couscous recipe #2

Ingredients for couscous with apricots, ginger and scallion whites:

1. 1 C. couscous
2. 1 Tblsp. olive oil
3. 1/2 C. chopped fine apricots
4. 1 Tblsp. minced fresh ginger
5. 3 scallions—whites only sliced fine
6. 1 ¼ C. water

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add apricots, ginger, scallion whites and 1/4 Tsp. salt.
2. Cook stirring until softened, about 2 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in couscous and cover.
4. Let stand until the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
5. Fluff with a fork.