Crispy Curried Salmon with Basil Coconut Rice is a marvelously flavorful, comforting dinner recipe. Packed with protein, healthy omega-3 fats and complex carbohydrates, this recipe makes for a well-balanced meal.
If you’ve been around The Roasted Root for a while, you know my favorite way of preparing salmon is broiling it (as seen in My Go-To Crispy Salmon).
The process takes no time at all and the result is always amazing – a crispy exterior with a moist, perfectly cooked interior.
All you do to make it happen is drizzle the salmon with olive oil, give it a generous sprinkle of your favorite spices, dried herbs, and salt, and broil it on the top shelf for 10 to 15.
Salmon with rice and some greens is basically my idea of the perfect dinner.
Carbs, protein, vitamins…all you need to make you feel full and satisfied, yet light and clean.
Throw in some exotic spice like the yellow curry powder you always keep in hearty supply and badda bing badda boom: easy, cheap, fancy, much sexier than mid-week giant wet burrito.
To make this a super simple endeavor, I just used yellow curry powder and some sea salt. You can incorporate your favorite spice rubs, or even just do a lemon, salt, and pepper shebang.
Coconut rice…have you been down this road before?
If not, I highly recommend you give it a go. All’s it is is cooked rice + full-fat coconut milk + a sprinkle of salt.
To add even more flavor, I sautéed garlic, green onion, and spinach to incorporate into the rice, and also gave it a drizzle of lime juice.
If you want to get frisky, you can add liquid aminos, soy sauce, miso paste, and/or wasabi.
Altogether, the whole meal takes less than an hour to prepare, and if you’re using leftover cooked rice, you can shave the prep time down to 20 – 30 minutes – perfect for any weeknight, but also a marvelous date night meal.
This crispy salmon and a big heaping pile of rice is also my go-to on weekends after a long trail run, hike, or bike ride. It replenishes the carbs burned and re-fuels the protein tank.
Crispy Curried Salmon with Basil Coconut Rice
Ingredients
For the Basil Coconut Rice
- 3 cups cooked white rice
- 2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 green onions chopped
- ¼ cup fresh basil chopped
- 1 heaping handful baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice to taste
- sea salt
Instructions
Prepare the salmon:
- Put the oven on the high broil setting and move one of the racks to the top shelf. Lightly oil the bottom of a casserole dish.
- Drizzle the salmon with oil (about 1 to 2 tablespoons), then sprinkle each piece generously with curry powder. If your curry powder does not contain salt, sprinkle with sea salt as well. Place salmon on the top shelf of the oven and broil for 10 to 15 minutes, until crispy and cooked through.
Prepare the coconut rice:
- While the salmon is cooking, prepare the rice. Add the coconut milk to a saucepan and heat to medium-high. Add the garlic and green onion and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the basil, spinach, and lime juice and continue cooking until spinach has wilted. Add the cooked rice, stir everything together until well combined, and continue cooking until rice is heated through, about 5 minutes. Add sea salt to taste and hot sauce if desired.
- Serve salmon with basil coconut rice
The flavors on this seemed like they would be delicious. But I should have followed my instincts when it came to cook time. Broiling any fish for over 10 minutes is sure to create leather texture. I saw her 10-12, and wish I had done my standard of starting to check it at 4 minutes. If you try this start checking it at 4 minutes. I also will add a little more water to the rice. Ours ended up a little crispy vs fluffy due to the water ratio. I’ll try this again with these adjustments.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I need to try to learn how to make coconut rice ASAP!! My friend brought Nigerian coconut rice to a housewarming party and it was one of the first things to disappear.
Daaaaang Nigerian coconut rice sounds awesome! Let me know how you like the recipe!
I totally agree with you friend Salmon with rice and some greens is my favourite idea of the perfect dinner as well. And boiling is definitely my favourite way to cook salmon. This recipe is calling my name. I love it!
I love broiled salmon too! This sounds so good with the coconut rice, a perfect combo!
Well, yay me! I had already planned some salmon for dinner tonight (easy one-person meal, you know) and hadn’t figured out how to fix it. You solved that one for me. Yay Julia! Probably have a baked sweet potato with it, because…well…sweet potato. Rice next time, or when Jerry is home, because otherwise I’d be eating all of it all by myself. Ha! Love and squeezes and kitty cat sneezes. xoxo
Follow up: This was super easy and delicious! And I worked it all off by doing 4 minutes of broken table and crunches at my DDP Yoga class. 🙂
All the kitty cat sneezes back to you! So glad you’re going to try (or did try?) the salmon…it’s definitely one of my faves. Perchance I’ll make a version of this for Stephie and Alex when they come visit 😀 Hope you have an awesome weekend!! xoxoxo
I did try it! And I sent the recipe with Jerry (you know what’s going on there, right?) and told him that he could definitely make that. Have you made your baked sweet taters in a crockpot? Had one with the salmon and IT IS THE WAY TO DO IT. Holy moly, that was the best sweet tater I’ve ever munched on. Just like restaurant eating. It was a good meal. The end.
Oh boy, I relate. I find that the best of intentions can get kicked to the curb mid-week and this is exactly the kind of recipe that I turn to. Just wonderful! And a must try for me – Columbia River salmon just arrived in our markets this week so your timing is perfect.
Wednesday food blues are DEFINITELY a thing…in fact I have them right now! Might have to run across the street to Whole Foods to buy salmon because now I pretty much must have this. It’s everything I want in a salmon dinner!
Dude, that basil coconut rice sounds seriously out of this word! It looks delicious here and I’m also dreaming about it with Thai green curry 🙂
This looks so much better than a giant wet burrito, lol! That crispy crust sounds mouth watering. Who would’ve thunk that broiling it achieves such wonderful results in so little time? I actually have some salmon in my freezer that I stashed away for when the man is traveling so I’m thinking this is going to happen very soon!
this is my idea of dinner too..and i have to try that coconut rice for sure.
Love how simple this is but full of flavor! I never think about coconut rice, but that sounds so amazing! I’ve gotta try this combo!