This dish serves six as a main or 10-12 as part of a buffet. It’s one to bring out on special occasions and while it looks impressive it isn’t complicated to make. The pomegranate seeds give the dish a festive look for the holiday season.
I bought the salmon at Costco and it didn’t have skin. I used curly-leaf parsley because that’s what we have in the garden. The photo shows the salmon on the foil. It was for our extended family and we couldn’t be bothered using another serving plate, so we served it from the baking tray.
1 side of salmon, pin bones removed (1kg to 1.5kg)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Topping:
4 cups plain thick Greek yoghurt
Finely grated rind 1 lemon
Lemon juice to taste
1 clove garlic crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salad:
70g almonds, slivered or flaked, toasted
200g seedless green grapes, halved
1 mild long red chilli, seeded and thinly sliced
2 Tbs baby capers
¼ cup each parsley (preferably flat-leaf), dill and mint, roughly chopped
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
Make the. yoghurt into labneh. Line a sieve with a piece of cotton muslin. Tip the yoghurt in, then stand the sieve over a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. Next day scrape the labneh (it’s basically just very thick yoghurt) into a container and refrigerate until needed. Discard the liquid which has come out of the yoghurt.
Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper or foil and lightly spray with oil. Lay the salmon on top and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 12-15 mins then slide onto a serving tray to cool. Mop up any juices with paper towels. Can be made ahead to this stage and kept in the fridge, covered. But it’s really no trouble to do at the last minute.
Mix labneh with remaining topping ingredients and spread over the salmon. Mix the salad ingredients and pile on top of the labneh. Top with the pomegranate seeds.
If liked, garnish with lemon wedges, although we decided they weren’t necessary.
Serves 6 as a main or 10-12 as part of a buffet
