Sweet potato chunks with colour-matching salmon coated in the classic Levantine tahini sauce, baked into a gorgeous and easy one-pan meal.
Pink and orange, salmon and sweet potatoes are made for each other. Why have I not paired them before?
Sweet potato and salmon – all good food news
Both are very good to eat very often. Sweet potato is starchy but it has a low glycaemic index and lots of fibre, which means a slow release of energy. And I don’t know about you, as metabolism is highly individualised, but sweet potatoes tend to whoosh! right through me, to use expressive language.
Salmon is a good guy all round, providing loads of protein and omega 3 fatty acids. Heart health, brain health, anti-inflammatory properties are the main benefits but unlike other oily fish (herrings or sardines), salmon is universally enjoyed by most.
Make good buying choices though: avoid bright orange flesh, artificially dyed, and look for the ASC or MSC labels on farmed fish, or buy wild Pacific salmon (Atlantic is dangerously overfished).
How to prepare the salmon and sweet potato bake
My other favourite salmon and potato bake is with white potatoes. This one is actually easier as sweet potato chunks take less than ten minutes to cook. In fact you should watch them – they might be tender after five minutes already.
They should cool down a little so the salmon doesn’t start cooking when tossed together with them in the dish. So while they steam off, prepare all the other ingredients.
Salmon chunks like the fresh flavours from lemon zest and fresh chopped dill. So stir it through the salmon while the oven heats up and the sweet potato cools down. Then make the tahini sauce. It all actually takes less time than it’s taken me to write this paragraph!
What to use tahini sauce for?
Tahini sauce recipe, inspired by Sami Tamimi’s Falastin cookbook, is one to chalk down: you can use it as a dressing, to flavour roast meats or even spoon over pasta.
It’s good quality tahini stirred with pressed garlic, lemon juice and enough water for runny, creamy consistency. I’ll admit: it doesn’t look terribly appetising when baked with the fish and potatoes, but the taste will compensate for the beige optics!
Potato and fish chunks in a buttered gratin dish, covered with tahini sauce, will take barely ten minutes to cook.
If you need an extra filler to serve with this dish, I’d recommend plain rice but personally, I’m very happy to have it as it is with just a leaf or two of salad on the side.
More salmon recipes
Salmon fillets with blue cheese topping baked in foil parcels aka en papillote. Yes, salmon goes very well with blue cheese, whether it's Stilton, Gorgonzola or Danish blue cheese.
Steamed side of salmon in a foil parcel with dill, chilies and soy sauce. Steaming takes only 15 minutes and the salmon can be served hot or cold.
Slow roasted salmon with dill sauce. Salmon roasted in very low oven, at 100C, takes about 45 minutes to cook. Slow roasted salmon is moist and succulent, it tastes better than poached, here served with the easiest dill sauce.
Simple and perfect grilled salmon fillet seasoned only with salt and olive oil. Keep the skin on and grill it for five minutes on each side - that's the whole secret.
More sweet potato recipes
Black bean stuffed sweet potatoes with melted cheese, served with sour cream topping and sliced avocado - what a healthy and delicious vegetarian meal!
Baked sweet potato with tahini butter and sesame seed crunch is pretty incredibly tasty. You wouldn’t have thought so, would you? Plus it’s a perfect keto fat bomb.
Cheesy sweet potato tray bake with bacon, peppers and tomatoes. Sweet potato wedges are seasoned with Creole spice, and the bacon is totally optional.