For today’s recipe, I will be showing you how to make salmon in parchment paper. You won’t believe the flavor that comes from such an easy process.
The culinary word for this type of cooking is “fish en papillote.” It comes from a French word meaning paper and cooks any type of fish beautifully, even sustainable delicate fish.
Salmon is one of my favorite fish varieties. I love the richness of it. It’s so easy to prepare and super good for you too.
This type of fish is heart healthy, too, since the fat comes from inega-3 fatty acids which are considered good fats.
This recipe is full of flavor and adds a wonderful presentation at meal time. Best of all, it’s one of my 30 minute meals!
Baking fish in the oven makes it beautifully tender and flaky. (See my oven baked trout for another great recipe.)
Salmon in parchment paper makes a lovely presentation and is a super healthy way of cooking this fish.
To make the parcels, you add your ingredients onto a sheet of parchment paper, fold it over, and make overlapping pleats on the edge of the paper and fold them tightly around the food to make a seal.
This holds in the juices and flavors and is a delight to open at the table. You can serve the parcel directly to a plate.
There are many ways to make these tasty salmon in parchment paper parcels, but for today’s recipe I’ll be using these ingredients:
- Salmon fillets
- a bunch of asparagus
- sliced mushrooms
- lemon slices
- fresh basil leaves
- onion slices
- butter
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
- white wine
- parchment paper
Slice the asparagus spears in half. This helps the salmon and asparagus cook in the same amount of time. I cut just the stalk part and left most of the head on one slice.
Add the asparagus, mushrooms, and onion slices in a large bowl. Add some salt and pepper and the zest of one lemon. Mix together and set aside.
Season the salmon fillets with sea salt and cracked black pepper. I like to add my zest right over the bowl and eyeball it instead of measuring it.
If you add it to a spoon and transfer it, you will lose a lot of the oils which make the dish so tasty.
Start by cutting a piece of parchment paper, about 12 x 17″ in size. I folded mine in half to give me an idea where to place my food before I make the parcels.
Open the parchment paper and place half of the asparagus spears on the paper about 1 inch in from the fold. This will give you a nice bed for the salmon.
Add a salmon fillet on top of the asparagus and top with the remaining vegetables. Place some sliced lemons, basil leaves and about 1 tablespoon of cold sliced butter on each bundle. Pour over about 2 tablespoons of white wine.
To make your parcel, use an egg wash on the edges of the side where your food is. Then, fold your paper over. The wash will help to seal it.
Start making pleats on one edge by folding the first area of paper. Continue around the salmon parcel, making a pleat about 1/2 way into each fold that comes before it until you are all the way around the fish bundle.
Fold under the last edge and you are done making the parcels. The pleats will keep the juices inside the package. For a more detailed tutorial about how to fold parchment paper to make these bundles, see this article.
Place on a baking sheet. I used a permeated pizza baking sheet to give some extra heat through the vents. You will have half moon shaped bundles when you are done.
Bake for about 15 minutes in a 400º F preheated oven. Transfer to a plate to serve.
Open carefully! There will be lots of steam inside. OH MY YES!! What an aroma!
This salmon in parchment paper is such a tasty meal. It is delicate and light with a buttery, white wine sauce that permeates the whole package. This dish is A-MAZ-ING.
The salmon flakes so easily and the lemon combines with both the asparagus and mushrooms to make a wonderful taste. It is going to be my go to way to cook fish from now on!
Who would know that this salmon in parchment paper could be done so quickly and simply by even a very inexperienced cook?
Seriously…the hardest part of making the recipe is doing the parchment paper wrapper and even that is easy once you get going!
Are you interested in other ways to use parchment paper? I’ve put together a tutorial on my Gardening Cook blog that shows you 30 creative ways to use this handy kitchen product. See the tutorial here.
Salmon in Parchment Paper
For today’s recipe, I will be showing you how to make salmon in parchment paper. It is quick and easy and super flaky and tender.
Ingredients
- 2 5 ounce Salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 4 ounces of sliced mushrooms
- 1 small onion sliced
- zest of one lemon
- lemon slices
- 8 fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp cold butter cubed
- sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
- 4 tbsp of white wine
- 2 - 12 x 17" pieces of parchment paper
- egg wash
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400º.
Cut your asparagus spears in half lengthwise. Add the asparagus, mushrooms, and onion slices in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add the zest of one lemon and combine well.
Season the salmon.
Fold the parchment paper in half. Open and place half the asparagus spears, then a piece of salmon and the rest of the veggies. Add half the lemon slices, basil leaves and butter to the top. Pour 2 tbsp of wine over.
Brush half the egg wash on three sides of the half of the paper with the food on it. Fold over the other side and make pleats along the edge to make a half moon shaped parcel.
Repeat with the other ingredients and paper. Place on a baking sheet.
Cook in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Transfer to a plate to serve. Open carefully.Food will be hot! Enjoy
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 501Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 213mgSodium: 510mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 37g
Nutritional information is approximate due to natural variation in ingredients and the cook-at-home nature of our meals.