Healthy Creamy Sauce for Salmon

This delicious easy and healthy sauce for salmon takes about 5 minutes to make. I always substitute Fat Free Greek Yogurt for Sour Cream, and the yogurt works great here with the dill and horseradish. (You can convert regular fat free yogurt to Greek style yogurt, but straining it through cheesecloth to remove the whey – the liquid substance you sometimes see if your yogurt has separated.)

This recipe is from last month’s issue of Cooking Light (my notes/substitutions are in parentheses). This sauce is supposed to be for 3 lbs of salmon, but I’m sure I’ll find something to do with the extra sauce – like putting it on turkey wraps tomorrow.

Ingredients

1 cup cubed seeded peeled cucumber (about one cucumber)
1 1/2 cups fat-free sour cream (or fat free yogurt, esp. strained or Greek yogurt if you have it)
2 tablespoons chopped green onions (I didn’t have any, so I left this out)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 2 teaspoons dried dill)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (I didn’t have any of this either)
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish (or ½ teaspoon regular horseradish)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided (can use regular salt or sea salt)
1 (3-pound) salmon fillet, about 3/4 inch thick (I only grilled 1 pound of salmon)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
Dill sprigs (optional)

Preparation

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt; stir well. Cover and chill 30 minutes. (I had to chill 2 hours)

2. Prepare grill.

3. Sprinkle fish with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Place fish, skin side up, on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 3 minutes. Rotate fish one quarter-turn (45 degrees) for diamond-shaped crosshatches. Grill 3 minutes. Turn fish over; grill 4 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. (I don’t do any of this rigamarole with the grilling to get the crosshatches… I just grill salmon skin side down on a piece of foil for 15-20 minutes depending upon thickness.)

4. Serve with sauce and dill sprigs, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 6 ounces salmon and 1/3 cup sauce)

Nutritional Information: CALORIES 340(33% from fat); FAT 12.4g (sat 1.9g,mono 4.1g,poly 4.9g); IRON 1.7mg; CHOLESTEROL 117mg; CALCIUM 149mg; CARBOHYDRATE 10.9g; SODIUM 374mg; PROTEIN 42.7g; FIBER 0.3g

Bill Jamison and Cheryl Alters Jamison , Cooking Light, JULY 2008