Gochujang-glazed salmon with sesame cucumbers
19 min · 36 g protein · 366 cals / serving
Wild sockeye salmon brushed twice with a sticky gochujang, honey and ginger glaze and blistered under the broiler until the edges char, over rice and cauliflower rice with a bowl of smashed cucumbers in rice vinegar, garlic and toasted sesame. Sweet heat, cold crunch, and done in under 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 wild sockeye fillets (1 1/3 lb) sockeye salmon, skinless; frozen is fine, thawed
Glaze
- 2 tbsp gochujang
- 2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp honey
- 1 tsp ginger, finely grated
- 2 tsp sesame oil, toasted, divided
Sesame cucumbers
- 2 medium (or 1 large English) cucumbers
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, finely grated
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or gochugaru
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Rice
- 1 pouch (about 1 1/2 cups) white rice, microwave jasmine or sushi rice
- 1 bag (10 oz) cauliflower rice, frozen, microwaved
To serve
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
Steps
- Heat the broiler (grill) to high with a rack about 6 inch below it, and line a sheet pan with foil. Whisk the gochujang, soy sauce, honey, ginger and 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil together. Lay the salmon on the pan and brush it with a thin coat, about a third of the glaze.
- Lightly smash the cucumbers with a rolling pin until they split, cut them into bite-size chunks and toss them with the salt in a sieve set over a bowl.
- Broil the salmon for 4 minutes, and start the cauliflower rice in the microwave as the bag says as it goes in. Brush the salmon with the rest of the glaze and broil 2–3 minutes more (8–9 minutes in all for thick farmed fillets), until the glaze bubbles and chars at the edges and the salmon flakes and reads 145°F; heat the rice pouch while it finishes. Watch it closely: the honey burns fast.
- Stir the rice and cauliflower rice together with a pinch of salt. Shake the cucumbers dry and toss them with the rice vinegar, garlic, chili flakes, sesame seeds and the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil.
- Serve the salmon over the rice with the cucumbers alongside and the spring onions scattered over. Eat it fresh; the cucumbers keep a day in the fridge on their own.
Good to know
Is it very spicy?
Medium: gochujang is more savory-sweet than fiery. For children, glaze their fillets with half gochujang and half honey, and leave the chili flakes out of their cucumbers.
Can I use all rice?
Yes: two pouches of rice and no cauliflower rice is the classic plate, at about 58 instead of 67.
Can I use farmed salmon?
Yes: farmed Atlantic salmon is richer and stays juicier under the broiler, at about 56 instead of 67.
Per
- Calories
- 91
- Protein
- (40%)
- 9 g
- Fat
- (26%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (34%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 216 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1463 kcal goes into the pot and 1794 g of ingredients comes out as about 1610 g of food: 91 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.