Jamie Oliver's Salmon Baked in Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto

Salmon with Pesto and Green Beans

UPDATED 2024

This recipe was removed from my blog for many years---because the green beans do not cook at the rate as the fish---causing complaints from readers.  But I was thinking about Jamie Oliver the other day---what happened to him?  He has a new cookbook in 2024:  "5 Ingredients Mediterranean."  After financial difficulties, he seems to have gone back to what he does well --- teaching people how to cook with simple ingredients to create quick, flavorful meals. It's his 27th cookbook.

 

Note from B on Dec 8, 2012:  This recipe/technique has been used with mixed results since I posted it.  You may want to eliminate the green beans, unless you use very tender, young beans or French-style slender beans to be sure they cook as fast as the salmon.  Cooking time for the salmon will vary, based on the thickness of your piece of salmon, and your oven. 

Upfront I will say I have been a Jamie Oliver fan since his early days on TV as The Naked Chef. He was entertaining and his food was straightforward and approachable. In his tiny kitchen, he was cooking for his mates who would show up at the end of the show. That was 1999.

Last summer, the Food Network ran reruns of the series, Jamie at Home, where he cooked straight from his garden--in the potting shed, sitting over a little grill under a tree or just making things raw-- and he is still as entertaining as ever.   And I always learn something from him. In that series, I learned that adding vinegar while roasting vegetables adds more dimension to their flavors.

This month Jamie Oliver showed up in AARP magazine of all places. He wrote about this technique for making a simple healthy meal:  fish on top of veggies in a packet.  Recently, I have been layering my chicken on top of my veggies then baking, but I never thought about doing it with fish.  And who doesn't like pesto?

So, while Tom was gone on his golf trip last week, I made it several times.  It is a good dish for one. 

It's easy and fast.  On the way home, you can swing by the store: pick up a piece of salmon at the fish counter, get a couple tablespoons of pesto from the condiments counter, a lemon, and package of pre-washed veggies, then have it on the table about 1/2 hour after you get home.

Salmon Baked in a Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto
(Jamie Oliver- AARP August 2012 )

• 2 handfuls of green beans
• 2 salmon fillets (4 ounces), skin on, scaled and bones removed
• Olive oil, as needed
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lemon
• 2 heaping Tablespoons of green pesto

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Trim beans. Halve the lemon.

Take a yard of aluminum foil and fold it in half, bringing the narrow sides together to make 2 layers. Put a handful of green beans in the middle of the folded aluminum foil. Lay the salmon fillet, skin side down, across the beans and spoon a heaping tablespoon of green pesto on top. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the juice from one of the lemon halves over all, and season with salt and pepper.  Pull the aluminum-foil edges together and scrunch them up to seal the parcel. Repeat. Place both parcels on a baking sheet.

Put the pan into hot oven and cook for 15 minutes. (Note:  My fish took 25-30 minutes.)  Remove and let stand for one minute before carefully unwrapping and checking that the salmon is cooked through.

Either serve the parcels on plates, or unwrap carefully and serve.

The best part of this dish is the easy clean-up!  No pans, no fishy cooking smells.

B