Baked salmon in chard with caramelised lemons, garlic and almond sauce
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photography by Ant Duncan
Baked salmon in chard with caramelised lemons, garlic and almond sauce
Recipe by Ben Tish
Wrapping the salmon inside the chard leaves helps to keep the fish nice and moist while imparting a sweet-bitter flavour
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
725Kcal
Fat
47gr
Saturates
6gr
Carbs
37gr
Sugars
4gr
Fibre
4gr
Protein
37gr
Salt
0.5gr
Ben Tish
Meet Ben Despite his British roots, Ben Tish, chef director at Cubitt House, is famed for his rustic, yet beautifully refined, Mediterranean cooking, heavily influenced by the cuisines of Italy, Spain and North Africa.
See more of Ben Tish’s recipes
Ben Tish
Meet Ben Despite his British roots, Ben Tish, chef director at Cubitt House, is famed for his rustic, yet beautifully refined, Mediterranean cooking, heavily influenced by the cuisines of Italy, Spain and North Africa.
See more of Ben Tish’s recipes
Ingredients
- 4 large Swiss chard leaves or 8 smaller, trimmed (if you can’t get chard, use the leaves from a sweetheart cabbage)
- 4 x 120g salmon fillets, skinned
- about 1 tbsp olive oil
- a handful of dill fronds
- 1⁄2 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
- 2 small lemons, ends trimmed, cut in half
For the almond and garlic sauce
- 25g day-old crustless rustic white bread, ripped into small pieces
- 125g whole blanched almonds
- 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp good quality white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the potatoes
- 800g new potatoes, halved
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp miniature capers
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the sauce up to 6 hours ahead, but keep at room temperature.
- First, make the sauce. Place the stale bread in a bowl and pour over cold water to soak; leave to stand and soften for about 15 minutes.
- Place the almonds in a food processor and blend until you have a fine powder, the almonds will start to stick to the side of the bowl. Pour in 100ml of cold water and continue to blend until you have a loose paste then add the garlic and continue to blend for a further 2 minutes. Drain the bread, squeeze out the excess water then add it to the almond paste along with the vinegar and olive oil and continue to blend, slowly adding about 3 tablespoons of cold water until you achieve a thin mayonnaise consistency. Season and keep the sauce at room temperature until ready to serve.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Toss the new potatoes with the olive oil and seasoning; spread out in a single layer in a shallow roasting tin and roast for 25-30 minutes until golden and tender.
- Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the chard leaves for 2 minutes. Carefully remove from the water with tongs, drain on a clean tea towel and then lay them out flat on a baking sheet (if you have the smaller leaves, overlap two leaves to create one larger sheet). Drizzle with oil and season.
- Place a salmon fillet near the tip of each leaf, season well and place a few dill fronds on top, a splash of oil and a pinch of chilli flakes. Wrap the leaf around the salmon, tucking the stalk under to secure; transfer to a roasting tin or baking dish. Add the lemon halves to the dish, cut-side down, around the fish.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until the salmon is just cooked through and the lemons are nicely caramelised. If the fish is ready before the lemons have caramelised, remove the fish to a warm plate to rest and put the lemons back in the oven for a few minutes until golden brown.
- Toss the potatoes with the parsley and capers and serve with the wrapped salmon, with the sauce on the side, and the lemon halves to squeeze over the fish as you eat.
