One Pan Springy Salmon with Fennel & Saucy White Beans
Plus fluffy pesto egg muffins for breakfast or snack prep!
Colorful chefs - happy Thursday 💚
This is where we cook easy, delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun, easy, and learn important stuff about metabolic health and home cooking while doing it.
This Salmon with Fennel & Saucy White Beans recipe has SO MUCH FLAVOR but is relatively simple and comes together in one pan (Alex’s favorite as my professional dishwasher 🤣). It’s perfect for a weeknight meal (we eat salmon for dinner 2-3 times a week), and it’s packed with flavor, protein, fiber, healthy fats, and micronutrients. It’s also fancy and fun enough where you could serve this for guests.
Metabolic health breakdown: The salmon provides much-needed omega-3s for brain health, glowing skin, and reducing inflammation, while fennel adds digestion-friendly fiber and antioxidants. The creamy white beans contribute extra protein and slow-burning carbs, keeping you full longer and helping to prevent crazy blood sugar spikes.
Cooking in Color Zhuzh: The zhuzh in this recipe comes through in the brothy, creamy, garlicky tomato sauce. It’s rich but bright and not too heavy — perfect for really any season but it feels especially fitting for spring when I don’t want a full summer meal yet, but I’m over the winter flavors. Like most of my recipes, this dish is highly adaptable. You can use different types of beans, swap in any greens for spinach, use another protein, and more — the list goes on (in the swaps section in the recipe).
A short-ish note on Salmon:
We buy all our salmon from Seatopia (use code COOKINGINCOLOR for 15% off) because it’s regeneratively farmed seafood, and some of the best available according to my research.
Now, wild-caught fish is generally considered better than farmed fish (e.g., wild caught has higher omega-3 levels, lower omega-6 levels, lower pollutant exposure etc.) This is because most conventionally farmed fish are fed antibiotics hormones, and even artificial colors to mimic the pink color of wild fish.
However, there is starting to become a focus on regenerative and sustainable aquaculture (vs. factory farmed fishing) that sets a higher standard in fish farming practices — such as multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), where multiple species (like fish, seaweed, and shellfish) are farmed together to minimize waste and nutrient pollution. There is also a focus on feeding the fish better diets to mimic an omega-3:omega-6 ratio closer to wild fish.
The wild vs. farmed vs. regeneratively farmed is a complex debate with passionate proponents on both sides. If you are curious to learn more, here is a great podcast link that does a great job of explaining sustainable aquaculture and Seatopia’s practices!
RECIPE AND FULL 5 MIN VIDEO LINK HERE
This is my kind of ASMR ^^^
You’ve been asking for more high protein snacks and quick breakfasts, so I implore you to make these pesto & spinach egg muffins this week (if you can find yourself some eggs; this egg shortage is bananas).
These take 10 minutes (honestly they take me 5, but I’m a speedy prep cook) to make and then you’ve got fluffy, flavorful, protein-rich egg muffins for breakfast or snacks for the entire week. Starting the day with a high protein, blood sugar friendly breakfast is one of the best things you can do to set yourself up for stable energy and a clear mind for the day. Two muffins is 17g of protein.
The ingredients are literally just eggs, spinach, cottage cheese, pesto and salt. However, you can easily modify these! After you’ve blended everything together you could add some prosciutto, bacon, or feta or goat cheese crumbles. I personally like how simple they are with just the pesto flavor, but please experiment away!
RECIPE HERE
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If you make this recipe (or ANY of my recipes!), I’d love nothing more than to hear how it turned out and any feedback you have! Comment below or on the recipe in the Color Club, and if you are on IG, tag me @sonjakmanning.
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Chefs kisses,
Sonja