Meditative Cook with Me Series: Creamy One Pan Salmon Dish with Sun-dried Tomatoes

And some intimate thoughts about my approach to cooking

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My approach to cooking

I don’t know about you but I am all for cooking in a way that brings ease to the nervous system while preparing the food and joy to the belly while eating it. Most of the dishes I cook typically take less than 30 minutes to prepare but if you watch the way I move in the kitchen, you might make fun of me like my husband, sister and mom does. What takes 30 minutes might take me an hour. I really love to take my time and I don’t clean up as I go. The end result is a delicious plate of food and a messy kitchen 😆 My mom and sister are both amazing and organized cooks. For me, I find my joy is in letting myself go, get creative and get messy doing it. I fall into this blackhole of ideas, spices I want to add to the simmering sauce, I dance, I sing, I bounce, I sip. I don’t think about how I should put the garlic powder back into the cabinet as soon as I’m done using it. I dance with the ingredients and I clean up after all is said and done.

Recipes certainly inspire my creativity but besides that, I have never been much of a recipe follower. I learned to cook exactly like the way my mom does. We can go to a restaurant where she can eat a meal she deems delicious then go home and she’ll make that same dish again — except she makes it even better (and I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom.) It’s her gift and I’ve watched her do this my whole life. Now my sister and I follow her foot steps in the way we cook. We cook using our intuition, our creativity, our taste buds and what we crave. We cook using what we have in the fridge and we turn boring into bold and over-the-moon tasty. Of course there are times when experimenting becomes a big fail too like the time I attempted to make my mom’s pho but took a bunch of short cuts. It turned out terrible. But hey, that’s part of the learning process. I have always shared my cooking on social media but rarely have shared recipes simply because I make it up as I go. Since I get asked often for the recipes, I decided I will start sharing them and being mindful of noting what I put into the dishes as I cook so that if you do want to cook with me, you can easily follow along. It’s also a great way for me to start documenting the recipes so I personally can grow an archive to come back to over time.

I think the most important ingredients to add to any meal is love and playfulness. When I cook, I love to sing and dance to my food and I notice it comes out tasting better versus times when I cook out of complete obligation. It’s truly like a meditation. The good energy I put into my food, goes into nurturing my families bellies so when I take my time to care about what I create in the kitchen, I know that energy will translate through the food that breaks down in their bodies.

With that, I introduce to you my meditative cooking series. Nonchalant, no frills posts I’ll share. This first dish will be a meal I made last week that my husband requested again a few days later. It’s got protein, healthy fats, is savory, light, gentle on the gut and is easy to make. Great for those avoiding diary. I don’t share exact measurements but I will share approximates.

As you follow along in the Meditative Cook With Me posts, I invite you to learn to trust yourself, your intuition, your taste buds along the way. Follow the recipe for a baseline but add things you think would taste good to the dishes or subtract them. Treat it like a fun experiment and let me know what creative ideas come out of it for you!

Creamy one pan salmon dish with sun-dried tomatoes

Before you cook:

Step 1: Turn on the music. Set it to the vibe you’re feeling for the night or whenever you are cooking this. Here is what was part of my playlist.

Step 2: Set up the environment so you can thrive. Clear the countertops, make sure the sink is empty. Get rid of any clutter on the surfaces.

Step 3: Make yourself a nice beverage. A mocktail, cocktail, a glass of red wine, make it feel fancy even if it’s just seltzer inside a wine glass.

Step 4: Prep all your vegetables that need to be cut and set them aside on a large plate or in small prep bowls so you can just plug and play.

Now let the party begin 💃🏽

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of fresh salmon fillets

• 3 cloves of garlic minced

• 1/2 shallot minced

• 1 small onion diced

• 2 slices of turkey bacon (chopped)

• 1 TBSP capers

• 1 can of coconut cream

• 2 TBSP of sun-dried tomatoes

• pinch of salt

• 1-2 C of spinach

• pinch of garlic powder

• linguine pasta or rice

• avocado oil or olive oil

Directions:

1. Take a medium sized sauce pan and add oil. Add the salmon fillets - skin down first. *We will not be keeping the skin but I like to leave it when cooking for the flavor and to help keep the fish juicy.* Sear each side until you see a nice brown coating on the top. (About 3-4 minutes a side) Set the salmon aside on a dish.

2. Then using the same pan, add onions. Sauté for a couple minutes until softened then add garlic.

3. Add sun-dried tomatoes and continue to sauté.

4. Add the can of coconut cream.

5. Add capers. Add turkey bacon. I love adding turkey bacon for the smoky flavor.

6. Add 3 TBSP of pasta water if making with pasta, if not, you can add a little bit of corn starch to help the sauce thicken a teeny bit.

7. Add pinch of salt and garlic powder. Let it simmer on low so all the flavors can develop.

8. Add spinach towards the end.

9. Add the salmon into the dish and voila!

*Optional: add microgreens on top for garnishing and some extra nutrition.

You can serve this dish with a side of white rice, brown rice or pasta.

Use your creativity and add any ideas that come to mind or remove or replace things and see how it comes out! The fun part is the experimenting.

Creamy one pan salmon dish with sun-dried tomatoes

Enjoy and let me know how you liked this dish. If you make it, feel free to upload a photo of it in the comments section.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with. 🍵

Warmly,