Crispy Salmon with Leeks and White Beans

Crispy Salmon with leeks and white beans is a delicious and balanced meal that’s easy to make but an overall stunner. Not only does it look delicious, but all of the flavors are balanced so well making this recipe your new favorite go to for salmon recipes.

The crispy salmon is the perfect texture balance to the slightly sweet leeks and the creamy white beans, making this dish substantial, yet easy to prepare. The richness from the salmon, the slightly sweet leaks, and the hearty white beans are amped up to the next level with some earthy, brown butter sage, a healthy dose of cream cheese, and plenty of lemon to cut through the fat and balance this dish out.

Pour yourself a heaping glass of white wine and sop up that delicious sauce with a nice, crusty piece of sourdough and you got yourself an elegant, yet simple meal that uses only one pan and takes less than 45 minutes from start to finish. So cheers to you for cooking up this crispy salmon with leek and white beans recipe and becoming the maven of the main course!

Serves 4

Suggested Wine Pairing:

It’s an “I don’t know what I have done to you, but I’ll take a pinot grigio” kind of meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb of salmon, cut into 4 oz filets

2 leeks, thoroughly washed and sliced

1 – 14 ounce can of white beans, rinsed

3 tablespoons of butter

8 sage leaves

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 lemons, 1 sectioned and diced and one juiced

1/2 cup cream cheese

Crusty bread, to serve

Instructions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. Once it has melted, add the sage and allow to shallow fry for 3-4 minutes or until crispy, flipping once. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile dry the salmon fillets and salt and pepper each side. The pan should still have plenty of butter in it, so place the fillets skin side up in the same preheated skillet. Lightly bast the skin as the salmon cooks by spooning any additional butter over the top. Flip the salmon after about 5 minutes and repeat with skin side down. Set aside and cover with foil.
3. In same pan, melt remaining butter and lemon juice. Scrape up any brown bits from the salmon.
4. Add the leeks and lemon segments. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the leeks begin to look stewed.
5. Add the garlic and white beans stir to combine and then begin to add the cream cheese, in sections, to the skillet in order to melt it. Fold the cream cheese into the mix.
6. Once the cream cheese begins to bubble, add the salmon back in, skin side down. Allow the salmon to heat back up for a minute or two.
7. To serve, add the leek and white bean mixture to a bowl and top with a salmon fillet, 2 sage leaves, and a piece of crusty bread. Proceed to chug that pinot grigio!

If you like this, be sure to try my crispy salmon with gnocchi and brown butter sage!