Poached Salmon Pesto Pasta

radiatorre pasta with salmon on a pink plate with a fork and linen napkin

5 from 1 vote

Poached Salmon Pesto Pasta

A delicious seasonal recipe loaded with good-for-you ingredients. The pesto is made with zippy dill, avocado, and almonds for a real treat that pairs perfectly with tender poached salmon and pasta.

Prep Time15

Cook Time25

Course: Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 612kcal

Author: Abra Pappa, MS, CNS, LDN

Ingredients

Poached Salmon

1 lb. wild salmon
3 cups water
1 cup white wine
3 slices fresh lemon
1/2 cup fresh dill
1 small onion quartered
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black peppercorns

Vegan Avocado Almond Pesto

2 medium avocados
2 cups fresh dill
1/3 cup raw almonds
1 small garlic clove
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Pasta

1 pound radiatore pasta or any pasta you like
1 cup green peas

Instructions

Poached Salmon

In a large pan with high sides combine water, wine, lemon, vinegar, onion, bay leaves, fresh dill, peppercorns, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes to allow flavors to concentrate. This is you poaching liquid.
Remove cover, add salmon, increase heat to a rolling simmer, partially cover and cook for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes turn off heat, cover completely and allow salmon to rest for 2 minutes. A salmon filet that is 1-1 1/2" will be cooked perfectly. If your salmon is thicker increase cooking time by 2 minutes and then check.
Set salmon aside while you prepare other ingredients.

Vegan Avocado Almond Pesto

In the bowl of a food processor combine avocado, dill, almonds, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Process until smooth. You may need to add a splash of water or a bit more lemon juice to get things going.
Taste for seasoning, add more salt or lemon juice if needed.

Pasta

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Be sure to boil in well salted water. In the final 2 minutes of cooking add peas to pasta water. Drain the pasta and peas reserving some of the starchy cooking liquid. Toss hot pasta and peas with 1-2 cups pesto (as much as you like) and flaked salmon.
Top with additional fresh dill and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Enjoy immediately.

Notes

You can use any type of pasta you like. Radiatore (like little radiators) is one of my favorites, but any small pasta (ideally with ridges) would work well.
You can eliminate the peas if you don't like them.
You will have extra pesto leftover, store it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
The nutritional analysis includes the entire portion of pesto.

Nutrition