Asparagus & Cheese Salmon Rolls

Asparagus spears stuffed into a rolled salmon fillet with a lovely garlic herb cheese filling tucked inside, this is a quick elegant meal perfect for date night, for dinner parties, or scale it down to a single serving when you want to treat yourself to a lovely easy meal that tastes amazing.

I was super excited for asparagus season this year. I went to visit my parents for Mother’s Day, hoping the asparagus would be going strong, given the chilly, flooded spring we’ve had. Well, the asparagus was growing, but it wasn’t thriving yet. My mom said my sister and I should go out and pick it and take it all … because she would have more than she and dad could eat once we’d left. So I did manage to come home with a ziploc full of asparagus. My mind was spinning, wondering what I should make that’s new this year? I did a search and landed on this post from forkly with 18 delicious asparagus recipes. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my own recipes in the lineup (my asparagus smoked salmon sushi), but the recipe that caught my eye this time was the Asparagus and Lemon Basil Ricotta Stuffed Salmon Rolls from Closet Cooking.

Yes, I wanted to do something like that. But I had no ricotta on hand and I didn’t want the cheese to take over (plus I’ve noticed the graininess of ricotta sometimes jars my senses). In my recipe, I wanted the salmon and asparagus to be the stars, with the cheese stepping in to add a little hint of creaminess and flavor. Hmmmm, what to do? I started with my old friend: cream cheese, but in the form of Greek cream cheese. In the past several years, I’ve been using Greek cream cheese in my recipes and loved the results, so yeah, in this recipe, I used Greek cream cheese along with another one of my cheese loves: asiago. Asiago has some serious sharp flavor going on, so you don’t need much to make an impact! I added some garlic and fresh herbs to my cheese mixture, smeared it all over the salmon fillet, set the asparagus spears down the middle, rolled it up, set it on a baking sheet, squeezed a little lemon juice over top and did a little prayer, hoping this would work out well.

Whenever I’m trying something new like this, there are always nagging questions in the back of my mind. Will the asparagus and the salmon be perfectly done at the same time? Should I have pre-cooked the asparagus first? What if the salmon gets over-done? (I hate it when my salmon is over-done! It gets dry and rubbery … I like it soft and tender and flaky.)

I watched the salmon pretty carefully but then got distracted, so the salmon wasn’t quite as perfectly flaky as I’d hoped, but it was really close. And the creamy garlic herb cheese mixture in middle totally made up for it. The asparagus came out perfectly crisp tender, just as I’d hoped it would.

So even if you flub it up a bit and don’t catch your salmon at just the right moment, it shouldn’t matter for this recipe. I do recommend aiming for perfectly flaky salmon and watching it closely in the end game, but hey, it’s okay if it’s not perfect. It’ll still taste heavenly.

I roasted some cauliflower to serve on the side, but some steamed broccoli or extra roasted asparagus would be delightful too. For salmon, I like to use Wild Alaskan because it’s sustainably caught and shipped straight to my door. It’s super flavorful! If you like good quality wild-caught salmon, click to get $15 off your first order of Wild Alaskan salmon.

Asparagus & Cheese Salmon Rolls

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 1 serving 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Per serving:
• 1 thin skinless salmon fillet (or a thicker fillet, sliced in half lengthwise to give you two thin salmon strips)
• Old Bay Seasoning, Red Robin Seasoning (or your favorite seasoned salt) and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute (or your favorite non-salt seasoning)
• 1 oz. Greek cream cheese (or neufchatel), softened
• 2 Tablespoons freshly shredded Asiago cheese (or Parmesan or Romano)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled & chopped fine
• 1 teaspoons fresh herbs, chopped fine (suggest any mix of chives, basil, tarragon, dill and just a tish of rosemary)
• 4 – 5 fresh asparagus spears
• A couple wedges of fresh lemon

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Instructions

1. Season both sides of the salmon fillet well and set on a baking sheet lined with a silicon baking mat or sprayed with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, shredded Asiago, garlic and herbs. Using a butter knife or a small spoon, spread this mixture onto the seasoned salmon fillet. Set the asparagus spears in the center, then roll up the fillet around the asparagus to make a nice roll.
3. Set the salmon roll on the prepared baking sheet, seam side down. Bake in the oven for 15 – 25 minutes, until the salmon is just flake tender but not overdone. Check frequently after 15 minutes to catch the salmon at the perfect tender flaky state. Use a fork to test the salmon in the middle. When it flakes, it’s done.

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

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