Bengali-Style Salmon with Steamed Vegetables and a Spicy Yoghurt Sauce

A delicious and healthy way to cook salmon, packed with flavours

I've made this many times over the years, since I first discovered it - it's such a great way to cook salmon and keep it moist.

It has evolved a little over time, with technology and to my tastes, so I now cook it in my Thermomix as an all-in-one meal with vegetables and rice or cauliflower rice to boot, but you can steam it conventionally together with the vegetables, or bake it in the oven in parcels - whichever is your preference! (I'll include instructions to cover all bases, of course!).

If you're counting calories, they are as follows per portion:

Bengali salmon - 286 calories
Steamed green vegetables - 32 calories
Cauliflower rice - 76 calories
Total - 394 calories


Other options are 437 calories total per portion if you serve it with my coconut, coriander (cilantro) and lime cauliflower rice, or if you want to cook ordinary grain rice (70g portion, raw rice) it's 564 calories in total.

Ingredients
4 skinless boneless salmon fillets (about 2cm thick) [946]
1 tsp ground cumin [8]
1 tsp ground coriander [6]
1 tsp ground turmeric [7]
1 1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard [36]
Salt and freshly ground black pepper [1]
1 1/2 inches root ginger, peeled and roughly sliced [5]
2 garlic cloves, peeled [12]
1-2 green chillies, roughly chopped (de-seed them if you want to tone the heat down) [4]
Large handful coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped (reserve a few leaves for garnish) [5]
(Optional zest of one lime, for a citrus-y zing - my own preference)
200ml fat free Greek yoghurt (or plain yoghurt) [114]
Cooking foil / tinfoil

To serve
A selection of green vegetables, such as (for four):
150g fine green beans [44]
150g sprouting/tenderstem broccoli [50]
1 medium courgette, cut into 1cm diagonal slices (180g) [32]
1 lemon, cut into wedges

To make this into a meal, you could serve it with rice or cauliflower rice as below - methods includd.

Cauliflower rice (800g cauliflower florets) [304]
or 
make up Coconut, Lime and Coriander Cauliflower Rice x 4 portions [476]
or
280g grain rice per person (easy cook is great if you don't want it to stick) [984]

Method
Mix the ground cumin, ground coriander and tumeric with some salt and pepper, and rub into the salmon fillets along with the grain mustard, and set aside.

If oven-baking the salmon, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7 / 220C / 425F.

If you're serving with cauliflower rice, then blitz this in a food processor first (or grate) then set aside [If you have a Thermomix, you can put it in for 5 seconds on REVERSE speed 5, to get larger grains from the florets, tip it out, and then if you have any large pieces of stalk left, throw them back in on forwards speed.].

Put the ginger, garlic, chillies and coriander (and lime zest, if using) into a food processor or blender, and blitz into a finely chopped near-paste (you could also pound them in a pestle and mortar). Add the yoghurt and 1/2 tsp salt and blitz again briefly to mix. [Thermomix, drop them onto the running blades at speed 8, then stop. Scrape down sides, add yoghurt and 1/2 tsp salt, and mix 10 seconds/speed 4. Scrape out into a bowl with a spatula - you don't need to worry about leaving any of the yoghurt mix in, as it will add a bit of extra flavour if you're cooking rice or cauli-rice in the internal basket.].

Reserve about 1/4 of the yohurt mix to serve on the side. Take four pieces of foil, large enough to wrap each individual salmon steak loosely, and coat the salmon steaks in the rest of the yoghurt mix and put one on each piece of foil, and wrap making a seal by crimping or folding the foil over, but leaving a gap for air to circulate inside.

Cooking the salmon 
These are guidelines for cooking this 'just-cooked' (as in all the way through, but not dried out), but bear in mind variations in oven temperatures, the shape/thickness of your salmon fillet, the fact that some people like it pink in the middle etc. etc. and test/adjust accordingly.

To oven bake or steam the salmon and vegetables 
Place the salmon parcels on a baking tray, and cook for 8-10 minutes in the oven. Or place them in a steamer for 6-8 minutes. Meanwhile steam the vegetables for 6-8 minutes (depending on how much bite you like - so the salmon and vegetables can go in the steamer together, on different levels, salmon on the top), or you could boil the vegetables in unsalted water for 3 to 4 minutes, putting the beans in for 2 minutes first (or longer if you like your vegetables soft), or microwave them in a dish covered in clingfilm/plastic wrap and pierced for 2-4 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes, then stirring each minute until cooked to your liking.

Serve scattered with a few reserved coriander leaves, and the remaining spicy yoghurt sauce and some lemon wedges, with cauliflower rice, or grain rice as desired (you'll need to start the grain rice off cooking before you put the salmon on), and enjoy!

Thermomix method of cooking all-in-one
If you're cooking grain rice, then put 1 litre (cold) water into the jug with a pinch of salt, and weigh 280g rice into the internal steaming basket (maximum 400g rice - see note for cauliflower rice).

Arrange the salmon parcels in the bottom tray of the Varoma, on a dish or plate which leaves room around the edges for the steam to escape around, and arrange the vegetables in the top tray, with the lid on. Put to one side, as this needs less time than the rice to cook (this will also depend on how well-cooked you like your salmon and vegetables!).

Rinse the rice 10 seconds/speed 5.Then set to steam 20 minutes (MC off)/Varoma Temperature/Speed 3. After 8 minutes, place the Varoma (including the salmon and vegetables, covered with lid) on top of the Thermomix. (You could set the timer for 8 minutes, then set it again for 12, if you're liable to forget what time it is!).

Serve scattered with a few reserved coriander leaves, and the remaining spicy yoghurt sauce on the side, and some lemon wedges, and enjoy!

Note
If you're cooking cauliflower rice for four people, then you won't be able to fit it all in the internal steaming basket, and would be better off cooking it dry-fried (or with a tsp or two of coconut oil is nice) in a good, non-stick pan for a couple of minutes, or microwaving it (covered) for a similar amount of time. It is possible to cook up to around 500g of cauliflower rice in the internal simmering basket, but the length of time depends on whether you want it crunchy or soft, and you will need to carfully disassemble the Varoma and remove the lid to insert it halfway through cooking.