Pan-Seared Honey Glazed Salmon with Collard Greens

Name: Pan-Seared Honey Glazed Salmon with Collard Greens
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 10 ounce bunch of collard greens, central ribs removed and sliced into bite-sized strips; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tablespoons); 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice; Two 6 ounce salmon steaks (or a 12 ounce steak, cut into two after cooking); 1 tablespoon honey; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

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Pan-seared honey glazed salmon on a bed of collard greens is quick, healthy, garlicky, and lemony. This recipe is a weeknight dream. It’s easy to make, gentle on the budget, and seriously flavorful.

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🔪 Preparation
🥬 How to cook collard greens
🐟 The best way to cook salmon
❓ FAQ
📝 Recipe

Start to finish: Under 30 minutes

Number of pans: 1

🔪 Preparation

The collard greens are rinsed and dried, then chopped, seasoned with kosher salt, cooked in extra-virgin olive oil, and finished with garlic, red pepper flakes, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Ingredients for collard greens. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

The salmon is seasoned with some kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and honey, then seared in extra-virgin olive oil.

Ingredients for salmon. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

🥬 How to cook collard greens

After rinsing and drying the collard greens:

Grab each leaf and remove the central rib using a knife.
Layer a couple of leaves and roll them like you'd roll a cigar.
Cut perpendicular into ⅛” - ¼” strips. This technique is called chiffonade.
Flip 90 degrees and cut one more time.

4 steps for cutting collard greens. — (Photos by Viana Boenzli)

Using a non-stick pan (I use my trusty Lodge pan), heat a generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil over medium to medium-high heat.

Add the chopped collard greens. You want to hear a crackle when they touch the oil. Let it crackle for about 30 seconds, add salt, and stir.

Reduce the heat to medium and keep stirring for about 4 minutes. It's okay if the edges of the collard greens turn a little brown. This will add flavor and texture.

Add red pepper flakes and garlic and stir for another minute or so. Just make sure the garlic doesn't turn brown. Burnt garlic is inedible.

Remove the collard greens from the pan, squeeze some fresh lemon juice over it, and set aside.

Sauteing collard greens with red pepper flakes and garlic. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

Sauteed collard greens is a wonderful dish by itself or a tasty side dish for just about anything.

🐟 The best way to cook salmon

Place the salmon steak skin side down on your cutting board and use a paper towel to dry off any excess moisture.

Pour honey on top (use your hands or a brush and evenly coat the fish's surface). Add salt and pepper.

Seasoning the salmon with honey, salt, and pepper. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

Use a paper towel to wipe clean the pan you used for the collard greens and heat the extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat.

Add the salmon with the skin side up. Yes, skin side up. That will achieve an incredible sear on the skinless side. Just make sure when you put the fish in the hot pan, do not move it for about 4 minutes. I repeat: do not. It might smoke a little bit and some of the honey might run off, and that's okay.

Cooking the fish in a cast iron pan. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

After 4 minutes, when you flip the salmon, your eyes will pop. The fish will have developed a wonderful, deep honey glaze that smells and looks amazing. It will have a flaky crust while remaining mostly raw on the inside.

Reduce heat and cook for another 4 minutes skin side down, to get the inside just slightly cooked (opaque), with still a little translucency in the center. If the skin sticks to the pan when you remove it, that’s fine...just leave it behind, most people don’t eat the skin anyway.

Place on a bed of collard greens and serve immediately.

Cooked fish in cast iron pan. — (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

❓ FAQ

When is my fish done cooking?

Cooking fish to the right doneness is essential. We don't want to time travel back to childhood memories of gray, dry, tasteless, chewy salmon served at a buffet.
Unlike meat, which has different desired doneness like rare and medium-rare - some people claim there's also a thing called well-done - fish only has one level of doneness: The perfect one. It's 125°F. It's when the fish gets flaky on the outside while still firm (pink, in the case of salmon) on the inside.

What type of salmon is best?

That depends on a lot of factors and is a whole article by itself. My go-to source for sustainable seafood is www.seafoodwatch.org.

It’s nice if you can get fresh seafood directly from a fish market, but that’s not always possible. Therefore, frozen pre-portioned salmon steaks are almost always in my pantry. That way, if I feel like making a quick salmon meal, all I do is put the frozen salmon steaks (use a resealable plastic bag if it’s not in one already) into a bowl of room temperature water, and within 20 minutes they're defrosted and ready to cook.

Served on a white plate with a wedge of lemon. — (Photo by Viana Boenzli)

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Did you make this Pan-Seared Honey Glazed Salmon with Collard Greens? Let us know in the comments below!

📝 Recipe