Grilled Salmon w/Cucumber & Yogurt Herb Sauce

5 from 3 votes

Grilled Salmon w/Cucumber & Yogurt Herb Sauce

30 minutes is all you need to have this perfectly grilled salmon shine on your dinner table. Topped with a light and refreshing yogurt & cucumber herb sauce, this dish makes for an excellent summer entree everyone will love.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time50 mins

Servings: servings

Calories: 216kcal

Ingredients

For Salmon:

1 lb uncooked salmon filets
salt (I use Pink Himalayan Sea Salt)
paprika

For Cucumber & Yogurt Herb Sauce:

125 g cucumber (sliced into ~1/2" thick slices) - this was ~1/3 of the cucumber I bought.
6 oz lactose free plain lowfat yogurt (I use Green Valley Organics Lactose Free Lowfat Plain Yogurt - as seen here)
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley (chopped)
1 Tbsp. fresh chives (chopped)
2 Tbsp. fresh dill fronds (chopped)
1/2 tsp. ground coriander seed
1/8 tsp. salt (I use Pink Himalayan Sea Salt)

Instructions

For Yogurt & Cucumber Herb Sauce:

Begin by making the Yogurt & Cucumber Herb Sauce. It's best to make this at least 4 hours prior to serving the salmon, preferably the night before (to allow flavors to combine). However, the flavors are still excellent right after being mixed, so if you're in a hurry you can make it right before serving and it will still be delicious and flavorful.
Place all ingredients in a food processor (I tried both blender and food processor and the food processor is definitely the better option for this).
Pulse until cucumber chops up a bit, then puree until there is only fine cucumber pulp left. *Note: The sauce will probably seem quite thin, but it's ok. When you serve it you can either use a paper towel to absorb some of the excess liquid before serving or simply scoop from the thicker areas.*
Place in a sealed container and refrigerate until serving the salmon. *Note: Make sure to get all of the sauce out of the food processor, as the thicker parts are what tend to stick in there and you definitely want all of the thick parts.

For Salmon:

If you've never grilled salmon before, don't be intimidated! This was my first time grilling it and it worked out great. I had a minor issue, probably because of my grill, but ultimately they looked and tasted wonderful (see notes section about possibly needing to do a grill/bake combination like I did).
Pull your salmon out of the refrigerator to warm up to room temperature and preheat your grill to medium-high. Oil the grill well (I use nonstick cooking spray to oil the grill but that is harder to clean up because you need to use a TON of it. If you use actual oil then your nutritional values might change a little from those below but not too much since all you're using it for is to grease the grill and there shouldn't be much that gets into the salmon).
Pat the warmed up salmon filets (they only need to sit out for ~5 minutes) dry with paper towels, then lightly season both sides of each filet with salt and paprika.
Place the filets skin-side up (very important) on the preheated and oiled grill and cook without touching or moving the filets at all for ~4 minutes (you don't want to flip the salmon until it's about 60% cooked. Salmon typically takes 6-8 minutes to fully cook on the grill, depending on thickness of the filets).
Flip the salmon filets over and continue cooking for ~2-4 minutes until they are completely done (internal temperature of 145 degrees F). *See notes section below for instructions on how to finish off in the oven if needed.*

For Serving:

Plate the salmon filet portions and serve each serving with 1/4 of the Yogurt & Cucumber Herb Sauce along with your favorite side dish(es). Garnish with some chopped chives or parsley if desired.
This salmon is delicious hot or cold, though the sauce should always be served cold.

Notes

*Note: The only issue I had in grilling was probably because we don't have a true, legit grill (we only have a Coleman camping grill). So after cooking 8 minutes (4 on 1st side, 4 on 2nd side) and having wonderful grill marks and clearly having the grill flavor, the internal temperature just wasn't getting up high enough. So rather than dry it out/burn it on the grill by overcooking, I brought them inside, placed them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked on the top rack in a preheated 375 degree oven (I still had the oven on from something else) for ~6 minutes until they hit 145 degrees F internal temperature. We got the grill flavor, the fish was still perfectly tender and flaky, all around a success! So if you get to the point where they're not at the right temperature but already have good grill marks and you're afraid they'll burn if you keep heating them on the grill, do as I did and stick them in the oven to finish off the cooking process.*

For IBS/GERD:

The only thing to watch with this dish is the portion of the salmon. Whatever the total weight of your salmon is, you should only have 1/4 of that amount per sitting/serving. 1/5 or 1/6 of the total salmon weight is even safer, as it would be quite a bit less fat content. At any rate, be careful with your fat intake the rest of the day on days when you eat this salmon (or really, salmon in general). Also, please note that the nutritional information below is based on a serving that is 1/4 of the final, fully cooked salmon weight.

[nutrition-label]*Information above is based on the specific brands/types of ingredients I used (as one example, pink himalayan sea salt is lower sodium than regular salt). Values vary if using any other brands/types of ingredients.*
*The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.*
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Nutrition