Art of Natural Living

Easy Salmon Florentine

By Inger Jul 23, 2021 Cooking & Recipes, CSA Recipes, Main Dish, Seafood, spinach 43 Comments
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With steamed spinach and healthy salmon, all topped with blender hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner. With steamed spinach and healthy salmon, all topped with blender hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner.

I decided to reprise this recipe, first published in 2012, in honor of this year’s Olympic Games.  The original motivation, however, was to deal with a deluge of spinach from my CSAs.  They were harvesting overtime and I was looking for a recipe that my kids might possibly eat. Bite of salmon and spinach

This brought me back to my youth when our mother used to serve Chicken Florentine, and we’d gobble it up. Now the term Florentine technically means in the style of Florence, but for my mother it meant anything served with spinach and hollandaise.

Yes, this was one of the few ways I’d eat a vegetable growing up. And since my kids (except my picky daughter) were all better eaters than I was, I had a chance! And in the end, it was a winner! 

How is this recipe different from others?

There are versions of Salmon Florentine all over.  But this recipe is simpler–as in Really. Super. Easy.

Without giving up seriously tasty! Okay, you douse almost anything in hollandaise and it’s likely to be good—Spam Florentine anyone?  With steamed spinach and healthy salmon, all topped with blender hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner.

Yes, this skips steps like chop and sautee shallots or make a wine cream sauce. Lovely I’m sure, but this was meant to work even for a Desperate Mom dinner.  

This means it must be doable even after the proverbial day from hell. Like when you arrive home from work so exhausted you could never possibly lift a roasting chicken. Or you forgot to turn the crock pot on.

Step by Step Directions

This recipe is ready in a few simple steps.

You start by steaming your spinach and cooking your salmon (remove pin bones if needed first) with a little salt and pepper. I like to use a grill pan for the salmon, but broiling or standard grilling is fine.  cooking salmon and spinach

Then you make your hollandaise. If you use my immersion blender hollandaise, that involves putting 5 ingredients in a jar and blending with an immersion blender.  making hollandaise

When everything is ready, you plate. Set out a dollop of spinach, partially top (overlap) with the salmon and drizzle everything with Hollandaise sauce. With steamed spinach and healthy salmon, all topped with blender hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner.

Easy peasy!

How to remove salmon pin bones

Before you cook your salmon you should check for and remove any pin bones. Fine Cooking explains this in detail. I now own a special “fish tweezers” for this, but for years I just used a (clean) pliers.

Selecting your Spinach

Organic or Conventional: Spinach typically ranks poorly in the Environmental Working Group’s list of most contaminated fruits and vegetables, so go organic if you can. Remember, however, that it’s generally considered better to eat a conventional vegetable than to skip it entirely.

Fresh or Frozen: Either fresh or frozen is good in this dish! spinach

Wild vs Farmed Salmon

Sadly, between environmental degradation and sometimes questionable farming practices, selecting seafood isn’t always simple and straightforward. The Cleveland Clinic, did a recent analysis and found that wild salmon is lower in contaminants, antibiotics and saturated (the “bad”) fat. So go wild if you can!

Serving Suggestions

For the starch portion of the meal, rice, potatoes or a nice bread would be a lovely addition. If you actually are desperate, go with the bread. 

At the risk of overwhelming a Desperate Mom, I’d like to suggest a second vegetable. Data on Americans getting their “5-a-day” servings of fruit and vegetables is unfortunately not good. With steamed spinach and healthy salmon, all topped with blender hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner.

If staying super easy, frozen sweet potato fries are great, plus they add another color–“eat a rainbow”! A bagged salad or cole slaw is another easy option.

Otherwise any other vegetable that is currently producing seasonal windfalls (e.g. zucchini) or lingering in your refrigerator will do. Broccoli and asparagus are great with hollandaise, so those are particularly nice.

Friday #SummerGamesWeek Recipes in celebration of the 2021 Olympics

 

Easy Salmon Florentine

With steamed spinach and healthy salmon drizzled with quick hollandaise, Salmon Florentine is a quick, easy and tasty dinner.
Author: Inger
5 from 3 votes
Print
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4
Calories 372 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 pounds salmon filet in 4 pieces
  • 12 ounces fresh spinach or a large bag of frozen
  • 6 ounces Hollandaise Sauce see note

Instructions
 

  • Check for and remove pin bones in salmon, if any.  Season salmon with salt and pepper, then broil or grill for a few minutes on each side until fish is cooked to your liking (FDA recommendation is 145F)   
  • While fish is cooking steam spinach until warm and wilted, about 10 minutes.
  • Prepare your favorite Hollandaise (see notes for my recipe) 
  • Divide spinach on four plates, top with a salmon filet, and and spoon (or pour) hollandaise over both.

Notes

You can use your favorite recipe or my immersion blender hollandaise

Nutrition

Calories: 372kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 37gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 363mgPotassium: 1308mgFiber: 2gSugar: 0.4gVitamin A: 8043IUVitamin C: 24mgCalcium: 105mgIron: 4mg
I am not a health professional and nutrition data is calculated programatically. Accuracy may vary with product selection, calculator accuracy, etc. Consult a professional for the best information.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

43 thoughts on “Easy Salmon Florentine”

  1. John / Kitchen Riffs

    I love any dish that’s “Florentine!” Mainly because of the hollandaise sauce — love that stuff. And although I hated spinach when I was a kid (maybe because my mom used the stuff from the can? Yuck!), now it’s one of my favorites. This looks great — truly easy. And blender hollandaise is the way to go — only way I make it these days.

    Reply ↓
  2. Raymund

    Ohhh I am excited on what to expect in the next coming recipes. 50! thats dedication and from more than 25 countiries. I hope you post something from the Philippines, New Zealand and Switzerland, the three countries close to my heart.

    Reply ↓
    1. Inger Post author

      There were so many great recipes posted by the participants! I can’t wait to go back and try more of them!

      Reply ↓
  6. Amy Nash

    I feel seen. Lol. I’m all about those desparate mom dinners but this one is good enough to impress company and they won’t even know! Such wonderful flavors from simple ingredients and easy techniques!

    Reply ↓
  9. Rebecca

    5 stars
    I loved how small the ingredients list was, but how big in flavor the meal turned out to be! Such a good wholesome meal!

    Reply ↓
  10. Thao @ In Good Flavor

    My husband’s favorite breakfast is eggs Benedict, because it’s drenched in hollandaise sauce. He’s not keen on salmon, but I if I drench it with enough hollandaise sauce, he might like it. As for me, this is a definite thumbs up!

    Reply ↓
    1. Inger Post author

      I’m lucky my husband eats anything. Helps when he’s doing the blogging dishes 🙂

      Reply ↓
  12. grace

    the chef at my restaurant always dreads making hollandaise. perhaps i’ll clue him in on this blender version! 🙂

    Reply ↓
    1. Inger Wilkerson

      It would be interesting to see his reaction. I hear that sometimes the cooking purists turn up their noses at this version. Though I think if it tastes good…

      Reply ↓
  13. inherchucks

    This looks amazing! I would eat this every night 🙂 Have you ever tried throwing spinach in a smoothie? It’s my new favorite way to enjoy spinach.

    Thanks for linking up and sharing your delicious food with the rest of the party.

    Reply ↓
    1. Inger Wilkerson

      Alas, my kids are quite wary of veggies in smoothies–I can’t even get a small beet or carrot by them. And then there is the time I blended my spinach potato leek soup and it looked just like pond scum (really, literally–we’d just been hiking by a pond). But perhaps when the kids are off to college in a few years, DH and I can give that a try;-) Thanks for the suggestion!

      Reply ↓
  15. bakeawaywithme.com

    Oh I would love to have this for dinner any time at all! Delicious looking! The hollandaise is a perfect sauce to serve with this dish!

    Reply ↓
  20. Karis' Kitchen

    Just saw Martha make blender hollandaise on her new PBS cooking show this past weekend. I think it’s a great show, if you haven’t checked it out yet.

    Reply ↓
  22. Promenade Claire

    Gosh I’d love that as a dinner any day ! I haven’t had salmon in a while, but I’l lbe remedying that and soon. an dyes you made me laugh about the spinach! I’m heading into spinach and chard season so I’ll remember this one, thank you !

    Reply ↓

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