I don’t make seafood very often for a couple of reasons.  First, we live in Indiana – not the best place to get seafood that I would consider to be good quality.  Second, Ben isn’t a huge seafood fan.  He’ll eat most of what I make and he seems to like it okay, but I think he would prefer almost anything else.  I recently discovered that the area Wild Oats stores were converted to Whole Foods…hallelujah!  This weekend we went to check one of them out and I was in heaven.  (Really, I couldn’t stop raving.  Ask Ben.)  The store certainly isn’t close by, but close enough to make a monthly trip for special ingredients such as good salmon.  This has been one of my favorite salmon recipes for a long time.  It’s quick, easy, healthy and delicious!  The flavors of the cilantro and salmon go really well together.  I also thought it would be a perfect entry for this month’s Tasty Tools challenge, featuring the blender as this month’s tool.  Although I normally make the pesto in a food processor, it can be made in a blender as well.  I served this with garlic rice pilaf on the side and it was a very tasty and healthy meal.

Roasted Salmon with Cilantro Pesto

Ingredients:

2-4 salmon fillets

1 clove garlic

1 cup cilantro, loosely packed

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. lime juice

1-2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Add garlic, cilantro, olive oil and lime juice to food processor.  Blend until creamy.  (Alternatively, if using a blender – mince garlic before adding to the blender.)  Grease a baking dish with olive oil.  Place salmon fillets in the baking dish.  Spread the cilantro pesto on salmon fillets, sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with chopped tomatoes.  Bake 15-18 minutes.

Source: adapted from The Fresh Market