Want an easy and delicious umami-packed Crispy Miso Salmon Recipe? It’s simple, elegant, and bursting with delicious and wholesome flavours. Pair it with rice and pickled seaweed for a truly impressive meal. Plus, it caters to gluten-free and dairy-free diets.
Why you will love this recipe
It’s incredibly easy to make, yet it delivers a beautifully elegant restaurant-quality dish in the comfort of your own home. The pan-fried salmon is complemented by a delightful combination of flavours – paired with a salty, sweet, savory, and subtly tangy miso sauce, and instant wakame pickles that will leave you wanting more. Elevate your dining experience with this simple yet impressive crispy miso salmon that caters to gluten-free and dairy-free dietary requirements.
Ingredients in Miso Salmon Recipe
Check the detailed ingredients in the recipe card.
☑️Salmon:
This recipe works well with any type of fish, whether it’s oily fish or white-fish. I often use salmon as my go-to fish. While fresh salmon fillet is ideal, defrosted salmon works just as well for busy modern people like us. The salmon can be air-fried or pan-fried, and then the miso sauce is poured over it.
☑️Miso:
Miso is a fermented soybean paste widely used in Korean and Japanese cuisines. It has a complex flavor profile – salty, sweet, and umami – developed through natural fermentation. It comes in many varieties based on factors such as fermentation time, salt content, and the main grains or legumes used. You can easily find white or yellow miso in major supermarkets and Asian grocery stores. Miso is traditionally made from soybeans, but now there are different types available, made from various grains or legumes.
In the recipe, I used 1/2 tablespoon of my homemade chickpea miso, which happens to be a little saltier than most commercial miso. Adjust the amount of miso based on your preference and the original product’s salt content.
☑️Miso sauce:
The sauce is a mix of miso, grated ginger, water, sugar or mirin, vinegar, and cornstarch. Mirin is a Japanese sweet cooking wine. If replacing mirin with sugar, use 1 tbsp. Add all ingredients except cornstarch, let it simmer over low heat. Add cornstarch at the last minute to thicken. It creates a beautiful glaze for salmon without using lots of sugar. Simmering the sauce without boiling the miso preserves its flavor and health benefits. The final sauce may end up slightly lumpy if the cornstarch is not mixed in thoroughly. If this occurs, stir well or strain for a smoother sauce. Or Alternatively, mix corn starch well with a little bit of the simmering miso liquid in a separate bowl before putting back to the sauce pan.
☑️Wakame Salad: Wakame is a type of sea vegetable commonly used in Korean and Japanese cuisines. When purchasing, opt for dried wakame seaweed over the fresh variety, as the fresh version is excessively salty due to added salt used for preservation. If you end up with fresh wakame, you’ll need to wash off all the salt and soak and rinse it multiple times before using it. Soak dry wakame in water for about 15 minutes till they get soft and plump.
Ingredients
Miso Salmon
- 1/2 tbs Miso (Depending on the degree of saltiness of miso, the amount can vary).
- Water 2 tbs
- Vinegar 2 tbs
- Sugar 1 Tbs or mirin 2 Tbs
- Ginger finely grated 1/2 ts
- 1 ts Corn flour (optional as a thickener)
- Salmon Fillet
Seaweed (Wakame) Pickles
- Wakame seaweed
- pickling solution (White or Rice Vinegar 1 cup, Water 1cup, Sugar 1/2 cup, Salt 2 Tbs)
Instructions
Step 1 - Cooking rice
First cook rice as per package instruction.
Step 2 - Wakame Pickles/Pickle Salad
- Soak 15g or more of wakame seaweed in cold water for 5-10 minutes until it becomes hydrated and soft. Once it is well hydrated, remove and gently squeeze out the water. Keep the seaweed in a bowl.
- In the meantime, boil all pickling solution ingredients over medium heat quickly until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Cool down the pickling solution by placing it in the fridge or over ice cubes (see note)
- Once pickling solution is cool, pour it over the bowl of rehydrated seaweed.
Step 3 - Cook Salmon
Over a hot pan, pan-fry on medium heat or air-fry a salmon fillet at around 180°C with a little bit of oil and a pinch of salt for around 3-4 minutes on each side. (see note)
Step 4 - Prepare Miso Sauce
In a small pot, combine miso, sugar or mirin, water, vinegar, and ginger. Mix well until the miso clumps are dissolved. Simmer over low heat. Add cornstarch and stir well until it becomes smooth and silky, without any clumps. If the sauce is lumpy due to the cornstarch, feel free to strain it.
Step 5 - Plating and Serving
Place a round mold and add rice into it (or simply spread rice on a plate). Add Wakame seaweed pickle on top of the rice. Then, place the pan-seared or air-fried salmon fillet over the rice and Wakame salad. Finally, pour the miso sauce over the salmon.
Notes
- Warm seaweed salad is also delicious. Skip the process of cooling down the pickling liquid and simply pour hot or warm pickling liquid directly over the bowl of seaweed.
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Wakame seaweed pickles offer more than one recipe. You can store them in an airtight container and use them for several weeks or even a couple of months. If the sauce is too thick, gradually add a small amount of water. The consistency of the sauce should be silky, not clumpy or watery. Taste the sauce and adjust it to suit your preferences. For instructions on how to pan-sear salmon, check out the link below.
- Add small amount of water gradually if the sauce is too thick. The consistency of the sauce should be smooth and silky (not lumpy, not watery). Taste the sauce and adjust the sauce to suit your taste. If the sauce is lumpy, simply strain it.
- For instructions on how to pan-sear salmon, check out the link.
