Easy, Spicy Tuscan Salmon
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Spicy Tuscan salmon is not just easy, creamy and delicious; it also has some heat to it, making it very unami.
Spicy Tuscan Salmon is a delicious dinner that takes 15 minutes to make. There is no reason to not quickly get this on your weekday rotation.
Ingredients for Spicy Tuscan Salmon
The first thing I do is get all my ingredients in place. While my salmon slides into the oven, I can then quickly make the sauce which takes about five to seven minutes.
Spicy Tuscan Salmon couldn’t be easier, and it tastes like a gourmet dinner. While all this is happening, you could be making rice or pasta, but we like it as is.
What salmon is best for this dish?
We really love the farmed salmon at Whole Foods that is sold frozen in a six-pack. Each is conveniently individually wrapped. It has no bones to worry about, is deliciously fatty, yet mild. All you need to do is slip the salmon (while wrapped) into a bowl of cold water for fifteen minutes to defrost. You can also defrost by placing in the refrigerator. I like to take the chill of the salmon, by letting it sit on counter 15 to 30 minutes.
What is the best way to cook salmon?
This simple recipe from stovetop to oven is the start of many salmon dishes. It makes perfect salmon every time.
You can roast salmon, grill salmon, fry salmon stove top or do a combination. I’ve done all these methods and my favorite, fast method is to start my salmon on top of the stove and finish in the oven.
A perfect piece of salmon takes about 9 minutes to make. Perfect salmon means, crispy skin, tender flesh that is not over-cooked. Use a meat thermometer and take your salmon out at 125 degrees F. You can always stick it back in the oven if it’s too raw for you, but dry salmon is not tasty.
What’s that white stuff?
If you see that white stuff coming out of the salmon, you’ve overcooked it. That white stuff is a protein called albumin and if you take a look at my salmon below, you won’t see that.
Making the Spicy Tuscan Sauce
This recipe or similar recipe can be found all over Pinterest and is made with either salmon, shrimp or chicken. I’ve altered it a bit, because there’s too much heavy cream in most of the recipes for my taste. Also, I’ve made the sauce spicy, but you don’t have to do that. You can leave out the heat and just go for creamy.
Some recipes call for a whole cup of heavy cream, and I think if you are making six servings and serving it over a pasta or rice, that makes sense. You can add all the heavy cream you desire, but I’ve switched out some of the heavy cream for broth and thickened with my xanthan gum gel.
The basics of the sauce include butter, heavy cream, onion, white wine, broth, sun dried tomatoes (optional) bomba sauce, spinach and my favorite keto friendly or grain free thickener
This recipe is for four servings. When I first made this, I only made two salmon filets, but saved the remaining sauce for the next day and it was enough for two more salmon filets.
How to Reduce the Heavy Cream with Xanthan Gum
Since a recipe like this generally calls for a cup of heavy cream, you might consider using my tip for thickening the sauce. I only use 1/4 cup heavy cream, 3/4 cup broth (or water) and tablespoon of a xanthan gum gel.
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What to Serve with Spicy Tuscan Salmon
You can always serve spicy Tuscan Salmon over pasta, rice, mashed potatoes. Keto options include cauliflower rice or spaghetti squash.
Salmon is super healthy, full of omega 3’s and I hope you add this recipe to your rotation frequently. Let me know if you do.
The first time I made anything called “tuscan,” it was with a shrimp dish. They are very similar and you could easily replace the salmon in this recipe with shrimp, but I’ll soon be posting how to do that. You will want to cook the shrimp on top of the stove very quickly and then set aside while making the sauce, so as not to overcook the shrimp.
Keto Friendly
This dish is obviously low carb and keto friendly. You can cut out the sun-dried tomatoes which account for about 3 carbs in the recipe. You can add more heavy cream if you desire. This dish has a lot of flexibility.
More Salmon Recipes from Spinach Tiger
Spicy Mayonnaise Salmon with Bomba Sauce
Pasta with Salmon, Mediterranean Style (low carb option)
Ginger Roasted Salmon with Orange Roasted Beets
You might want to make this dish with shrimp.
Spicy Tuscan Salmon
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or olive oil
- 4 salmon filets
Tuscan Cream Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons minced onion
- 1/2 cup broth (or water)
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon bomba sauce or sprinkle red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
- 2 handfuls spinach leaves
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gel or use more heavy cream
Xanthan Gel
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Gather all ingredients before cooking salmon. While salmon is finishing in oven, you can make the sauce.
Cook Salmon
- Season salmon with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in pan that will go from stovetop into oven on medium heat.
- Once oil is hot, place salmon in pan, skin side down, cook on medium for five minutes.
- Turn over and place in oven for about 4 minutes. Salmon should be at 125 degrees F.
Tuscan Sauce
- I used a 10 inch non stick pan to make sauce. Start with melting butter in pan.
- Smash garlic cloves with knife. Saute until just golden. Remove garlic. Add in minched onion and cook until softened.
- Add broth and wine and cook a few minutes to evaporate wine. If you are going to use a full cup of heavy cream instead of a 1/4 as I did, you can skip adding broth and xanthan gum gel. If you want to reduce the amount of heavy cream, add broth and gel.
- Add chopped sun dried tomatoes.
- Add in heavy cream and parmesan cheese.
- Add in bomba sauce or red chili flakes.
- Add in spinach leaves. They will wilt immediately.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- By this time salmon should be done. Add salmon to the pan and spoon sauce over filets.
- Serve immediately.
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This is delicious. I don’t see in the recipe when the parmesan cheese is supposed to be added. I just threw it in towards the end and it came out great.
Thanks for letting me know that Danielle. I added it.
Could you tell me how long the Xanthan Gel lasts, and how to store it? What is the benefit of making it into a gel compared to just adding it in as a powder? Also, what else can I use it in?
Thank you in advance
The gel should last at least a couple of weeks, but I use it up fairly fast. Making it into a gel makes it easier to incorporate into a sauce. You can make a smaller amount with a teaspoon to 2/3 water.