Salmon with Miso-Honey Sauce

This salmon with miso-honey sauce could not be more simple and easy to make but still tastes like you worked hard. Why? Your tongue senses sweet, sour, salty and bitter. When a dish hits several of theses flavors, it tastes great. This honey-miso sauce is bursting with flavor, has just a few ingredients and requires only a bowl and a whisk to prepare.

Be sure that you read the label when you buy miso. Many contain gluten, usually in the form of barley. White miso is usually gluten-free. The Kyoto Red Miso that I found at my local natural foods store is gluten-free.

Ingredients

• 4, 8 ounce salmon filets
• 3 Tbsp gluten-free miso – Read the label, not all miso is gluten-free
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp warm water
• salt

Make the miso-honey sauce

In a mixing bowl, whisk the miso, honey, rice vinegar and warm water until it is smooth. It should be a pourable consistency. If not, add a teaspoon or two of water and rice vinegar to thin it.

Taste. Depending on the saltiness of your miso, you may want to add salt. Some misos, especially red miso, can be quite salty. If you feel like the sauce needs salt, add a couple of pinches at a time and taste until the sweet and sour flavors really come through.

How to Cook Salmon

Rub the flesh side of each piece of salmon with 1 tsp of the sauce and let sit for 10 minutes. Seafood absorbs flavors very quickly, so more than 15 minutes is not necessary.

Stove-top cooking:

Put a large skillet over a high flame and let it get good and hot. Pat the salmon dry with the paper towel.

Coat the skillet with just a tad of vegetable oil. Place the salmon in the pan skin-side down. Sprinkle some kosher salt on the salmon. Cook for about 4 minutes per side if you like your salmon on the more rare side. I like mine cooked through and it took about 11 minutes total. Depending on the thickness of your salmon, cooking times will vary.

Cook on a gas grill:

Turn the grill to high and allow it to heat up for 5-10 minutes or until the temperature gauge reads 400. Use a rag to rub some sunflower oil (or other high-heat oil) on the grate.

Place the salmon on the grill skin side down, turn the heat to medium-low and cook for 4 minutes. Brush the top with a little oil and flip. Cook about 2-3 minutes for rare or 5-7 minutes for cooked through. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the salmon.

Immediately drizzle the cooked salmon with the miso-honey sauce and serve.