Quick Miso-Glazed Salmon

On any given day, there are about a zillion things that can derail family dinner  — where do we begin? — and I’ve probably heard about every one of those things from you guys these past few years. How do I deal with the fussy toddler? The spouse who won’t help? My coworker who makes me feel bad about leaving the office before him? The relentlessness of after-school activities and all the schlepping it entails? This last one always stumped me. It seemed of all the obstacles one could face, this one was something we could control instead of complain about. What I didn’t know until fairly recently, though, was how broadly defined the term “after-school” has become. We just got the soccer schedule for the spring and one of my daughters has a practice that ends at 7:30, at a field that’s a 20-minute drive away. That’s a dinner deal-breaker if there ever was one. Well, unless you have this recipe in the repertoire. Cause you can have this on the table in the time it takes for your midfielder to walk in the door, change out of her jersey, get washed up, and return to the table where she belongs.

Simple Miso-Glazed Salmon
A big reason why I could get this on the table so fast was because I had a stash of the glaze in the fridge already. Making the glaze definitely qualifies as the kind of task your bright-eyed morning self can do ahead of time — it takes only a minute or two if you have all the ingredients on hand.  Your beaten-down evening self will thank you later.

1 1/3 pound salmon
2 tablespoons white miso*
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
squeeze of lime

In a small bowl, mix together everything but the lime. Slather the miso glaze on salmon and broil for 10-12 minutes until it gets golden on top. (Watch it carefully. The sugar in the glaze will burn.) Serve with lime wedges.

While the salmon was broiling, I briefly sauteed some snap peas in a drop of sesame oil, then tossed them with a sliced radish, sea salt, a squeeze of lime, and chives. (Scallions would be better than chives, but I didn’t have any on hand.)

*You can buy white miso at Asian specialty stores or better supermarkets like Whole Foods. It keeps in the fridge for ages.

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22 Comments

Todd

Great recipe– I do like how simple it is, and I feel like Asian-style flavors like this really complement the fish. Thanks.

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Katie

I was planning on cooking salmon tonight, but hadn’t settled on a recipe. But I have to tell you that miso has always been a page turner ingredient. Wish me luch!

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Beth

I love recipes that let you plan ahead. Luckily I only have myself and the boyfriend to corral these days, but there are still some nights when we get home at 8:30 and the siren call of takeout is just a little too tempting. I like having parts of dinner already prepped in the fridge both to make my life easier and to dull the urge to order pizza.

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Fiona

This glaze seems delicious, but is there a way to make this salmon without broiling it? I’d like to make this for my parents but our oven/broiler is permanently broken.

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kim

I was stumped all morning yesterday knowing we had some school meetings that wouldn’t get us home till 6:30 and a son leaving the house at 7:15 for a commitment. How could I feed everyone a decent meal? I swung by the market, picked up cod, brocolli, ww baguette, and had my son preheat the oven to 400 for me. I sprinked the fish and brocolli, along with grape tomatoes, with EVOO, salt/pepper, roasted it all on one pan, and 20 minutes later, we all had a colorful, healthy dinner! DALS was my total motivator and inspiration to not give up and get a pizza — thank you!!

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Janna

I’m starting to get nervous about my kids growing up, it’s hard enough now. This sounds delicious! Perfect for the times my husband is stuck on I-95 and I’m not sure when he’ll get home.

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Katie

I had to let you know that your recipe was a success! My husband picked up some miso ( no longer a page turner ingredient) at Whole Foods with the salmon. And I cooked your exact dinner after I arrived home with my youngest from speech therapy. Please note that we have always either done take out or frozen food on speech therapy night if I were the one taking him to the appointment. Anyway, dinner was on the table in no time AND everything was eaten.. BY EVERYONE. A miracle. Once I showed the boys that there were peas inside the suspicious green pods, they were sold! So we all four ate all of the same delicious meal that we all loved!!!! Thank you so much for that first.

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Jenny

Wow, Katie, that story warms my heart! I love it. Thank you for letting me know — and now that you have a pot of miso in the fridge, do it on speech theraby night again next week!

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Sadaf

I love quick tips for morning prep that help me get dinner ready quicker in the evening. Awesome! I’m also trying to get over my salmon dislike, so this recipe is an added bonus.. (kids love it, Dh does too.. I’m the only hold out..but I keep trying. I can handle Asian flavors with it, and also a salmon with tarragon and butter..)

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lesli

ok, maybe a silly question…but can’t find White Miso, and I live in boulder with a HUGE Whole Foods. Is it a paste, a powder??? the only think I saw was white miso soup. Help!! My salmon needs to get dressed for dinner!
thank you !!!

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Teresa

Jenny, I’m going to get Brian from preschool and off to the market for salmon and the ingredients I need for this recipe. So many good things on DALS site!!

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ellen

My Whole Foods only had choice of red or barley miso (or very expensive large jar of white). Is barley the same as white, essentially? I am sure it will be fine, but just curious….

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June2

White miso is ubiquitous in health food stores or at Asian markets. It’s in the refrigerator section. It’s great for delicate flavors like fish because it is mild and salty/sweet.

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inthefastlane

Trying to find miso in Indiana may prove more difficult that I would have thought. I had to improvise quite a bit (soy sauce, brown sugar, white wine I had in the fridge…) but never quite found the right ingredient to thicken up the glaze. So my sauce was more of a pour over sauce than a glaze.

However, salmon, which is always popular in my house, was even more of a winner that usual. I sauteed asparagus and had bread as my sides. I always buy lots of salmon, thinking we can have left0vers for sandwhiches and wraps for the next days’ lunches, but I never ever have leftovers.

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Lauren

Thanks for that idea, April! Was perusing the comments and was sold on the recipe as soon as I considered the toaster idea. Trying to keep the oven off til September in sunny Southern California 🙂 The meal was a huge hit for my husband and me- even though there’s just the two of us I made the whole batch of miso and used the remaining to coat carrots (used Mark Bittman’s method for quick-glazed carrots- only using 1/3 c water to boil 1 lb). This got tagged with a”winner” tag in forkchop (my online recipe box)!

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Debbie

Hello,
I am in the midst of my third week of the 30-30 challenge! Thank you for inspiring me to try new dinners, it has been liberating!
I have the same question as above regarding the white miso. I ended up buying powdered soup packets, but my glaze was very thin. It still tasted great, although the kids only ate one and two bites, I’m going to keep trying with this one.
Thank you!

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Debbie

Hello,
I am in the midst of my third week of the 30-30 challenge! Thank you for inspiring me to try new dinners, it has been liberating!
I have the same question as above regarding the white miso. I ended up buying powdered soup packets, but my glaze was very thin. What is the white miso, is it a paste, a sauce? My large Philadelphia whole foods only had powdered soup packets. It still tasted great, although the kids only ate one and two bites, I’m going to keep trying with this one.
Thank you!

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Regina

Debbie – Essene Market on South 4th Street in Queen Village (Philadelphia) has a few different varieties of miso paste. Just ask the cashier at the front where you can locate it. I’ve been purchasing it there for the topping of a warm apple cobbler I’ve made the past few years.

Jenny – I’m new to DALS and thrilled to change the daily non-dinner sadness in my household (husband, one-year-old baby). Thank you for the inspiration!

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