These Sockeye Salmon Lettuce Wraps Are My Ideal Sustainable Summer Dinner
What's your ideal summer weeknight dinner? I'm partial to something that comes together quickly, packs bright, seasonal flavors, and has enough protein1 to keep me fueled for the hours of sunlight still ahead. In short: these salmon lettuce wraps.
This recipe calls for sockeye—a delightfully firm, flaky salmon native to the West Coast of North America. It's one of the less expensive types of fish I spotted in my local Whole Foods, coming in at about $20 per pound.
Having recently returned from a trip with Alaska Seafood, I know that this price reflects the fact that sockeye is abundant in Alaska waters right now. Strict state fisheries management laws govern how much time Alaska fishermen can spend catching each type of fish. If populations are too low at any point, that stock is closed to fishing to give it time to rebound. This helps ensure that no one species is ever overharvested, leading to a more sustainable wild fish industry (there are no finfish farms in Alaska).
So far, all signs point to a great year for sockeye populations, so you can feel good tossing this flavorful catch into your cart.
A tangy, sweet slaw is a punchy complement to the rich, oily salmon—which gets cut into strips before cooking to ensure a generous sauce-to-fish ratio. Even if you're not usually a salmon skin fan, I'd encourage you to keep it on for this recipe. Sockeye skin is packed with omega-3s, and it has a very mild taste that practically dissolves in the flavorful sauce.
Without further ado, my go-to summer dinner that will hopefully soon be yours, too:
Spicy-Sweet Salmon Lettuce Wraps With Peach Slaw
Serves 1-2
Ingredients:
Slaw:
- 2 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 peach, diced
- 1 carrot, diced or grated
- ½ shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Lettuce wraps:
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, diced
- ½ shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon mirin
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- A dash of siracha (optional)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ pound sockeye salmon, cut into strips
- Butterhead lettuce or the lettuce cup of your choosing
- Cilantro (for serving)
- Cooked brown rice (for serving)
- Lime wedge (for serving)
Method:
- Make your slaw: Combine the shallot, peach, carrots, and radish (feel free to throw in the greens, too!) in a small bowl and submerge in vinegar. Mix in your sugar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the slaw sit as you prep the rest of the dish.
- Heat your olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add your ginger, garlic, and the remaining half shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant (about 3 minutes).
- Add soy sauce, water, mirin, and rice vinegar. If you like a spicier dish, now is your time to add siracha. Stir to combine and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add cornstarch and stir until the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute.
- Add your salmon strips to the skillet, skin side up.
- Cook salmon in the sauce (stirring the sauce occasionally so it doesn't burn) until it is cooked through and reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees. This will happen pretty quickly—around 3 minutes on each side.
- Divide salmon among your lettuce cups. Top with a generous spoonful of slaw, some cilantro, and a lime squeeze. Serve with rice or the grain of your choosing. Enjoy!
Emma Loewe is the Sustainability and Health Director at mindbodygreen and the author of Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us. She is also the co-author of The Spirit Almanac: A Modern Guide To Ancient Self Care, which she wrote alongside Lindsay Kellner.
Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She's spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.