Pan roasted salmon/lentil pasta, green pesto and roasted fennel

Name: Pan roasted salmon/lentil pasta, green pesto and roasted fennel
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 300 g salmon fillet skin on; 170 g red lentil pasta; 2 fennel; 50 g spinach; 20 g pine nuts; 1 clove garlic; 15 ml olive oil; 20 g parmesan; 2 tbsp lemon; 1 pinch salt; 1 pinch black pepper; 1 tbsp rapeseed oil; 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Fittest Chef @fittestchef

Belfast

As much I don't like to repeat, what I cook at home this is an exception. Red lentil pasta is one of my favourites. Combined with red or green pesto is a winner.
This type of pasta is low in carbs (31 g) and high in protein (16 g). On top of that is gluten free and it's high in iron and fibre. It tastes similar to normal pasta with the lovely nutty flavour. My personal preference is to pair it up with pan roasted salmon. This time I served it with roasted fennel.
Its quite simple dish to cook and it takes about 40 min to do it. From the other side it might be quite tricky as it's all about the timings. It's good to be in the control of whats happening :)
The whole dish has 600 kcal. 46 carbs/49 protein and 28 g mainly unsaturated fat.

Fittest Chef @fittestchef

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Ingredients

2 servings

300 gsalmon fillet skin on
170 gred lentil pasta
2fennel
50 gspinach
20 gpine nuts
1 clovegarlic
15 mlolive oil
20 gparmesan
2 tbsplemon
1 pinchsalt
1 pinchblack pepper
1 tbsprapeseed oil
1 pinchground nutmeg

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Steps

1

Prepare all of the ingredients. Using a knife scale the salmon. Cut the salmon into two 150 g fillets. Grade the parmesan finally. Prep the fennel by quartering it and cutting the core out (the hard and firm part of it). Wash the fennel, spinach and basil.
2

Place prepped fennel on the roasting tray in the pre heated oven at 180 °C. It should take about 20 min to roast it.
3

Using the kitchen towel dry off the salmon skin. Heat up the frying pan (with the metal handle) with a little bit of cooking oil. Pan needs to be smoking hot. Place the salmon on the pan skin down. Sprinkle the salmon with the salt. Sear the fish for about 30 - 40 sec on medium/high heat just from one side then place the pan into the oven keeping it 180 °C. It should take about 15 min to cook it.
4

In the meantime on the dry frying pan toast the pine nuts. Do it on low heat until golden/golden brown. Add chopped garlic to it toward the end and cook it for few seconds
5

Place the pine nuts, garlic, spinach, nutmeg, 1 tbsp lemon and olive oil into the food processor.
6

In a medium pot bring water to the boil. Add pinch of salt to it
7

It's all about timings now. Throw pasta into the boiling water when salmon is in the oven for about 10 min. It takes 6 min to cook the pasta.
8

When pasta is nearly ready(5 min after throwing into the water) using ladle take about 100 ml of pasta water and add it to the food processor. Blend it. Season it with salt and black pepper.
9

When pasta is ready drain the water off. Bring pasta back to the pot and mix it with the pesto sauce.
10

Serve