Spice Broiled Salmon with Green Apple Salad – Recipe for broiled salmon with a sweet, golden spice crust topped with a crisp salad made with apples, cucumber and honey. Rosh Hashanah recipe.
Looking for a salmon recipe for a holiday meal? Look no further! This Spice Broiled Salmon with Green Apple Salad is so easy to make, even for a crowd. The Middle Eastern-inspired spice blend melts together with the brown sugar under the broiler, producing a gorgeous caramelized golden-brown crust. A crisp green apple and cucumber salad is served on top, giving the dish an unexpected freshness that goes really well with the spice crust. This recipe has some nice symbolism to it for Rosh Hashanah; the salad contains apples and honey, two traditional foods for the holiday. Likewise, the crust has a bit of brown sugar in it for sweetness. We eat sweet foods during Rosh Hashanah to signify our hope for a sweet new year. It also works for Passover, depending on your personal dietary restrictions (some Jews consider cumin kitniyot).
The majority of the prep time in this recipe comes from chopping up the green apple salad, which is spooned over the fillets after they are broiled. You can make the salad a few hours before serving; it’s best made the same day, but can be made a day ahead if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of crispness. The lemon juice will keep the apples from oxidizing and turning brown.
Here’s a quick tip that will maximize flavor– if you have a spice grinder, grind the coriander from whole seeds, as it will retain a lot more of its flavor than using pre-ground coriander. All spices taste better when ground fresh, however it’s particularly important with coriander if you can swing it. You can use a coffee grinder to grind your spices, just be sure to wash the grinder well before using (so you don’t get a coffee flavor on your salmon crust).
You don’t have to reserve this recipe for Rosh Hashanah. It’s great all year round, and easy enough to work into your weekly meal rotation. Enjoy!
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Spice Broiled Salmon with Green Apple Salad
Ingredients
Salmon
- 6 boneless skinless salmon fillets
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander (fresh ground with a spice or coffee grinder is best)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
- Cooking oil spray
Green Apple Salad
- 1 cup green apples, peeled and seeded, diced small
- 1 cup Persian cucumber, seeded, diced small
- 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons fresh mint, chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
- Pinch kosher salt
NOTES
Instructions
To Make Green Apple Salad
- Place ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir to combine. This salad is best if made right before the salmon is cooked to preserve the crispness of the apples and cucumber; if you're not overly concerned with crispness, you can make this up to a day ahead and store in the refrigerator till ready to serve. The lemon juice will keep the apples from browning.
To Make Spice Broiled Salmon
- Preheat broiler to high. Combine sugar, salt and spices in a medium mixing bowl. Pat salmon filets dry and set aside. Fill the bottom of a baking dish with the spice rub. Dip top side of each salmon filet into the rub to coat with a thin, even layer of spices. Only one side should be coated.Line a baking sheet tray with foil and grease the foil with nonstick cooking oil spray. Place the filets on the foil-lined sheet tray, spiced side facing up. Spray the tops of the filets with a light layer of cooking oil spray.
- Broil on high about 6 inches below the broiler for 4-6 minutes, or to desired doneness. The tops of the filets should look slightly caramelized and glistening. Cooking time will vary based on the thickness of the filet; don't overcook or the salmon will become dry.Use a slotted spoon to top each piece of salmon with a scoop of the Green Apple Salad (the slotted spoon will keep excess liquid from soaking the top of the filet). Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Great combos. I never tried adding apple to salmon but this promises to be a hit.
Hey Tori! I came across this recipe when I was in my first year at University — at the time I couldn’t cook at all and was looking for a recipe to make for my housemates. 10 years later, I love cooking and cook often — this is hands down my favourite recipe still! Everyone who tries this, loves it 🙂 so many family and friends have commented on how they would be very happy if they ordered this at an expensive restaurant! So simple but so effective and delicious. Thank you for sharing this!
So glad to hear this Zara! Thank you for writing. 🙂
This looks like a perfect recipe for cooking salmon in our air fryer. I’m going to try it that way.
Made the apple cucumber salad to go with terryaki salmon and wow was it great ! I didn’t make the slice salmon even tho I really want to, bc my husband doesn’t like food too spicy.
The salad is so easy and really turns the salmon up to eleven !! Lol! Fresh and crisp and great flavors. My husband loved it and proclaimed it was “ a hit”! Will def be making it again.
I served it over jasmine rice. We ate every piece of everything- anything that gets my fam to eat more fish is a big win!! Thank you, tori!!
I only made the salmon as I didn’t have apple or mint on hand. The spice rub was really easy to make and had a great carmelized flavor
I did cook it earlier for Shabbat dinner–but undercooked it so when heating again it wouldn’t overcook. I also used a grill pan on top of the stove instead of broiling and it seemed to work fine. My broiler is kind of iffy…so i tried that….any reason i shouldn’t have cooked it that way…meaning is the taste significantly different?
Hi Sherri, Tori’s assistant Ashley here! Our main reason for broiling this recipe was to create the crispy outer crust. Cooking it on the stove top is just fine, but the results probably won’t be quite the same.
Looks yummy!
this one is a Rosh Hashana favorite, my friends request it every year!
I need something for a pescaterian, so this looks like a winner!
Just about our entire RH soiree is courtesy of Tori. Welcome to join us Lady! Thanks.
Sorry to hear about your friend. Her memory is a Blessing. At this time of year we do need to remember the good in our lives.
Always look to you for every holiday. ( family grown and gone so it is special to have home for holidays). My daughter only wants the green apple salmon for Rosh Hashanah lunch. Need to find ways to do much ahead. How to treat salmon for do ahead? Spice topping put on several hours Ahead. and refrigerated? Afraid brown sugar will liquefy? Your thoughts . No time to experiment. . Making challah bread pudding ( with apples) for dessert. Yummy, homey and less work than apple cake. You have fully integrated yourself into the kitchen. and your follower’s hearts. For a “Shiksa”, You have gone way beyond. I thank you for looking at the traditional and going to a new level, good has gone to Great!,,
Shana Tova, may the New Year bring you and yours joy, health and peace.
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Hi Sasha, best to just put together the dry rub in advance, then add it to the salmon just before you broil it. It only takes a minute to apply the rub. You can also make the apple topping ahead by several hours, it shouldn’t brown much thanks to the addition of lemon juice. Just keep in mind that the longer the topping sits, the less crisp/fresh it will taste. Enjoy, and Shana Tova!
This salmon is my new favorite dinner recipe, the spices are wonderful! Thank you thank you!
I will definitely retry it with your suggestions. Thank you for your reply and your wonderful recipes and site!
Hello!
I make this recipe for the past Rosh Hashana and wonder if I did something wrong. First, it looked gorgeous, just like the photos. I thought it was going to be an explosion of flavor but I found everything really subtle. I mean, the spice crust had to be directly against my tongue for any taste to register. One member of my family asked if I used any flavoring at all.
Now, I wasn’t able to spray the crust with the cooking spray as we often don’t have that as our cookware says not to use it. Was that a critical step? Do you need to use the cooking spray on the spice crust to get the caramelization of the spices?
I love the look and idea of this recipe, but want to up the flavor somewhat. Thank you!
Hi Ilari– the spray oil step is important because it moistens the spices prior to broiling and allows them to “crisp” beneath the broiler; this step also enhances the flavor of the spices. That said, the spice blend should have a lot of flavor even without the oil. As you can see, other readers have commented on just how flavorful this recipe is. My guess is that you may have used old or lower quality spices, which don’t naturally have as much flavor. You might try buying fresher spices and/or grinding whole spices for more flavor. You might also try dredging the whole salmon fillet in the spices a couple of hours before broiling as a dry rub marinade to up the flavor. Hope it turns out better for you next time!
Love so many of your recipes. Your instructions with pictures make everything easy and non fail. have question on salmon recipes.
Green apple spiced made last year for Yom Kippur dinner. This year wanted to make pomegranate molasses salmon for Rosh Hashanah lunch, Why is green apple salmon skinless Does it make a difference if using with skin? If I remember I used with skin put in hot pan skin down for A 1or 2 minutes and then immediately under broiler. Need tips to make ahead. Can I brown one side like several hours before and then finish cooking just before serving? Serving 14 people
Hi Sandra, I made the green apple spice broiled salmon skinless because of the apple salad, so that you could take whole bites of salmon with salad without the skin interfering. On the pomegranate salmon it doesn’t really matter if you use skin on or off; skin on will make the fillet a little more “stable” and less prone to crumbling/breakage, but otherwise it doesn’t really matter. I’m not sure about browning the fish ahead of time– 30-45 minutes ahead might be ok, but longer than that and I would start to worry about spoilage. You should definitely finish the salmon just before serving if possible.