Seared Salmon with Lemon-Dijon Sauce
plus Garlic Couscous & Roasted Carrots
- Wheat
- Fish
- Milk
Looking for a meal that’s light and bright but still supremely satisfying? This salmon dish is all that and more. You’ll pan-sear the fillets, then place atop a bed of garlicky toasted couscous. Drizzle with a tangy mustard-lemon sauce, swirled with butter and as much zest as you please, then plate it all up with sweet roasted carrots to round out this simple, delicious dish.
Ingredients
12 ounce
Carrots
2 clove
Garlic
1 unit
Lemon
2.5 ounce
Israeli Couscous
(Contains: Wheat)
1 unit
Veggie Stock Concentrate
10 ounce
Skin-on Salmon
(Contains: Fish)
2 teaspoon
Dijon Mustard
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
5 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
½ teaspoon
Sugar
2.5 tablespoon
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry produce. • Trim, peel, and cut carrots on a diagonal into ½-inch-thick pieces. Peel and mince or grate garlic. Zest and quarter lemon.
• Toss carrots on a baking sheet with a large drizzle of oil, salt, and pepper. • Roast on top rack until golden brown and tender, 20-25 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a small pot over medium-high heat. Add couscous, half the garlic, and a big pinch of salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until couscous is toasted and garlic is fragrant, 1-2 minutes. • Add stock concentrate and ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4 servings). Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook couscous until tender, 6-8 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• While couscous cooks, pat salmon* dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a large, preferably nonstick, pan over medium-high heat. Add salmon to pan, skin sides down. Cook salmon until skin is crisp, 5-7 minutes. • Flip and cook until cooked through, 1-2 minutes more. Turn off heat; transfer to a plate. Wipe out pan and let cool slightly.
• Dice 2 TBSP butter (4 TBSP for 4 servings) into ½-inch pieces. • In a small bowl, combine mustard, 1 TBSP water, ½ tsp sugar, juice from two lemon wedges, and as much lemon zest as you like. (For 4, use 2 TBSP water, 1 tsp sugar, and juice from four wedges.) • Heat a drizzle of oil in pan used for salmon over medium heat. Add remaining garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, 30-60 seconds. • Whisk in mustard mixture. Add diced butter one piece at a time, whisking constantly, until butter has melted and sauce has thickened, 1-2 minutes more. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• Stir ½ TBSP butter (1 TBSP for 4 servings) into pot with couscous until melted. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired. • Divide couscous and carrots between plates in separate sections. Top couscous with salmon and drizzle salmon with lemon-Dijon sauce. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and any remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Salmon is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 145°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Apr 2026- Flavor: The lemon-Dijon sauce is tangy and delicious, perfectly complementing the salmon without overpowering it. Some found it too acidic or lemony; adjusting lemon juice to taste helps balance the flavors.
- Ease of prep: Simple and quick to prepare with straightforward instructions that come together easily on busy weeknights. The sauce can be tricky and breaks easily; let the pan cool completely before adding butter gradually.
- Suggestions: Use less water for the couscous to avoid it being too watery or mushy. Add extra garlic, herbs like dill or parsley, and consider reducing butter by half to prevent greasiness.
- Leftovers: Salmon doesn't reheat well as leftovers, but the couscous and sauce flavors remain great. Couscous can become dry when reheated, so add a splash of broth when warming up.
Reviews from our home cooks
Insanely delicious. I'd never cooked salmon this way, and it came out looking and tasting professionally made and perfect. The lemon Dijon sauce was delicious and my first time getting a Hello Fresh order with mustard! New ingredient? Fantastic recipe. Soon to be in your "hall of fame," I bet.
Salmon is my favorite. This one is pretty good. I love the Lemon-dijon sauce. I want more! The couscous is yummy and easy. I subbed green beans for carrots, which I love. I would like this one again.
What a treat to have salmon and not pay a premium for it. The lemon Dijon sauce was excellent. Good portions.
The crispy skin made the salmon so good, and I loved the lemon-dijon sauce. I could drink that!
Once again, the couscous with the dinner was delicious! The salmon was perfect and we both thought the lemon dijon was just right
This was my first time making salmon... I like the firm texture, and the lemon dijon sauce was good but otherwise does salmon have any kind of its own flavor...? But at least it wasn't fishy. I would probably make it again, the couscous & carrots went together nicely with the sweetness of the carrots balancing the zest of the lemony sauce.
This dish was delicious, and came together quickly--the perfect weeknight dinner. However, the Lemon-Dijon Sauce did not turn out right. The Dijon mustard did not incorporate with the other ingredients and it did not look good so I did not use it when I ate the meal. Although this was a bummer not to have the recommended sauce pairing, the salmon and veggies turned out amazing without it, and the overall meal was filling and delicious.
If you don't eat salmon regularly, this could be an excellent option! This recipe took longer than expected (~45 minutes) and used more dishes/ utensils than ideal (a sheet tray, a pan, and a pot). If you have an air fryer, the carrots and salmon could easily be cooked in there and the lemon Dijon sauce could be made fresh (more like a vinaigrette/dressing) which would streamline the process and make for less cleanup and a quicker dinner. All in all wholesome and yummy, we cleaned our plates, but probably won't choose this recipe again.
Very good post-workout meal. Tasted great! Unfortunately our two salmon patties, which were the same thickness, were vastly different sizes. One was small and one was large. So we had to fight over who got the larger fillet! Also, even though I'm quite sure I made the sauce correctly, it turned out thin and chunky (yes, the lemon zest and minced garlic create small chunks, but the dijon and butter never really mixed together either; so it tasted fine but looked jarring.)
Needs to come with instructions to descale the salmon - there were scales everywhere. Would have been a terrible eating experience if I didn't know better. Salmon was deliciously fatty and paired well with the lemon-Dijon sauce. This temperature and time frame for roasting carrots really brought out their sweetness.
