With flaky salmon, a creamy and citrusy cilantro sauce, and a bright veggie-packed salad, our Cilantro-Lime Salmon with Tomato-Avocado Salsa is a quick and healthy dinner that’s perfect for busy weeknights.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Cilantro-Lime Salmon Recipe Ingredients
- Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Our Oven-Baked Salmon Recipe
- Recipe Tips
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Favorite Easy Baked Salmon Recipes
- Cilantro Lime Salmon Bake with Tomato Avocado Salsa Recipe
This recipe is…
Cooking fish and other seafood can be a little intimidating. What if it’s undercooked? Or, worse…what if that pricey piece of delicate fish is overcooked, dry, and inedible?
But our recipe for Cilantro-Lime Salmon proves just how quick, easy, and foolproof cooking fish can be. First, you blend up a quick and citrusy cilantro sauce, which gets poured over the salmon before popping it into the oven. As the oven does its work, you toss together an easy fresh salad of tomatoes, avocado, and more bright cilantro, which gets tumbled on top of the fish once it comes out of the oven perfectly cooked, moist, and flaky.
Packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids from the salmon, and vitamins from all the veggies and herbs, the fast-and-fresh oven-baked salmon recipe is on the table in just 25 minutes — and without a bunch of pots and pans to clean up.
Once you see how oven-baking can take the guesswork out of cooking fish, add this recipe to your regular rotation along with more weeknight-friendly baked fish recipes like our Incredible Baked Red Snapper, Herb Crusted Salmon & Potato Bake, Easy Tilapia, and Baked Halibut Sheet Pan Dinner.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A quick, easy, and totally foolproof way to make salmon!
- All three elements (the fish, cilantro sauce, and tomato-avocado salad/salsa) come together with just 10 minutes of prep and 25 minutes total
- The complete fish + veg dinner has just 617 calories per serving, and 37 grams of protein
Cilantro-Lime Salmon Recipe Ingredients
This oven-baked salmon recipe has three main components. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Salmon – salmon is obviously the star of the show in this recipe, so you’ll want to find high-quality, fresh salmon to use. We’ve used a whole salmon filet here, but you can also use smaller portions of salmon if needed.
- Cilantro-lime sauce – next up is the cilantro lime sauce. We chose to make our own creamy version with cilantro, a bit of green onion, lime juice, and mayo. However, if you want to skip that step, you can easily substitute this store-bought cilantro lime dressing instead.
- Tomato avocado salad – the final component of this dish is the tomato avocado salad, which really makes it feel like something special. You can make it while the salmon is baking by just halving some cherry tomatoes, slicing a red onion, chopping cilantro, dicing an avocado, and mixing it all together with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Fish – if you’re not a fan of salmon, flaky white fish like cod and halibut would be great substitutes. But you’ll want to adjust the baking time depending on its thickness: 10 minutes per inch is a good general rule of thumb.
- Herbs – other soft-stemmed herbs like basil, parsley, or tarragon would all be delicious instead of the cilantro.
- Citrus – feel free to swap in lemon for the lime.
- Veggies – our tomato-avocado salad with onions is easily adaptable. Just swap in other raw veggies (cucumber would be delicious), or add leftover vegetables that have already been cooked, like sautéed green beans.
How to Make Our Oven-Baked Salmon Recipe
Here’s how to get this fresh and healthy dinner on the table in 25 minutes flat!
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Make a quick green sauce by blitzing the cilantro, lime juice, and other sauce ingredients together in a blender.
Step 2: Place the salmon filet on a rimmed baking sheet, then season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the salmon, then bake for 13-15 minutes, until it flakes easily with a fork.
Step 3: While the salmon is baking, place all ingredients for the tomato avocado salad in a large bowl and toss to combine.
Step 4: Pour the tomato avocado salad over the salmon and serve!
Recipe Tips
- Fish – if using smaller portions of salmon instead of a large fillet, cook the pieces for 6-7 minutes, until the salmon flakes easily with a fork.
- Dressing – if desired, you can substitute ¾-cup store-bought cilantro lime dressing for the homemade dressing recipe.
How to Serve
Serve the fish with cilantro sauce straight from the oven, topped with the tomato-avocado salsa.
You can eat it as-is, or alongside rice, Cauliflower Rice, or Lemon Arugula Salad.
How to Store and Reheat
If you find yourself with leftovers, store the dish in an airtight container for one or two days.
There are two options for eating those leftovers: either you can eat it cold (over some greens with some extra dressing and the tomato avocado salsa would be delicious). Or, gently reheat the salmon so it doesn’t dry out by putting it in an oven-safe glass container, covering the container with foil, and reheating at 275°F for 5-10 minutes, until the fish is just warmed through.
Frequently Asked Questions
While there’s no single best method to cook salmon, we like this easy and foolproof oven-baked recipe that’s easier than grilling or searing on the stovetop. The key to perfect cooked salmon is to make sure that you don’t overcook it. In this recipe, we call for baking the salmon at 375 F for 13-15 minutes. This will result in a medium salmon. When you pull it out of the oven, you should see that the sauce has browned slightly, and when you put a fork in it it should easily flake apart and still be a deep pink color. If you decide to use smaller salmon fillets for this recipe, you can reduce the cooking time to about seven minutes.
If you see some strange-looking white stuff on the surface of your cooked salmon, don’t fret! That’s a harmless protein called albumin that starts as a liquid in raw salmon, then coagulates and becomes semi-solid during the cooking process. While it’s a bit unappetizing, the protein is perfectly safe and doesn’t affect the flavor of the fish.
Can you reheat salmon? Yes, you can… although it might not be the best way to eat your leftover fish. Because fish can dry out so easily when cooked twice, we recommend eating leftovers cold in a salad or sandwich. But if you do want to reheat the salmon, cook it in an oven-safe dish at 275 degrees for 5-10 minutes, until the fish is just warmed through.
More Favorite Easy Baked Salmon Recipes
If you tried this Cilantro-Lime Salmon, or any other recipe on the Fed & Fit website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Cilantro Lime Salmon Bake with Tomato Avocado Salsa
Ingredients
For the Cilantro Lime Sauce*
- ½ cup avocado oil mayo
- ⅓ cup fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons sliced green onion
- 2 tablespoons lime juice, about 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons full-fat coconut milk, may also use water
For the Salmon
- 1, 1½-pound whole salmon filet
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
For the tomato avocado salad
- 1 avocado, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Blend all ingredients for the cilantro lime sauce until smooth, then set aside.
- Place the salmon filet on a rimmed baking sheet, then season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the salmon, then bake for 13-15 minutes, until it flakes easily with a fork.
- While the salmon is baking, place all ingredients for the tomato avocado salad in a large bowl and toss to combine.
- Pour the tomato avocado salad over the salmon and serve!
Recipe Notes
- If desired, you can substitute 3/4 cup storebought cilantro lime dressing
- If using smaller portions of salmon instead of a large filet, cook for 6-7 minutes, until the salmon flakes easily with a fork
Nutrition
Excellent salmon recipe! This is good even without the avocado salad, but with cherry tomatoes from the garden, I won’t skip the salad. One tip: for the avocado salad, mix the olive oil and salt, and then toss that with the other ingredients. My son added the ingredients as they were listed. The salt did not mix in well, and those who served from the top of the bowl got a few very salty mouthfulls.
Glad you liked this one, Mary! Thank you for sharing!
The taste is amazing! Is the sauce supposed to be on the thinner or thicker side? Mine was pretty thin, still tasted great. I might cut back on the coconut milk next time for a slightly thicker sauce!
Mine was thin enough to run off the side of the salmon just a tad, but not super thin. It’s definitely not so thick that you need a utensil to spread it over the salmon with. I hope that helps!!
This salmon recipe is AMAZING! I saw it being made on the Fed and Fit Instagram story and knew I had to make it. It was a hit for my hubby and I! We will be making this all summer long!
Yay! So glad you guys enjoyed this, Meredith!
Think greek yogurt could sub for mayo? I’m not a mayo person but this looks fab!
We haven’t tried it, so we can’t say for sure, but I think it’ll work!
Making this for the second time today. Waiting for it to come out of the oven.. seriously drooling in anticipation because it was SO AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS the first time.
Wahoo!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Richelle!
Wahoo!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Richelle!
This salmon is fresh and so tasteful. Love it