This Easy Lemon Salmon Recipe is perfect for a quick dinner. Learn how to make lemon salmon in one pan that is healthy and delicious!
This easy Lemon Garlic Salmon Recipe is the perfect thing to make for a busy weeknight dinner!
Done in under 30 minutes and made with less than 15 ingredients (most of which you probably already have in your fridge/pantry!) it’s easy and delicious.
This easy meal is a complete dinner with potatoes and veggies. It’s also made on one pan which is perfect for a quick clean up!
For more salmon recipes, check out these Healthy Salmon Recipes.
Why we love this Healthy Salmon Recipe:
There’s a lot to love about this easy lemon garlic salmon recipe! Here’s why it’s one of our favorite dinners:
- Protein Packed/ Veggie Loaded: This sheet pan dinner is the perfect meal. It has protein and fat from the salmon, healthy carbs from the potatoes, and veggies from the green beans!
- Easy to Customize: You can easily substitute pretty much any of the ingredients in this recipe to fit your diet! Easily made low carb, add more veggies, switch out the seasonings – it’s up to you!
- One pan & less than 30 minutes: This lemon garlic salmon is made in under 30 minutes on one pan. Line your pan with foil for super easy clean up! For more quick recipes, check out these Quick Dinners!
Baked Lemon Salmon ingredients
To make lemon garlic salmon you’ll only need a few fridge and pantry staples. There are tons of substitutions for this recipe, look for the green shaded substitutions box below if you’re missing an ingredient.
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- honey
- garlic powder, dried dill, ground ginger, dried parsley, paprika, salt and pepper
- salmon fillet
- baby potatoes
- green beans
A citrus juicer will also be helpful to have!
Easy Salmon Lemon Recipe substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute olive oil for melted butter
Honey: You can substitute honey for maple syrup. We don’t recommend cooking with any of the fake ‘zero sugar’ sweeteners.
Spices: If you don’t have one of the spices you can sub in a little bit more of the others. Dried spices can be subbed for fresh spices.1 tsp dried spices = 2 tsp fresh spices.
Salmon: If you don’t have a full salmon filet and instead are using individual salmon fillets your cook time may be reduced by 1-2 minutes
Potatoes: You can sub potatoes with cauliflower for a low carb/keto friendly option. You can also chop russet or sweet potatoes into smaller pieces if you don’t have baby potatoes
Green Beans: Do not use frozen or canned green beans. You can substitute asparagus for green beans
Add Ins: These Sockeye Salmon Recipe and Lemon Ginger Turmeric Salmon are both similar, but have different mix ins!
How to make Lemon Salmon
Making Lemon Garlic Salmon is SO easy! It takes less than 10 minutes of prep time and barely any work. Here’s how to make lemon garlic salmon:
- Cut the baby potatoes in half. Microwave potatoes for 2-3 minutes, until fork tender.
- While potatoes heat, in a small bowl mix together olive oil, lemon, honey, and spices.
- Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the salmon fillet in the middle of the sheet. Add green beans and potatoes to the baking sheet.
- Drizzle the olive oil/spice mixture over the top of the salmon, green beans, and potatoes. You can toss the potatoes/green beans so they are evenly coated.
- Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then broil for 3-5 minutes until the baked salmon is lightly browned.
How long does it take salmon to bake in oven?
Lemon garlic salmon needs about 15-20 minutes to cook. This recipe takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
How to serve Lemon Salmon
This lemon salmon dinner is a complete meal! It has potatoes and green beans that bake right on the pan with the salmon for a delicious dinner.
You could serve the salmon with extra veggies like the ones listed above, and with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
What goes well with salmon and lemon?
This lemon salmon is a complete meal on its own but you could easily pair it with other sides. Here are some sides that would go great with this baked salmon:
- Spinach Strawberry Salad
- Salmon Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
- Oven Roasted Potatoes Recipe (Crispy)
- Green Beans Almondine
- Corn Tomato Avocado Salad
Easy Lemon Salmon Recipe storage
Storing: This salmon with lemon will last up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Freezing: We don’t recommend freezing fish. It doesn’t reheat well.
Reheating: This recipe is best eaten fresh. We personally don’t love the taste of reheated fish, so we recommend eating hot out of the oven. If you are going to eat the baked salmon the next day you can reheat it in the toaster oven or oven. Do not microwave it!
Salmon Recipe with Lemon FAQs
Fresh salmon is always the best salmon to buy but frozen also works great. Our favorite salmon is wild caught sockeye salmon. Wild caught fresh salmon is always far more expensive so I usually opt to find the best available and ask my local fish market experts their opinion. ButcherBox salmon is a great pre-portioned way to buy frozen, quality salmon.
The easiest way to tell if salmon is fresh is the smell. If your salmon smells very “fishy” then it could have been sitting around for a while. Ask your local fish market to get you the freshest fish available. Most markets can tell you where/when the fish was caught and put out for sale which is the safest way to tell if salmon is fresh.
You know your lemon garlic salmon is done when it is a bit firm and flakey to the touch. The color of the baked salmon changes a bit giving a more orange hue.
Cooking salmon in foil is fine, parchment paper works well too. Cooking salmon is very simple, grab a piece of foil and a baking sheet, throw some olive oil down salmon on top, pour your lemon-honey marinade over the top, and bake!
Any acid (lemon, lime, or orange) is a natural tenderizer for meat and fish. Fresh lemon also adds a tremendous amount of flavor to the baked salmon.
Salmon turns white with lemon/when cooked because it is releasing a protein in the fish called albumin. This is perfectly normal and fine to eat.
It’s entirely up to you whether it’s better to fry or bake salmon. I personally like to bake salmon. I think it gets crispier and tastes better baked vs fried!
It’s best to leave salmon in lemon juice for less than 3 hours. Any more than 3 hours and the fish can start to breakdown. 2 hours is more than enough time for salmon to absorb the flavor of whatever you’re marinating it in!
Yes, you can eat salmon raw. We don’t recommend eating this recipe raw.
Other healthy one pan dinner recipes:
We love easy one pan dinner recipes! Here are some of our favorite healthy sheet pan dinners.
Easy Salmon Lemon Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice juice of one lemon
- 1/2 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 lb salmon filet
- 2 cups baby potatoes
- 2 cups green beans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Cut the baby potatoes in half. Microwave potatoes for 2-3 minutes, until fork tender.
- While potatoes heat, in a small bowl mix together olive oil, lemon, honey and spices.
- Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Lay salmon filet in the middle of the sheet. Add green beans and potatoes to the baking sheet.
- Drizzle the olive oil/spice mixture over the top of the salmon, green beans and potatoes. You can toss the potatoes/green beans so they are evenly coated.
- Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then broil for 3-5 minutes until the salmon is lightly browned.
Sherri Henschel says
I made this with fresh caught salmon, it was amazing!!!
So delish and flavorful!
Will definitely be making this one again!
Liz Marino says
So glad you enjoyed it, Sherri!
Cici says
Excellent. So delish.
Sarah says
This was so good and easy. The sauce is delicious. I love a good sheet pan recipe, quick cleanup is a bonus. We’ll definitely be making this again!
Beverly says
Delicious! Made it for dinner last night. Everyone enjoyed it!
Dasha says
I am writing this review as I’m having this for lunch right now. I came across this recipe last week and had to make it. It turned out sooo good! I added fresh dill to the potatoes only since my husband doesn’t like dill. The lemon juice added a great flavor to the veggies! And fresh garlic is always a better idea in my opinion.
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked it, Dasha! Thank you so much!
Jessica says
Looks so good! Putting this on my menu for this week ☺️
The Clean Eating Couple says
Hope you love it!
Trudi says
Yes I DO know that I am a bit of a freak when it some to using aluminum foil I don’t like the idea a bit . I use parchment paper ‘ but the recipe sounds yummy
The Clean Eating Couple says
You don’t have to use the aluminum foil.