Creamy salmon pasta (healthy too!)

What you'll need – Ingredients

Pasta. If you follow the Mediterranean Diet it's best to use whole grain pasta to make this recipe extra healthy.

Cooked salmon. It can be pan-seared, baked in the oven or air-fried. If you lack time, you can also use salmon from a can.

Tomatoes. They provide freshness, sweetness and juiciness. Cherry tomatoes are best for this recipe because if you cut them in half they will not lose much of their juice. If you use regular tomatoes I suggest you chop them and place them in a strainer for 5-10 minutes.

Chopped red onion. Please try not to omit this since it flavors the sauce beautifully.

Chopped parsley or dill or chives. Herbs are almost always used in Mediterranean cuisine not only for their flavor but also for their health benefits. You can use one of them or a mix.

Dried oregano. Dried oregano is more readily available but fresh will also do.

Capers. They pair perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. If you don't have capers you can also use sliced black olives or chopped pickles. These quick pickled onions will also do.

Olive oil. For this recipe it's best to use extra virgin olive oil.

White miso. White miso transforms the yogurt-based sauce and flavors the salmon beautifully. I don't suggest using darker types of miso because the flavor will be too intense.

Greek strained yogurt (full fat or 2%). I use Greek yogurt in may recipes, like this baby potato salad. This type of yogurt is extra thick and full of protein. If you can't find Greek strained yogurt you can use regular yogurt or Labneh mixed with a bit of pasta water.

For salmon in the oven or the air-fryer:

Please visit this article about baked or air-fryed salmon.

How to make the healthy and creamy yogurt & miso sauce

If your miso is not very soft it can be difficult to be completely mixed with yogurt or other ingredients. That's why it's important to first mix it with a small quantity of yogurt until homogenized, and then add the rest of the yogurt.

Once a smooth mixture is formed, add the chopped onion, the herbs, the capers and the olive oil.

Some notes about the sauce:

Greek strained yogurt is thicker than normal yogurt but how much can vary depending on the brand. I usually add 2-3 tablespoons of pasta water to thin it out. If you use regular yogurt you may not need to add the pasta water.

Don't skip the chopped onion and the dried oregano. They make the sauce perfectly savory and pair perfectly with the salmon.

The pasta should be warm but not very hot when mixed with the sauce. This is for two reasons.

First, it's for preserving the probiotics of the miso and the yogurt.

Secondly, if the pasta is hot it will absorb some of the moisture of the sauce making the dish seem less creamy.

What type of pasta is best for this salmon recipe?

Any short-length pasta like penne, fusilli, farfalle, macaroni will do (however, I've also made this with linguine and spaghetti and it was still delicious).

Whole wheat pasta works really well with this recipe but you can also use regular pasta or gluten-free pasta (if you follow a GF diet).

If you want to make this dish even healthier you can use lentil or chickpea pasta. I personally don't prefer this type of pasta because I find the flavor weird.