Lemon-Poached Salmon with Roasted Sweet Potato Fingers
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) skinless salmon fillet, pin-boned, fresh or fully thawed
- 1 medium sweet potato, approx. 300 g (10½ oz), peeled
- 2 slices unwaxed lemon
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive or rapeseed oil
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh dill (optional)
- Cold water for poaching — no salt added
Method
- 1. Heat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan / 400°F and line a baking tray.
- 2. Cut the sweet potato into finger-length batons about 1.5 cm thick, toss with 1 tbsp of the oil and roast for 22–25 minutes, until a baton squashes easily between your thumb and forefinger.
- 3. Meanwhile lay the salmon in a small pan with the lemon slices and bay leaf and cover with cold unsalted water by about 1 cm.
- 4. Bring to the barest simmer (never a rolling boil) and poach gently for 8–10 minutes, until the flesh is opaque throughout and reaches 63°C at the thickest point.
- 5. Lift the salmon out, discard the lemon and bay, and let it cool to lukewarm.
- 6. Flake the salmon with your fingers rather than a fork, running each flake between finger and thumb to feel for stray pin bones.
- 7. Press the warm flakes gently into soft strips and drizzle with the remaining oil and the dill. Test a strip between your own thumb and forefinger before it goes on the tray — it should squash without resistance; if it feels firm or rubbery it has been over-poached, so moisten it with a little more oil and press it flatter.
- 8. Serve alongside the sweet potato batons. Refrigerate leftovers within 1 hour, use within 24 hours, and reheat only once until piping hot before cooling to lukewarm to serve.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Press the flakes into soft finger-length strips about 8 cm long and two adult fingers wide, and cut the sweet potato into batons of the same size — long enough that a piece sticks out above baby's closed fist for the whole-hand (palmar) grasp they use at this stage.
9–12 months
Once baby is picking things up with thumb and forefinger, break the salmon into 1 cm pea-sized flakes and dice the roasted sweet potato into 1 cm cubes so they can practise the pincer grasp; re-check every flake for bones as you go.
Paediatric note
Salmon supplies preformed DHA, the long-chain omega-3 that is laid down in the developing brain and retina during the first year, plus vitamin D that few other foods provide. Two small portions of oily fish a week is the sensible ceiling for infants because of low-level environmental pollutants.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
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