Baked Salmon Recipe - Stuffed With Spinach & Artichoke

This easy baked salmon recipe is perfect for busy weeknights. Salmon fillets are coated in a 3 spice rub, then stuffed with a creamy spinach artichoke filling. With just 10 minutes prep and 15 minutes baked in the oven!

About This Baked Salmon Recipe

Looking for delicious ways to cook salmon that are simple but delicious? These baked salmon fillets are one of the most popular dishes in our household. Even Mr NQN who doesn't like cooked fish loves it! Fillets of salmon are coated in an easy 3 spice rub mix and then filled with an optional Artichoke Spinach filling. I say optional because sometimes I just make the salmon with just the spice rub if I want to make it super healthy and it's so delicious on its own.

I suspect that if you try this once, it may end up on your dinner rotation! ;)

Why You'll Love This Baked Salmon recipe

⭐ There's no need to marinate the salmon, just add the spice rub and bake!

⭐ This spice rub is simple but I promise it smells and tastes so complex and aromatic!

⭐ We make this baked spiced salmon so often that I have a jar of this spice mix already made so that it takes no time to prep it.

⭐ This recipe can be doubled or halved or even quartered!

⭐ This salmon is great served hot or cold!

⭐ You don't have to stuff the salmon, sometimes I just add the spice mix and bake the salmon. It's great to have it in the fridge for a high protein snack. I love serving this with salad or I often fill rice paper rolls with it!

⭐ Everything goes into the oven together! I also roast a bunch of broccolini and vine tomatoes at the same time and serve it with the salmon (the blistered tomatoes go especially well with the salmon).

Video How To Make Baked Salmon

Video: Baked Salmon Recipe

Ingredients For Baked Salmon

Salmon - Opt for centre cut salmon cut into wide fillets.

Smoked paprika - Smoked paprika adds more aroma than sweet paprika.

Lemon pepper - Your secret weapon in the kitchen! Fantastic on seafood and chicken or lamb especially as it adds a fresh piquancy. I love using it in my bbq chicken spice mix.

Garlic powder - Fine textured grainy powder found in the spice aisle. Tip: store in the freezer to prevent it clumping!

Cream cheese - We use a spring onion and chive cream cheese.

Marinated artichoke hearts - Tinned or jarred artichoke hearts.

Cheeses - mozzarella for creaminess and parmesan for flavour.

Spinach - I use frozen spinach that I thaw in the microwave. It comes in little cubes so it's easy to use a small amount.

Tips For Baked Salmon Recipe

1 - Normally, salmon fillets are quite slender weighing around 125g/4ozs but as we are stuffing these, I use larger 250g/8.8oz salmon fillets so that the filling can fit into the fillet.

2 - Choose a centre cut of salmon as this will cook more evenly.

3 - Don't want to make your own filling? Try using a ready made spinach and artichoke dip.

4 - I love baked salmon and if you do too, try this healthy baked salmon or this gorgeous glazed salmon next as it is so easy. Or for a special occasion here is a baked salmon made with beurre blanc or a baked salmon tarator topped with yogurt and pine nuts.

Baked Salmon Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients Needed

Salmon and spice rub

• 1kg/2.2lbs salmon, cut into four even fillets
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons lemon pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar
• Olive oil for drizzling

Spinach artichoke filling

• 75g/2.6oz spring onion cream cheese
• 50g/1.7oz marinated artichoke hearts, drained weight
• 40g/1.4oz grated mozzarella cheese
• 30g/1oz grated parmesan cheese
• 45g/1.4oz chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of water
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 SPICE - Preheat oven to 190C/374F fan forced or 210C/410F conventional. Mix all the spices together in a bowl. Place salmon skin side down on a parchment lined tray. Cut a slit into the fattest end of the fillet making a L shaped cut so that one side remains closed. Drizzle salmon with olive oil and rub the spice rub into the flesh side. Set aside while you make the filling and the oven comes to temperature.

Step 2 FILLING - Place the flavoured cream cheese, artichoke hearts, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, chopped spinach and garlic powder in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Scoop out and fill each salmon fillet with a heaped tablespoon of this filling (you may have a bit of filling leftover depending on how deep you've cut the salmon).

Step 3 BAKE - Bake for 15 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes after coming out of the oven.

Personal Note

I love salmon and I was talking to my friend Sophia about it. When I first met her she was a really fussy eater but we've known each other for a long time now and in that time, she has expanded her palate a lot. She still has her dislikes that are perhaps a longer list than most but I think she has come very far which is fantastic. She now enjoys salmon and salmon sashimi whereas she wouldn't touch sashimi when I first met her.

But it doesn't bother me as she is an easy going person to eat out with. Like yesterday we were going to go to a restaurant for lunch. As we reached the restaurant I realised that I had already been to it! "Oh no!!" I said. I didn't want to go again because I couldn't get a blog post out of it (and dining out in Sydney aint cheap!) but I knew that Sophia was very hungry.

"Could we go somewhere else?" I said to her. I had another place in mind but it was around 30 minutes away by tram and that meant that she would have to wait to eat even longer. But easy going Sophia agreed to go to the next restaurant and just bought a little cookie to nibble on on the way!

So tell me Dear Reader, would you have insisted we eat there or would you go to the other restaurant?