Baked Salmon with Balsamic Onions

Baked Salmon with Balsamic Onions

½ large or 1 small red onion, sliced 1 pound wild-caught salmon 3 tbl butter 2 tbl balsamic vinegar salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cut the onion into half moons. Add two tablespoons butter to a sauce pan over medium heat. As the butter is melting add the onions, stirring frequently as the onions cook.
3. Meanwhile place the salmon, skin-side down, in a buttered glass baking dish and place in the oven.
4. After about five minutes of cooking the onions, add the balsamic, ½ tablespoon butter and salt and pepper to taste. Continue stirring as the onions begin to carmelize.
5. After about another five minutes, add the remaining ½ tablespoon butter, stir to combine and remove from heat.
6. Remove the salmon from the oven and pour the onions and butter/balsamic reduction over the salmon and spread evenly.
7. Return the salmon to the oven and cook until done, about another 20 minutes.

Nutrition Nuggets

Salmon is one of the most nutritious foods and has been prized and valued for its nourishment in traditional cultures throughout history. It is an excellent source of protein, potassium, selenium and B12. Salmon also provides high amounts of the important omega-3 fats.  Dr. Weston Price, in his travels throughout the world to find the healthiest people, concluded that those cultures who ate fish and other seafoods had the best health of all. Eating fish promotes excellent growth and bone structure and is crucial for pregnant women, babies and young children.

It is of utmost importance to only buy and consume wild-caught salmon from responsible fisheries. Farmed salmon is not only nutritionally inferior to wild salmon but the salmon farms are contributing to the destruction of the ocean ecosystems. In addition to having less omega-3 fats, more omega-6 fats, and 20 percent less protein, farmed salmon also contain higher levels of pesticides and carcinogens due to the type of feed they are given. In the wild, salmon eat a diet of pink krill, thus turning their flesh pink and bestowing it with all the health benefits in krill. Farmed salmon on the other hand, are feed pellets with a synthetic dye in order to turn their white-gray flesh to pink.

Onions contain sulfur compounds like allicin which have strong effects on boosting immunity. They also contain one of the highest amounts of quercetin of any food — a flavonoid which helps to calm allergies, reduces inflammation, and is also a powerful antioxidant providing protection against cancers and heart disease. Clinical studies have shown that onions lower blood pressure and prevent clot formation as well.