It was the opening weekend of summer (aka Memorial weekend), so naturally I wanted to grill something for dinner. I just had amazing burgers the night before (with the sister), so I wanted something a little lighter this night. I couldn’t decide what I wanted; all I could describe was something “fresh.” I finally settled on grilled salmon, and while I was reviewing how to properly grill salmon in Weber’s Way to Grill, I came across a recipe for nectarine salsa as well. How about that for fresh!? It was all very simple to make, I didn’t even need to marinate the fish (I almost never think far enough ahead to properly marinate things, so this was good for me). It seriously could not have turned out better, it was exactly what I was looking for, and a proper way to welcome summer. The salsa is an awesome mix of sweet with a little bit of heat from the jalapeño, and makes a nice fruit salsa to enjoy by itself with some chips too.
I apparently have never chopped up a nectarine before, so I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it, if there is a right way to chop a nectarine, this probably isn’t it, but it worked. I ended up just slicing off chunks until I hit the pit, on four sides, sort of like cutting an apple, then chopping the slices. Put your chopped nectarine into a smallish bowl.
Then chop up the red bell pepper, jalapeño, red onion, and mint leaves. I hate chopping leaves (cilantro leaves, basil leaves, mint leaves, etc. etc.) so I use my handy FreshCut Gourmet Herb Scissors 
Throw all your chopped ingredients into the smallish bowl.
I left some of the pulp and seeds in the jalapeño because I don’t mind a little heat; if you are more of a junior mouth burner (as Dad likes to say) you can scrape all of the pulp and seeds out of the jalapeño. You’ll probably want to be a bit careful when scraping out the jalapeño, sometimes the oil/juice likes to fly out and into your eye, which let me tell you, feels less than amazing…
Add the agave nectar, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and salt to your smallish bowl. Stir it all up and stick it in the fridge.
Now for the salmon (leave the skin on): just mix up your oil and lime juice, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and brush it over the fillets.
Once your grill is nice and medium-hot, put the salmon fillets on-skin side down, put the grill cover on, and grill them for about 10 minutes (depending on the size and thickness of your fillets). I didn’t flip them. When the fillets flake easily, they should be done.
Now, just top each fillet with a spoonful or two of salsa and enjoy. As you can see here, I grilled some asparagus to complete the meal, along with some brown rice.
- 2 salmon fillets
- Juice of 1 lime
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper
- For the Salsa (makes about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 nectarine, chopped
- ½ jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, chopped
- ⅛ of a red onion, chopped
- 2T fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
- 1T agave nectar
- ¼ t Red pepper flakes
- 1-2 Pinches Kosher salt
- Juice of ½ lime
- Mix all of the salsa ingredients in a small-medium bowl and set aside in the fridge
- Mix the olive oil, and lime juice together, brush on to the salmon fillets
- Sprinkle each fillet with the red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper
- Grill the fillets, skin side down, on a medium/hot covered grill for about 10 minutes, until the fillets flake easily with a fork.
- Top each fillet with a spoonful or two of the salsa.
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