Catfish Out of Water

Yesterday I made a Salad w/ Salmon & Avocado Dip. It was absolutely splendid and I highly recommend it. But that means that I have leftover salmon that I have to figure out what to do with! I have a habit of making far more salmon than I need for a single dish. When it's on sale, I tend to buy large fillets and spread it out over several meals. I actually do this with a lot of things. The larger the dish that you make, the less you have cook the rest of the week! So, I like to make everything in larger batches than I need and repurpose them for various different types of meals. Today, I also have No-knead Dutch Oven Bread and Avocado Dip w/ Tahini & Lemon. So, I've by some accidental series of events ended up with salmon bruschetta with poached eggs and avocado dip.

Since my foray into bread making during the pandemic, I've had to figure out what to actually do with that much bread! As fond as I am of dipping it in olive oil and vinegar, there are other things to do with toast. I suppose that I could make sandwiches, but I've become rather fond of making bruschetta. Which I guess really is just an open-faced sandwich with various fruits and vegetables slathered on top? Nevertheless, it is definitely one of my new favorite things!

Adding avocado dip spread across the toast, baked salmon, garden fresh dill, and poached eggs might not be the most traditional of bruschettas. But it certainly is a showstopper! Even my cat couldn't help but being impressed.

Gallery

As a side note, Esmérelda doesn't like to eat the food that I make! Most of the time she's just curious as to what I'm doing and wants to be part of the fun. At most she'll sniff the salmon and want to get in on the photoshoot. Cats should not eat bread and the pits of avocados are toxic to most house pets. Although they might get an avocado-free piece of salmon on the side every now and then.

Variations of Salmon Bruschetta

Bruschetta has been one of my new obsessions lately. I don't always make poached eggs because they are arguably quite difficult to make and not something for every brunch time meal! Although there are much simpler ways to make bruschetta. You. can either lightly fry a runny egg or omit it entirely in exchange for a toasted bit of cheese.

Bruschetta w/ Salmon, Poached Egg, Avocado Dip

Salmon bruschetta with avocado dip and poached eggs is a fun Sunday brunch dish. With fresh garden dill and the earthy pops of color, it certainly is a showstopper. This bruschetta might be quite the amount of work to go into such a simple dish. But I am a fan of understatedly elegant meals. And this is simply an exquisite example of that. Feel free to swap out a lightly fried runny egg, instead of a poached one, for an easier time of it!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Mediterranean

Servings 1 serving

Equipment

• Cast Iron Griddle (or Baking Sheet, or Foil)
• Oven (or Barbecue)
• Large Pot w/ Lid
• Food Processor
• Air Fryer (or Toaster, or Skillet on the Stove)

Ingredients

  

No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

• 472 ml. warm water ~100°F (2 c.)
• 2 ¼ tsp. instant yeast (1 package)
• 2 tsp. brown sugar (or granulated sugar, maple syrup, or honey)
• 570 g. all-purpose flour (4 ¾ c.)
• 2 tsp. salt
• oil to grease bowl

Baked Salmon

• 1 filet salmon
• splash olive oil
• lemons sliced

Avocado Dip

• 3 avocados
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 lemons juiced
• 2 tbsp. tahini
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• dash salt
• dash pepper
• 3/4 c. Greek yogurt

Poached Eggs

• 2 eggs
• splash vinegar

Bruschetta

• 1 slice bread toasted
• 2 eggs poached
• 4 oz. salmon baked
• spread avocado dip
• 1 tsp. dill minced
• dash salt
• dash pepper

Instructions

 

Prepare Ingredients

• Bake No-knead Dutch Oven Bread. You can easily buy a loaf of bread. If you want to make it, though, this is a quick and easy recipe. The entire process takes about 3 hours, with no need to knead the bread or plan for days long proofs!
• I topped this bruschetta with Avocado Dip w/ Tahini & Lemon. This is entirely optional. You can easily substitute Greek yogurt or omit it entirely for a more vegan recipe. Although this avocado dip is my new favorite thing and I highly recommend giving it a try. It's kind of a mix between hummus and guacamole. And is absolutely delicious!

Bake Salmon

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Place salmon skin-side down on a griddle or baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and add a dash of salt and pepper. Slice a lemon and place evenly on top of the salmon.
• Bake salmon for 12-15 minutes, or until the salmon begins to flake. Salmon tends to be cooked when it loses the bright color and you can take a fork and it easily separates. Larger cuts of salmon may take upwards of 20 minutes. Smaller, individual portions may take less time. It's best to begin checking after 10 minutes of cooking and adjust the cooking time to the doneness of your filet.

Toast Bread

• I toasted my bread in an air fryer for about 2-3 minutes. But you can easily do this in a toaster, toaster oven, or in a skillet on the stove. Just adjust the cook time to your particular method.
• Spread avocado dip across the toast and top with salmon.
• Set aside.

Poach Eggs

• Fill a large pot with about 3-4 inches of water and add a splash of vinegar.
• Bring to a rolling boil on high heat
• Swirl the water with a heat-safe spoon. While the water is still swirling, immediately crack both eggs into the center of the pot.
• Remove the pot from heat and add the lid.
• Do not touch, agitate, or do anything to the eggs for 2-5 minutes!

  There is some debate over how much to agitate the water and whether to keep on heat. I'm sure that there are ways to do this. But the only way that I've ever been able to poach eggs without them separating or spreading out too much, is to simply stop fussing with them and let the sit, like you're soft boiling them outside of the shell.
• Once the eggs have turned solid white and are no longer translucent, remove from the water with a slotted spoon. Be careful not to pierce the yolk!
• Add to the bruschetta, top with dill, salt, and pepper.
• Serve immediately. Before the egg cooks!

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

• For more information on baking salmon, check out my articles on The Fundamentals of Oven Baked Salmon and Barbecue Salmon. I'm particularly fond of cooking on a well-seasoned cast iron griddle because you don't need additional oil or foil to to keep it from sticking. But there are certainly ways around this if you don't want to dedicate an entire cast iron pan to fish! Cooking salmon is also more of an art than a science. No two filets are going to cook in the exact same amount of time and there are definitely some tips and tricks to nailing the cook on fish.
• For a more in-depth article and tips and tricks on avocado dip, I have a distinct recipe for Avocado Dip w/ Greek Yogurt, Tahini, & Lemon as well as a slightly easier and doubled recipe for Potluck Avocado Dip w/ Greek Yogurt & Walnuts.
• I almost never make perfectly poached eggs the first time around. I only had 1 not turn out this time. But, unless you're an expert in poaching eggs, don't worry if it takes a couple of tries! Just keep a couple of extra eggs handy and start cracking.