Jamie Oliver's crispy pesto salmon is a 'great weeknight dinner' and cooks in 30 minutes

Jamie Oliver's easy recipe serves four (Image: Getty)

After a long day at work, no one wants to spend hours cooking dinner in a hot, stuffy kitchen.

But rather than reaching for those takeout menus, why not cook yourself a nutritious using just a handful of ingredients?

Jamie Oliver's crispy pesto salmon recipe is just that: simple, quick and packed full of healthy fats and nutrients.

The recipe includes boiling new potatoes and making pesto but to make the dish even simpler, you could use tinned potatoes and a jar of pesto.

Jamie said of the recipe: "Salmon is a great source of both omega 3, which helps to keep our hearts healthy, and vitamin D that helps to make our bones and teeth strong.

Salmon is a great source of omega 3 (Image: Getty)

"Panfrying salmon is an easy way to get more oily fish in our diets – served with delicious, pesto-dressed potatoes and greens, it’s a great weeknight dinner."

Jamie Oliver's salmon and pesto-dressed vegetables recipe

Ingredients

600g new potatoes

200g fine green beans

200g tenderstem broccoli

Four x 120g salmon fillets, scaled and pin-boned, from sustainable sources

Olive oil

For the pesto:

25g pine nuts

Half a small clove of garlic

50g fresh basil

extra virgin olive oil

15g Parmesan cheese

Two lemons

Salmon is also a great source of vitamin D (Image: Getty)

Method

1. First, cooks need to make the pesto. Peel the garlic and add half of it to a jug with the pine nuts. Add the basil leaves and blitz until everything is well-chopped.

2. Add two to three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, depending on your desired consistency. Add the parmesan and stir. Give the ingredients a final blitz before halving the lemon and adding a squeeze to the pesto. Season with black pepper.

3. Prepare the potatoes by scrubbing them, and trim the beans and broccoli. Cook the potatoes in a large pan of salted boiling water for 15 minutes or until they're soft. Add the beans and broccoli for the last five minutes.

4. While the vegetables and potatoes are cooking, heat a large non-stick pan over high heat. Rub the salmon with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the salmon skin-side down in the pan and turn the heat down to medium. Cook the fillets for four minutes or until the skin is golden and crispy.

5. Turn the fillets over and cook them for another two to three minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, squeeze in some lemon juice, and shake the pan so the salmon is coated in some of the lemon juice. Be careful not to shake too vigorously, as the salmon could fall apart.

6. Drain the vegetables and tip them into a bowl with the pesto. Toss the vegetables to coat them in the sauce.

7. Serve the salmon on plates with the vegetables and potatoes, drizzled with the cooking juices. Add a wedge of lemon to each plate.