Wild Salmon & Asparagus Keto Tagliatelle. 5.5g net carbs of wholesome deliciousness.
With so few carbs, plenty of healthy fats and enough protein to fill you up nicely, this meal encapsulates what a healthy keto lifestyle should be.
Wild salmon is full of omega 3 healthy fats and asparagus is one of the most fibre-rich and low carb vegetables on the planet. Together, they’re a match made in heaven. Not just in terms of health benefits, but for flavour combination too.
Using pre-sliced salmon, makes this a really fast recipe. It is simplicity at its best. Perfect for anyone who doesn’t have much time to cook, but chooses to eat well.
How to Make Wild Salmon & Asparagus Keto Tagliatelle
First and foremost, you need to have some ready-made QK pasta noodles. If not, you can make them in advance or on the day that you prepare this recipe, but you’ll need to wait for at least a couple of hours for the ‘pasta’ to air-dry a little – or it will absorb your sauce entirely. The alternative is to use a different kind of low-carb pasta altogether. Whatever you choose will be absolutely fine.
Secondly, fish choice is important. Sockeye salmon is my personal favourite. You can buy really cheap sliced salmon in grocery shops. But cheap fish comes from farms. If you want to know why I skirt farmed fish, and read up about pisciculture practices, click HERE or HERE. I’ll just add that the difference in both flavour and nutritional profile when you compare farmed fish to wild fish is staggering. Farmed fish or seafood isn’t for me, but I won’t sit in judgment if that’s what you choose.
Asparagus should be as fresh as possible, with bright green tips that have not started to wilt. The fresher, the more nutrients-dense and the more tasty they’ll be. Don’t bother with white asparagus – it’s more expensive yet just a gimmick.
You might wonder about the nutritional yeast. Well, it’s because I’ve been reducing my calcium intake for health reasons, and nutritional yeast is my ‘new cheese’. You can use Parmesan cheese instead. This dish tastes great either way, so again, your choice.
Enjoy!
- Yield: 2
- Serving: 1
- Calories: 737
- Fat: 64g
- Net Carbs: 5.5g
- Protein: 30g
- 200g QK fettuccine pasta #1
- 100g smoked wild sockeye salmon (cut into strips)
- 300g asparagus spears (net weight after trimming - from 400-450g)
- 10g extra virgin olive oil (U.S. option HERE)
- 150g double cream
- a handful of fine pink Himalayan salt (U.S. option HERE)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 TBSP nutritional yeast (U.S. option HERE)
- snap off and discard the bottom segment of each asparagus spear, then break off tips and set aside.
- boil stems in salted water until tender (5-10 minutes depending on thickness), then scoop them out into a bowl using a straining ladle.
- add tips to the same water and cook until tender (2-5 minutes), drain with straining ladle and set aside in a separate bowl - reserve the cooking water.
- using an immersion (stick) blender (I use THIS ONE; U.S. option HERE), blitz the stems to a purée and add some of the cooking water to obtain a thick soup consistency - add seasoning to your taste and leave aside.
- in a frying pan, heat up the olive oil, then add asparagus purée, salmon strips and cream.
- cook for 1 minute, add a bit more of the reserved cooking water to loosen, and finally stir in the pasta.
- let it all get nice and hot for 1 minute or so, adding a bit more cooking water if necessary (QK pasta is quite absorbent).
- divide between two serving plates, sprinkle with nutritional yeast, and top with the reserved asparagus tips, before serving immediately.
The keto salmon recipe that I love the most, plus asparagus..yum. who says keto foods are boring and bland/? haha
Hi Antya, I love your recipes! Thank you for introducing me to Lupin flour as I find a lot of the nut flour recipes on other sites a bit too stodgy (I’m a small woman and realistically don’t need that many calories despite exercise!)
Keto has generally been amazing for me but I’m intolerant of most dairy. I’m fine with a bit of Parmesan cheese or similar as a treat. Do you have any ideas for a dairy free pizza crust? Could I substitute the mozzarella in your recipes? Your noodle/fettuccine recipe has been a game changer for me, I find it works well with coconut cream instead of cream cheese
Thanks for your help!
Hi!!!! You’re so welcome! I 100% agree with you about stodgy nut flours – hence why lupin is my favourite keto ingredient.
As for dairy, you’re in luck 😀
In an effort to avoid calcium, I’ve been experimenting with recipes that do away with, or minimise, dairy. The queenketo kitchen has an easy, crispy, dairy-free pizza base at final testing stage. And if you scroll through my last few posts, you’ll see where I’m heading…
I’ll be posting more and more low-calorie and non-dairy recipes in the coming weeks.
Substituting mozzarella in my published pizza recipes is easy (except for the fat-head base one). I swapt it for lower-calcium dairy (e.g. mascarpone, cream cheese, double cream), but you could go dairy-free by mixing coconut cream solids with nutritional yeast and some seasoning.
I’m also working on a melted vegan ‘cheese’ recipe, but it’s taking a lot more patience than envisaged 🙂
Many thanks for your tip about coconut cream in the pasta recipe – I’ll sure use that one.