Miso glazed salmon is a really delicious and quick salmon recipe to make. This miso salmon recipe has great umami flavor from the miso and the optional soy ginger sauce served on the side just perfects the whole dish. Because miso salmon cooks so quickly, it makes an ideal weeknight dinner.

The best salmon for this miso salmon recipe:

When buying salmon, you will have the choice of salmon filets or salmon steaks. The steaks are the salmon cut in strips across the body. The filets are strips cut along the fish. This recipe calls for the filets which has a quick cooking time.

Another thing to consider when purchasing salmon is what type you want. There is sockeye salmon, wild salmon, etc. Whatever filets look freshest are the ones you should buy. Look for fish that is bright, translucent and has no offensive smell.

If the fish is whole at the market, look at the eyes and make sure they are not cloudy. Cloudy means it is not fresh. This applies to all fish.

There is also the choice of wild or farm raised. Farm raised are considered to be more ecologically friendly however sometimes the taste is not as good. There are tradeoffs but this is left to individual preference.

This is what the miso looks like that I buy at the regular grocery store. It can be added to vegetables, ramen and meats.

About the miso in this salmon recipe

Miso is an Asian fermented soy bean paste (it has other properties that help shape it but this is the main one). It is used in many Asian dishes.

You may have had it at Japanese restaurants in Miso soup or in a Japanese house salad with Miso ginger dressing (really good). It is a base that adds loads of flavor and is healthy.

You can miso paste at almost any grocery store today. There are dark miso pastes and light miso pastes.

I prefer the light ones like pictured above. You can use miso in soups, on vegetables or fish like I did here.

It is an ingredient that will not go to waste when you buy it since the uses are endless.

The Miso Salmon Sauce:

Now let's talk about the sauce for this miso glazed salmon. The sauce is optional and I do not always use it when making this dish.

I do however use this sauce on just about all my Asian dishes and I am pretty addicted to it.

You can see the flecks of red pepper flakes. It is so good. Don't worry about it being too spicy. It is fairly mild.

The Asian sauce is so simple to make. It takes a few ingredients and if you do not have these on hand, I highly recommend buying them because the sauce is that good and I am sure you will make it often once you try it.

The ingredients for the soy ginger sauce are:

Soy sauce (low sodium)
Rice wine vinegar (I like to buy the seasoned one)
toasted sesame oil
red pepper flakes
grated fresh ginger

All of this gets mixed up real quick and it is done. The grated fresh ginger can be optional when making this sauce. Depending on what I am serving, I will add it or leave it out.

What to serve with this miso salmon:

If you are looking for a quick vegetable side dish to prepare with this baked miso salmon, you would love my miso rubbed broccolini. You can prepare both of these at the same time.

I also have a list of my favorite sides to serve with salmon that you can check out.

Need another salmon recipe when you are done making this?

If you are looking for my ideas on how to make salmon, you might also like my honey and dijon crusted salmon that is cooked on a sheet pan and ready in no time! One of our other easy favorites is our oven baked cast iron salmon with a dijon topping.

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5 from 2 votes