Paleo Pen Pals January 2013 - Basil Salmon with Garlic Zucchini Fries

It's time for the Paleo Pen Pals ingredient swap of the month! The group was created and coordinated by rockstar bloggers Brittanie of ThreeDietsOneDinner and Tarah of WhatIGather. The premise is that you are assigned a fellow paleoite, send them some ingredients, receive ingredients from them, and then you whip up a recipe.

My pen pal this month was Katherine, a college student in Boston but actually from NJ. I'm a (grad) student myself and originally from NJ as well, so that was a neat coincidence. Katherine sent me basil-infused olive oil and organic garlic salt. I never tried olive oil infused with anything before, so this was uncharted territory. After opening the bottle, the smell was HEAVENLY! Basil is one of my favorite kitchen smells... mmm! The basil adds a subtle flavor, which is awesome and I'll definitely be using it again in my future cooking. 

With these 2 awesome ingredients, I decided to make basil salmon with zucchini. Actually, I really wanted to make the salmon with asparagus, but apparently the produce shipment from California froze over. It's been subzero here in Chitown (it's as uncomfortable as it sounds), so a shipment freezing over was disappointing but not too surprising. Oh well, I went with my tried-and-true veggie staple, zucchini.

Basil Salmon and Garlic Zucchini  Fries

SALMON:
1 lb wild-caught salmon
1 tbsp basil-infused olive oil
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning 
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Brush salmon with olive oil.
3. Sprinkle seasonings over salmon.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until salmon flakes easily.
5. While salmon cooks, prepare the zucchini....


GARLIC ZUCCHINI FRIES
2 medium-sized zucchini, julienned (or otherwise cut into whatever shape you like)
2 tbsp basil-infused olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp of garlic salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (if you're not making the salmon first)
2. Place zucchini on a single-layer cookie sheet.
3. Pour olive oil, minced garlic, and garlic salt on the zucchini. Use your hands to combine everything.
4. Roast for 18 minutes, flip, then roast for 10 minutes.
5. Zucchini is done when there's a nice brown on all sides.

Note: Zucchini is a pretty moist veggie, so it doesn't have that same "crunch" as drier veggies (e.g. asparagus, sweet potato, carrot) but it's still roasted deliciousness :)