Grilled Salmon Kebabs with basil pesto marinade

We’ve been grilling a lot this summer. I know I haven't shared much of the recipes here. Well, let just say grilled food are to be enjoyed hot and straight out of the grill and my family has no patience to wait for my photography session to be over when they are on their toes with hunger. It wasn't easy to get a good snap of these outrageously yummy Salmon kebabs either and I had to quickly take few snaps while my family waited at the table, all ready for dinner :-)

What started out as a small garden in our small backyard has grown into a large veggie patch with tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, broccolli, red and yellow onions, cabbage, eggplant, french beans, yard long beans, lady's finger, thai chillies, red spinach, lettuce and herbs like Mint, Cilantro, Basil and Rosemary growing in full swing. There are also some beautiful Marigolds, Petunia, Dahlia and garden Lily's and some perennials for some color and vibrance. 
All of this is my dad's hard work, labor, love and care for these plants. Every single spare minute he gets, is spent tending to the garden and they have started giving out their fruits for us to enjoy now. I want to do a full post specially dedicated to the garden one day, but I'm waiting for all the veggies to grow before jinxing it ;-) Here's a sneek-peak!

So we are trying to make the best use of our garden produce. That's how I made some Basil pesto from few leaves of the rather overgrown Basil plant we have. We've been eating the basil raw in our salads daily for dinner, but mummy and me are personally not a fan of raw basil. So the pesto was a very good way to enjoy this superb herb.

At our local Costco store, we got some really fresh and fleshy Salmon and I instantly decided to grill them and used the basil pesto as a marinade. To add some color and and to enable cooking space for the salmon I added some colorful veggies in between the salmon. 

The kebabs were juicy and so flavorful. The rather fishy smell and flavor of Salmon subsided with the pesto marinade and it added a very fresh taste to the fish kebabs. It tasted so good , even my lil'Appu ate several pieces of the Salmon. I'm positive now that Basil pesto as a marinade would taste great on veggie and other non-veg kebabs as well. 
By the time I was done with marinating and then grilling these kebabs it was almost 8pm, so the snaps aren't as pretty as I'd like them to be, but I wanted to share it with you, and here it is.

My family felt the Salmon kebabs weren't as spicy as they would have liked, because my Pesto wasn't spicy enough, so I have accordingly updated the pesto recipe if you prefer a spicier version. But my Appu loved it due to the mild spice level and to me that's all that mattered ;-) We had the kebab's with some Naan, seasoned raita and salad...yumm!

Grilled Salmon Kebabs with basil pesto marinade

You’ll need

Salmon (skinless) – 1½ pounds  ( Cut into square shaped cubes)

Fresh Basil pesto – ½ cup or more, as needed

Red Onions/Bell peppers/Mushrooms etc – as preferred
Lemon juice – 2 tblsp

Salt and Pepper – to taste

Metal  or wooden skewers

Directions

1.  Prepare the Basil pesto.  Cut up the Salmon into cubes.

2.  Apply the Basil pesto all over the salmon cubes and marinate for atleast 3 hrs. Overnight is best.

3. Chop up preferred veggies into equal sized cubes and marinate it with 2 tblsp lemon juice, salt and pepper for ½ hour.

4. Skewer the salmon and veggies alternately. (If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for ½ hour before using)

5. Heat up your grill and make sure the grill grates are well oiled or use a tray covered with aluminium foil and sprayed with oil and place the salmon kebab skewers on it and cook well on one side (for about 8-10 mins) and slowly turn it to other side and cook the other side.

6. If preferred you can squeeze on some more lemon juice onto the kebabs immediately as it comes out of the grill (My dad’s suggestion)

Suggestions:

1. Please make sure the grill grates or the tray you use are well oiled. Mine wasn’t and some of the salmon cubes got stuck and flaked apart while I tried to turn them over  *bad luck*

2. Fish is very soft and flaky , so be very gentle while turning them, unless you want 'scrambled' salmon…which is great for making fish tacos btw!

3. I wanted the veggies to look bright and colorful on the kebabs, but if you want pesto marinated on the veggies, go for it.

4. Grill on a low to medium-low flame for the fish to cook slowly and nicely, else it may char too fast but not get cooked inside (speaking from experience)!

So folks, I do hope you will try out this really healthy, colorful and absolutely delicious Salmon Kebabs. You can find my Basil Pesto recipe here.  Do try out both the recipes and I hope you will like them and don't forget to share your feedback with me.  See you all again soon :-) 

-Manju