Grilled Salmon w/ Roasted Corn Relish with Bakery Dinner Rolls w/ Maple Butter and Leek & Garlic Soup

I have to admit - I try not to pick favorites but this meal definitely ranks up there. Sometimes I love one piece of a meal but another is not quite what I expected. With these 3 dishes everything was perfect. The fish grilled beautifully and paired perfectly with the roasted corn. The dinner rolls were light and flaky and the maple butter melted into them effortlessly. The leek and garlic soup was thick and warm and perfectly tasty.

This meal is perfect for a cool day. The thick soup and hot rolls help to chase away the cold and rain to keep you warm, cozy, and full while staying healthy. Keep in mind, however, that soup and bread takes a little longer to prepare. While not overly complicated, this meal does need some prep time. Make this when you have the time to dedicate to cooking and still plenty leftover to savor your delicious creations.

Bakery Dinner Rolls with Maple Butter
Let's get started with the rolls since they'll need some time to rise. I wasn't sure what to expect from this recipe when I first came across it but these will definitely be made again. I went ahead with the egg yolk on top and you'll see the top of my rolls are a little shiny and yellow in the picture. This adds an extra crispness to the top. However, this is hardly essential and the rolls would have worked quite well without it as well. It is a personal preference! But keep in mind it also won't save that many calories since you use just one egg yolk for 12 rolls (and I still had a little leftover.)

I prepared maple butter to go with the rolls. The sugary maple flavor is reminiscent of cold New England winters.. and I just like it! I had never made flavored butter before but this recipe is about as easy as they come. You're just mixing maple syrup and butter. I skipped the salt. Unfortunately, once this sits in the fridge for a night or two the syrup tends to seep back out. You can let the butter soften and mix it again but this might work best if you just make the amount of butter you want when you start.

Leek and Garlic Soup
And now for the soup! I had not made a lot of soups before this year but have truly been trying to branch out and try some more. This one definitely ranks up there as one of my new favorites. Thank you, Cooking Light! Anything that starts with roasted garlic is always a good thing. This recipe starts by wanting you to make a bag with herbs in it. You can certainly follow that route but I decided to simplify things. I skipped the parsley and leek leaves and instead put the bay leaves and thyme directly into the soup. Then, because those are large, you can simply scoop them out with a slotted spoon when you would remove the herb packet.

After that I pretty much followed the recipe as instructed. However, rather than buying vegetable or chicken broth continually for all of these recipes I instead just buy bouillon cubes and then make broth with hot water. Buying a jar of bouillon cubes is far less expensive than the number of cans of broth it takes to get to the same amount.

Grilled Salmon with Roasted Corn Relish
And finally for the entree! You'll see I have another picture of the salmon. The one up top represents the salmon just when it is taken off the grill while this one shows it with the corn topping on it. It's the same fillet underneath!

I have to credit this final portion of the meal to Cooking Light as well. However, to make this recipe during the winter in an apartment I had to make a few changes. First, I don't have a grill as mentioned before. I used my Foreman grill to prepare the Salmon however, and that worked out extremely well. In addition to a lack of a grill, I also used frozen corn rather than corn on the cob since it was out of season and no longer available. This meant it was a little hard to use my Foreman grill or the kernels simply slid down the sloped surface. So for this part of the recipe, out came my grill pan instead. The combination of the two surfaces for different pieces of the meal worked out very well. Finally, I skipped the Anaheim chiles since I'm not a fan of spicy.

Grill your corn and Salmon when your soup and bread are almost done for a complete meal that exactly hits the spot. Did you enjoy it as much as I did?