Salmon Wellington for Date Night at Home
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This easy Salmon Wellington recipe wraps flaky puff pastry around tender, oven-baked salmon with a rich, savory filling of cream cheese, herbs, and garlic. It’s an impressive main course that looks elegant on the table but comes together with just a few simple ingredients.
Perfect for a dinner party, date night, or holiday meal, this puff pastry salmon dish delivers restaurant-quality flavor without complicated steps. It bakes up golden and crisp on the outside, while the salmon stays juicy and flavorful inside.
If you’re looking for a delicious and unique way to serve salmon, this homemade Salmon Wellington is the perfect make-ahead option that’s sure to wow your guests.
Ingredients
- Salmon fillets – Buy the nicest, freshest salmon you can afford. Just make sure it’s raw salmon, not smoked salmon.
- Cream cheese – Any type of dairy cream cheese (full fat, low fat, or fat free) works well here. Skip the plant based cream cheeses.
- Parmesan cheese – Choose fresh Parmesan from the deli section and skip the cheese in a green can. Freshly grated Parmesan cheese melts the best and has the best flavor.
- Lemon – Fresh is always best, but bottled juice would work fine here.
- Dry white wine – Choose a pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc. Stay away from moscato or bubbly wines.
- Fresh thyme – Thyme adds great flavor to the cheese mixture. Fresh gives a better texture, but you can use dried thyme if you can’t find fresh.
- Salt and Black pepper – There are recommended amounts in the recipe, but feel free to adjust to taste.
- Garlic powder – One of my favorite ingredients for adding subtle flavor.
- Extra virgin olive oil – The oil helps keep the salmon moist as it bakes. Feel free to use a garlic infused olive oil or lemon infused olive oil if you have either on hand.
- Puff pastry – You’ll find puff pastry in the freezer section of your grocery store. Thaw one sheet for this recipe according to package directions.
- Egg – This is for making your puff pastry shiny and golden.
How to Make Salmon Wellington
Prep
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, wine, thyme, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
Cut your salmon into 4 equal pieces. Set aside.
Unfold puff pastry and cut into 4 equal pieces.
Assemble
Place 1 piece of pastry on a lightly floured surface and gently roll it out with a rolling pin to form a rectangle.
Place 2 Tbsp of cream cheese mixture in the middle of the piece of pastry and carefully spread it out, stopping within ½ inch of the edges of the pastry.
Place a piece of salmon on the cream cheese mixture. Drizzle the salmon with olive oil and brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg.
Fold the pastry over the salmon and press down on the edges to seal. Using a fork, crimp the edges to ensure a tight seal.
Repeat these steps with the remaining 3 pieces of pastry and salmon until you have 4 pastry packets filled with salmon and cheese.
Bake
Place salmon packets on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cut slits in the top of pastry to vent.
Brush tops with remaining beaten egg. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!
Salmon Wellington Recipe (Salmon in Puff Pastry)
Ingredients
- 8-10 oz. salmon fillets, boneless & skinless
- 3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1 tsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- ½ tsp lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp dry white wine
- 1 tsp fresh thyme, or ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a bowl, combine cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, wine, thyme, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- Cut your salmon into 4 equal pieces. Set aside.
- Unfold puff pastry and cut into 4 equal pieces.
- To assemble
- Place 1 piece of pastry on a lightly floured surface and gently roll it out with a rolling pin to form a rectangle.
- Place 2 Tbsp of cream cheese mixture in the middle of the piece of pastry and carefully spread it out, stopping within ½ inch of the edges of the pastry.
- Place a piece of salmon on the cream cheese mixture.
- Drizzle the salmon with ½ tsp olive oil.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg.
- Fold the pastry over the salmon and press down on the edges to seal. Using a fork, crimp the edges to ensure a tight seal.
- Repeat these steps with the remaining 3 pieces of pastry and salmon until you have 4 pastry packets filled with salmon and cheese.
- Bake
- Place salmon packets on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Cut slits in the top of pastry to vent.
- Brush tops with remaining beaten egg.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Tips on Salmon Wellington
Low fat and fat free cream cheeses work great in this recipe.
To speed up making this dish on date night, you can make the cream cheese mixture a day or two ahead of time. Then assemble and bake the night you’re goin to serve them.
Serve Salmon Wellington with a side salad or try my chili garlic roasted carrots for an easy, but special, meal.
You may have a little cream cheese mixture left over. Find another use for it. If you add it into the salmon packets you’ll likely have them come open and overflow during baking.
Cocktail Pairing
I love Salmon Wellington with a cold glass of dry white wine or a tart cocktail, like this classic bee’s knees.
Loved it!
This is an excellent recipe!!! It was absolutely delicious — even the kids liked it. I thoight my Wellingtons wouldn’t look right because I couldn’t seal the dough on some of them due to the size to and shape of my salmon, but this is really forgiving and they looked beautiful!
Yay! Delicious and impressive is a big goal with this recipe. So glad you enjoyed it!
Really delicious! Ty
Glad you liked it! 🙂