Keto garlic butter salmon
June 29, 2026 · 1 min read
Salmon is one of the easiest keto dinners there is — it's all protein and good fat, cooks in minutes, and needs almost nothing to taste like a restaurant plate. A quick garlic butter sauce with lemon does the work here, and the whole thing comes in around 3g net carbs.
The one thing worth getting right is the sear: skin-side down in a hot pan, left alone, so it crisps instead of steaming.
Ingredients
- 4 salmon fillets (about 5 oz each)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus slices to serve
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Small bunch parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 1 bunch asparagus, to serve
Steps
- Pat the salmon dry and season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high. Sear the salmon skin-side down for 4 minutes, then flip and cook 2–3 minutes more until just cooked. Move to a plate.
- Lower the heat to medium. Melt the butter in the same skillet, add the garlic, and cook 1 minute until fragrant. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
- Return the salmon to the skillet and spoon the garlic butter over the top.
- Sauté or roast the asparagus alongside and serve with lemon slices.
Notes and swaps
A nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron pan makes the flip easy. Don't overcook it — pull the salmon when the center is just opaque, since it carries on cooking off the heat. Swap the asparagus for green beans, broccoli, or a salad, and add a spoon of capers to the butter for a sharper sauce. Leftover salmon is great flaked over greens the next day.
The macros here are an estimate. Tell Copper Keto Companion "garlic butter salmon with asparagus" and it works out the net carbs on the portion you actually plate.