Beet-Cured Salmon Gravlax
A bright, tasty, and nourishing appetizer made with red fish. Tender salmon slices shift in color from soft orange to deep burgundy, drawing everyone’s eye at the table - one reason gravlax is loved worldwide.
Updated : 02 March, 2026
Easy
More than 1 hour.
Ingredients
800 grams
Salmon
200 grams
Sugar
160 grams
Sea salt
3
Beetroot
3 tablespoon
Orange zest
1 tablespoon
Zest
10 grams
Basil
4 tablespoon
Liqueur
2 tablespoon
Cilantro, coriander
Table
Table of volume measurements:
- teaspoon - 5 ml
- dessert spoon - 10 ml
- tablespoon - 20 ml
- glass - 200 ml
Preparation
Step 1
How do you make salmon gravlax? To prepare a tasty cold appetizer from red fish, get the necessary ingredients ready. You can use any red fish: trout, salmon, pink salmon. It’s best to use coarse sea salt. Basil can be green or purple. You can replace limoncello with cognac or rum.
Step 2
Rinse the salmon fillet well, pat dry, remove the backbone, and use tweezers to pull out any large and small pin bones. You can trim off the thin narrow end, leaving the thicker portion of flesh. Brush the fish with limoncello or cognac. It’s better not to cut the fish and cure it as one whole piece, but if it didn’t work out that way, it’s fine - place the cut pieces tightly against each other.
Step 3
Peel the beet and grate it on a medium or coarse grater.
Step 4
Rinse the basil, pat dry, and finely chop it.
Step 5
In a bowl, combine the grated beet, sugar, sea salt, lime zest and orange zest, coriander seeds, and the chopped basil.
Step 6
Mix everything thoroughly. You should get a uniform moist mixture. Because of the salt, the beet will release a lot of juice - drain it off.
Step 7
Spread the beet mixture evenly over the prepared fish fillet.
Step 8
Wrap the fish tightly in plastic wrap.
Step 9
Transfer the fish to a plate or a rimmed dish and place a weight on top. Refrigerate for 24 hours, periodically draining off the liquid that is released.
Step 10
Before serving, scrape the beet mixture off the fish and rinse the fillet under running water.
Step 11
Pat the fish dry with paper towels, slice thinly, and serve. Enjoy!
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