Step Afrika! Dancer Misha Michel’s Salmon With Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

June 1, 2022

Growing up in Miami, Step Afrika! dancer Misha Michel often helped out in her family’s soul food restaurant, Freedom Wingz. She was in college when she first started cooking herself. “Mostly because I wanted to try new dishes and find different ways to have tasty, healthy meals,” she says. 

Today, her favorite way to mix things up is by using creative combinations of spices on a nourishing base of protein and veggies. Her secret ingredient is her family’s own “Misha Mama’s Seasoning”; it’s not yet for sale in stores—though Michel is working to get it trademarked so she can change that. For this dish, she says you can substitute with salt, pepper and garlic powder, or other similar spices that you like. 

Misha Michel hinges backwards while holding up one finger toward the camera. She is wearing gold heels and a red jumpsuit.
“If I ever have a cooking question, I call my mom to make sure I’m doing everything right,” says Misha Michel. Photo by Drew Xeron, courtesy Step Afrika!

Ingredients

  • 1–2 sweet potatoes 
  • 2 tbsps butter
  • 3 oz salmon 
  • Misha Mama’s Seasoning substitute: salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste
  • Old Bay Seasoning, to taste 
  • Blackened Redfish Magic seasoning, to taste 
  • lemon juice, to taste 
  • lime juice, to taste 
  • 1 cup Brussels sprouts
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • paprika, to taste
  • balsamic vinegar, to taste
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp honey 

Directions

  1. In a large pot, cover sweet potatoes in salted water, add a tablespoon of butter and boil for 30 minutes.
  2. Prepare salmon by rinsing and patting it dry to ensure the seasoning sticks.
  3. Coat salmon with Misha Mama’s Seasoning substitutes, then add Old Bay Seasoning and Blackened Redfish Magic seasoning. (Completely cover the fish—don’t forget the sides.)
  4. Top it off with a squirt each of fresh lemon and lime juice, and rub it all in.
  5.  With an air fryer at 425 degrees, or oven at 350 degrees, bake salmon on a nonstick pan for 20–30 minutes, or until browned.
  6.  Rinse the Brussels sprouts, then cut in half and season with salt, pepper, paprika and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
  7.  When sweet potatoes are done, strain and rinse in cold water. Let cool slightly, then peel and mash. Mix in a tablespoon each of butter and brown sugar.
  8.  When salmon is cooked, roast Brussels sprouts in air fryer for 5–10 minutes or oven for 20–30 minutes.
  9.  Before serving, remove skin from salmon, and drizzle honey over the sprouts.