Salad w/ Baked Salmon, Quinoa & Cherry Tomatoes
The rich, oily taste of salmon pairs well with the nutty flavor of quinoa and garden vegetables that you have around. I have cherry tomatoes and mesclun ripening at the moment, so I tossed this recipe in with lemon baked salmon and Spicy Sweet Potato Quinoa.
Equipment
- Oven or BBQ
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Quinoa
- 1 sweet potato diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper diced
- 1/4 c. red onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 habaneros minced
- 1 tsp. cumin
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- 1 c. white quinoa
- 3 c. water
Baked Salmon
- 1 filet salmon
- splash olive oil
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- lemons sliced
Salad
- 1/2 c. sweet potato quinoa
- 3-4 oz. salmon
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- 1 lemon sliced
- 1/4 c. lettuce chopped
- ~10 cherry tomatoes diced
Instructions
Cook Quinoa
- Cook Sweet Potato Quinoa. This takes less than an hour and requires a rice cooker or stove. You can also easily create a different flavor profile or utilize the produce that you have on hand. I almost always keep a batch of quinoa in the fridge for exactly this purpose.
Bake Salmon
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place salmon skin-side down on a griddle or baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and add a dash of salt and pepper. Slice a lemon and place evenly on top of the salmon.
- Bake salmon for 12-15 minutes, or until the salmon begins to flake. Salmon tends to be cooked when it loses the bright color and you can take a fork and it easily separates. Larger cuts of salmon may take upwards of 20 minutes. Smaller, individual portions may take less time. It's best to begin checking after 10 minutes of cooking and adjust the cooking time to the doneness of your filet.
Assemble Salad
- Place a serving of quinoa along the bottom of a plate. Sprinkle with lettuce. Add salmon. Top with diced cherry tomatoes.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
- For more information on baking salmon, check out my articles on The Fundamentals of Oven Baked Salmon and Barbecue Salmon. I'm particularly fond of cooking on a well-seasoned cast iron griddle because you don't need additional oil or foil to to keep it from sticking. But there are certainly ways around this if you don't want to dedicate an entire cast iron pan to fish! Cooking salmon is also more of an art than a science. No two filets are going to cook in the exact same amount of time and there are definitely some tips and tricks to nailing the cook on fish.