Refreshing healthy quinoa salmon salad is delicious for all seasons but especially in the summers when you make the dressing from fresh lemon juice and honey. However, making this salad will take a bit of effort in multitasking in preparing the ingredients but you will for sure love it at your first bite.
A suggestion is to make a double portion and keep one portion for max two days in the fridge. I prepare most ingredients for 2 consecutive meals in one go but do the salmon, cucumber, tomatoes, and dressing separately when I eat it the next time again. This will save you time in making the salad from scratch. You can keep the cooked quinoa & pan-fried vegetables after it cooled off for max 2 days in the fridge. Make sure you keep it in a contained box.
Quinoa seeds are rich in fibers, protein, vitamin B and nutrients and is lower in calory than rice. When you add a small piece of salmon on your salad, it brings a healthy tasteful light meal for your body.
Cooking time 1 portion: 35min
Ingredients & Tools
- 60gr tri-colour quinoa (60gram per person or 1/3 cup)
- 8 stalk green asparagus or a handful sugar snaps
- 4-5 shitake mushroom
- 1 toe garlic
- ½ fresh yellow lemon juice
- 1 tsp extra verge olive oil
- 1 tsp liquid honey
- Olive oil & butter to pan fry the vegetables
- Pepper & salt to taste
- 125gr salmon with skin
- 4 cherry tomatoes
- 8cm cucumber
- Optional garnish: roasted sesame seeds or garden cress
- 1 pot to cook quinoa
- 1 big glass/ceramic bowl
- 1 bowl/cup for dressing
- 1 frying pan
- Kitchen paper towel
What to do?
- ————- Cook Quinoa ————-
- Boil water in the water boiler.
- Put 60gr or 1/3 cup quinoa in the pot and pour gentle boiling water in with 1,5 cm water above quinoa level.
- Boil the quinoa with the lid on medium-low heat and let it simmer for about 12 minutes.
- Once all water is evaporated, switch off the heat and put the pan aside. Stir through the quinoa and let the heat steam off.
- Scoop the quinoa over into a big glass bowl to let it cool off further.
- ————- Prepare Vegetables ————-
- Rinse 8 asparagus stalks under the tap.
- Dispose the end (this part is often hard and not nice to eat) and cut the asparagus sideways in bite sizes.
- Remove any dirt from 4 shitake with a brush or rub dirt away with a kitchen paper towel.
- Cut shitake in medium-thin slices including the stalks.
- Chop 1 toe garlic very fine.
- Heat the fry pan with a bit of olive oil mixed with a bit of butter.
- Fruit the garlic in the pan and add the asparagus and shitake in the pan. If you like crunchy vegetables, pan-fry it short and try one if it’s to your texture.
- Sprinkle salt & pepper to taste and scoop the vegetables in the quinoa bowl to cool off.
- Bear in mind, the heat in the vegetables is still in a cooking process. You might not want to cook it too long if you like it crunchy
- ————- Panfry Salmon————-
- Re-use the fry pan without cleaning and add a bit butter on medium-low heat.
- Dry the salmon off with a kitchen paper towel and put the skin side on the pan.
- On the skin side, you can cook it the longest to make it crispy and easy to remove if you don’t like to eat that part.
- Bake on each side until the salmon is cooked.
- ————- Salad dressing ————-
- Meantime while baking the salmon, squeeze ½ fresh lemon juice in a small bowl/cup.
- Add 1 tsp extra verge olive oil
- Add 1 tsp liquid honey and mix it well.
- ————- Mix the Salad ————-
- Cut 4 cherry tomatoes in quarters and add into the quinoa bowl.
- Unseed 8cm cucumber and cut in bite sizes and add in the bowl.
- Add the dressing in the bowl but not everything. This is to keep a last splash for the salmon.
- Mix all ingredients in the bowl.
- Add the salmon on top and splash the remaining dressing sauce over the salmon.
- Optional: garnish on top with garden cress or roasted sesame seeds.
I would like to hear your feedback once you tried this salad 😊 Bon appetite!
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