Salmon Quinoa bowl

Recipe Hits and Misses

Recipe Hits: Perfectly Cooked Salmon and Crunchy raw vegetables made this protein packed meal feel light and healthy while still being satisfying. If I made this exactly according to the recipe, it would have been such a home run!

Recipe Misses: Well, they were all my doing. I made some amateur hour mistakes (which you can learn from) and this is my rundown: I cooked the Quinoa in chicken stock and did not account for its saltiness when I was mixing the sauce later in the recipe. I should have cut down on the soy sauce or used low sodium (BUMMER) and I added the sauce directly to the quinoa instead of drizzling on the salmon which made for some very salty and very saucy ancient grains…

Yum, Cilantro! Always clutch with Salmon!

Ingredients:

2 portioned salmon fillets

red bell pepper, cored, deseeded and cut into bite sized pieces

2 Persian cucumbers, coined (or a traditional cucumber, also coined)

cup of quinoa

2 cups of chicken stock / 2 cups of water (You can adjusted the ratio depended on how much seasoning you want in your quinoa. I adjusted this recipe so you don’t make my “over salting” mistake.

2 tbs of lime juice

2 tables of apple sider vinegar

tsp of chili powder

2 tables of fresh cilantro plus some of garnishing

tsp of soy sauce or 0.5 tsp of salt (adjust based on taste level and how you’re cooking your quinoa)

*possible addition to dressing - sm amount of honey or agave

green onions

Plan of Attack

Roast your salmon - Preheat the oven to 390 degrees (if your oven run colds, turn up higher, and if it runs hot, keep it at 390….my oven runs very hot and this temp worked perfectly)

Line your baking sheet with aluminum foil, drizzle the pan with olive oil lightly, place the salmon fillets (skin side down they have skin) not the pan, and rub the fillet gently with olive oil while seasoning with salt and pepper. Keep in mind the sauce you add later is pretty salty so be cognizant when you season the salmon.

Roast the salmon for 14- 15 minutes or until it easily flakes with your fork.

Prepare your Quinoa - Cook your quinoa by bringing the cups of water/seasoned stock (because you could also use vegetable stock) to a boil. When boiling, add the quinoa and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer the Quinoa for 13-16 minutes, until the water is absorbed…

Public Service Announcement: I am writing the recipe as it appears in the Food Network.com recipe, with the exclusion of the Brussels sprouts and mushrooms and addition of cucumbers and red pepper peppers and I made this set of adjustments based on what was in my fridge. They say cook the quinoa uncovered and it is my experience cooking the quinoa uncovered makes some underdone pruned quinoa because the water cooks off too quickly. If you are cooking uncovered, keep checking to make sure there’s a sufficient amount of liquid and don’t be scared to add a little more if it looks as though the water has cooked off before the quinoa is done. Don’t be bossed around by internet recipes, because very pot has its own idiosycrocies and your pot/oven might just cook it faster or differently, even at a simmer.

Quinoa is done when it appears to have a little clear rim around the entire grain and has give in its firmness when you eat it.

As the quinoa cooks down, Make the dressing by adding lime juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, chili powder cilantro and salt OR soy sauce. You could add some sweetener to the sauce in the addition of honey or agave if all this tartness might be too much zip for your palate.

Dress your Dish: Prepare the bowl by placing a healthy ladle of cooked quinoa in the serving dish, placing a piece of salmon on top, drizzling the sauce over the salmon fillets and arranging the vegetables around the salmon. Garnish with diced green onions and cilantro. VOILA! Cleanish, greenish, healthy dinner which feeds your inner rabbit and your inner runway model.

The original recipe did not call for bell peppers, but I’m a sucker for natural Earth sweetness, so I added em in anyway. Since I rarely change my mind and the phrase “It’s a lady’s prerogative to change her mind” usually doesn’t apply to me, I like to say “It’s this lady’s prerogative to change her recipes to indulge my love of vegetables.” I would also say after writing this last bit “It’s a lady’s prerogative to be as nerdy and wordy as she wants .”

Since I admit when I make mistakes, I have to say probably my own problems with this dish had to do with my own distracted errors. This year, I am trying to start a trend. I am hoping everybody starts owning their mistakes and starts proclaiming things like “printed denim two piece outfits were not such a good idea”, “slap bracelets were not really dangerous”, “being mean is so 2020” or even something ridiculous like “recycling is actually not stupid.”

Anyway, I digress. I love Quinoa even though many people don’t and I have been cooking with it since before it exploded in kitchens everywhere. I find it light, satisfying and energizing, and my only problems cooking with it are finding recipes I haven’t tried yet! I almost always cook it in chicken stock, which is what I did with this recipe, but my second mistake was not paying attention to the fact I should have adjusted the amount of soy sauce because I cooked the quinoa in the heavily salted goodness which is chicken stock. You could easily prepare the quinoa without seasoning or vegetable stock….but please, for the sake of all which is high and holy, don’t make my mistakes. Nobody but nobody gets to see the wizard with overly salted quinoa.