Healthy Crispy Salmon Bowls

Welcome to 2021 friends! It is a new year with new goals, opportunities and we are going to crush it! Of course, hubby and I are late to the game as we are still putting together our goals for the year but we want to make sure they’re achievable and perfect, you know?

Of course, it wouldn’t be a new year without everyone's favourite goal, which is to be healthier, but I would like to say we started this back in November. Technically, it's not just one of the many New Years' resolutions right? We have been (mostly) eating healthy and started working out more consistently and are feeling AMAZING. We are really making an effort to dial in our eating habits and what we put on our plate in what portions. We are not experts and are still learning all of the time but thankfully hubby is an incredible cook. We have been enjoying our healthy meals (which can be boring when made plain), have been trying to be creative within our ingredient list and have made some delicious dinners.

We have made this salmon “poke” bowl many times over the last year or two and have received raving reviews. The fun part about this dish is you can basically add in whatever you want and it's still going to be incredible as long as you do the salmon right. Overcooked salmon is just not good so it is important to get that main part right and otherwise, this dish is super easy to make. I also find this is the perfect fresh-tasting dish in the summer months but also find it like comfort food in the winters so this dish is just perfect all around!

Ingredients

Salmon:

• Salmon filets - one per person

• Olive oil

• Salt

Side Pieces:

• Cucumber

• Mango

• Pickled ginger

• Avocado

• Mayo

• Sriracha

• Sesame seeds

• Soy sauce

• Rice

Directions

1. Begin by cooking rice - we find just setting this aside in the rice cooker is the way to go

2. Prep your salmon for pan frying. Remove scales from skin by using a sharp knife perpendicular to the fillet and rubbing against the scales until they are all off.

3. Once salmon is fully de-scaled pat dry with paper towel and let sit to dry out further(the drier it is the crispier you can get the skin). Score the skin with 1” cuts using a sharp knife, this will keep the fillet from curling up when frying.

4. Start chopping up chosen ingredients, mix mayo and Sriracha to make a delicious sauce

5. Once rice is close to finished put 1 tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan and set to medium-high heat. You want to get the oil heated to just before it starts to smoke before adding the salmon. At this point salt the salmon, you don’t want to do this too early or it will bring more moisture to the surface of the fish.

6. Add salmon to heated pan skin side down and sear for 1-2 minutes until blistered and salmon is starting to turn lighter pink close to halfway through. Flip and repeat for just 30 seconds or so and remove from pan immediately. The fish will cook much quicker on the side without skin and ideally you would have it around medium in the centre.

7. Assemble ingredients of choice and top with spicy mayo and sesame seeds

8. Enjoy!

This is by far one of our favourite meals and the simplest to make and customize for yourself. We have substituted prawns for salmon before and it was delicious as well, or you could sub in a vegetarian or vegan option to your liking and get an amazing result! If you are feeding a larger number of people this meal is perfect as people can add or pass on items they don’t love without feeling rude.

Feel free to add in any sort of classic sushi ingredient as this is basically a deconstructed piece of sushi on your plate with a lot more protein to carbohydrate ratio so the sky is the limit! You could get a little crazy and sub in some raw sushi-grade fish to feel ultra-authentic!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and meal idea, comment below if you make it and let me know how you like it. Enjoy!