I found this recipe at Tiny Morsels yesterday while hunting for something nice and healthy for dinner. I’d heard a Trader Joe’s commercial about quinoa that sparked my curiosity, and Sprouts had it AND wild-caught salmon on sale this week.
I’d never cooked with quinoa before; heck, I’d hardly even HEARD of the stuff before the TJ’s radio ad. A little background:
Although not a common item in most kitchens today, quinoa is an amino acid-rich (protein) seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked. Quinoa is available in your local health food stores throughout the year.
Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard. It is a recently rediscovered ancient “grain” once considered “the gold of the Incas.” Click here for more information.
This stuff is awesome!
Moving on to the recipe – Here it is as posted by Tree on Tiny Morsels, which, btw, is one of my new favorite blogs – I’ve bookmarked a few of her other recipes and intend to bring them to life very soon.
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
3 teaspoons canola oil
3 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped cilantro
1 sockeye salmon fillet (6-8 ounces)
kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
Combine the quinoa and the water in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10-12 minutes, or until done.
Put 2 teaspoons of the canola oil and the chopped cilantro in a shallow dish. Put the dish in the oven for 5 minutes. While the dish is in the oven, rinse and dry your salmon fillet. Remove any obvious bones, and sprinkle it with a pinch of kosher salt. When the oil and
cilantro are sizzling hot, place the salmon fillet skin side up in the pan, and let it cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, take it out of the oven and peel the skin off with a pair of tongs. It should peel off easily, if it does not, put it back in the oven for 2 minutes, and try again.
Once you’ve peeled the skin off, sprinkle it again with a pinch of kosher salt, and the ground ginger, then flip it over. Bake for 4-5 more minutes, or until its done. (I know you already know this, but, the fish will flake easily with a fork when its done.)
While the fish is baking, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of canola oil in a big frying pan and sautee the garlic for one minute. Add the spinach and toss for 1-2 minutes, or until its good and wilted
Combine the quinoa, salmon, and spinach in a bowl, and eat.
Now, for my own personal tweaks on Tree’s awesomeness.
Starting with the fish: I used coho salmon instead of sockeye. I’m not sure what difference there is, but I know that the coho was pretty darn good. I also discovered that my cilantro was in somewhat lackluster condition, so I used about a tablespoon of that and a tablespoon of roughly chopped fresh parsley. Since I don’t own canola oil, I used my extra virgin olive oil, and I also added some fresh cracked pepper with the kosher salt and ginger.
Moving on, I doubled the spinach and the garlic, and again used olive oil in place of the canola.I’ve been on a major spinach kick lately, and I’ve always been more than a little bit addicted to garlic.
As far as the quinoa, I read somewhere during my random Googling yesterday that it needed to be washed/soaked before use, so I soaked it for 15 minutes in hot water, drained it, and then started the boiling process. Once the quinoa finished cooking, it smelled and tasted a little bland, so I added a dash of garlic powder and a little bit of salt and pepper before mixing everything together for the final product.
DH was a little weirded out by the appearance of the quinoa at first, but he actually really seemed to enjoy the dish. I think my next experiment will be a quinoa risotto; I can’t wait!
