For hot summer days, a main dish salad with chunks of salmon, veggies, herbs and orzo is just what you need. This salad is light but tasty and most of all so easy to make!
Types of Salmon and Trout for Poaching
Salmon is in season right now and as always, I like to use fresh, wild salmon and there are different types of salmon to choose from. To enjoy very moist, tender fish in your salad, fatty salmon like King salmon or medium fat salmon like Coho is best for poaching. Less fatty salmon like Sockeye is fine for grilling or frying but it’s probably bit dry for this type of dish.
Trout like Steelhead and Arctic Char are also perfect for poaching. They are so buttery and tender that I often choose trout when I want to make poached fish, gravlax or even salmon sushi.
Poaching Salmon
You can probably tell from my previous posts that I just love salmon and just about any dish with salmon in it. Salmon is just delicious anyways you cook them, but I end up poaching salmon whenever I feel it’s too hot for eating grilled or pan fried fish.
To get that moist and tender poached salmon, you need:
- Water
- White Wine
- Fresh Dill
- Lemon Juice
You don’t want to just poach the fish in plain old water. Even the freshest of fish can end up bit fishy if you don’t use wine and herbs. I also think you can never use enough dill with salmon; it add such great fresh taste to the fish. Let the fillets bathe in the shallow poaching liquid until the middle of fillet is no longer raw. For fillets that are on the thin side, this can be accomplished in under 10 minutes. If the fillet is thick, let the fish poach for 13-15 minutes.
As a finishing touch, I squeeze lemon juice over the salmon after its cooked. Lemon juice marinates the fish and adds great fragrance and acidity to the dish once the fish is combined with other ingredients.
I almost forgot to add that if the salmon comes with skin, poach the fish with the skin on. It can be peeled off very easily once it’s cooked.
As for dill, discard the cooked dill and cover the poached salmon with fresh ones. You want fresh, fragrant herb on your beautiful salmon because now you’ll be ready to break the fillets in nice large chunks to put in your salad!
Salad Ingredients
This is a main dish salad, so I used several ingredients to make sure this makes a satisfying meal with different textures and flavors combined with the poached salmon.
I originally planned to use baby spinach, mini San Marzano plum tomatoes, Orzo and capers. But while I was cooking, I decided to add sautéed red onions to the mix, which tasted delicious combined with the sweetness of the tomatoes.
You can easily substitute other ingredients. For salad greens you can also use:
- Spring Salad Mix
- Arugula
- Baby Kale
Any mini tomatoes will do, but mini San Marzano plum tomatoes that I found at Trader Joe’s are so sweet and meaty that I blistered them in my iron skillet to add to my salad.
I love Orzo and get my usual box at Whole Foods, but if you don’t care for Orzo, you can substitute Quinoa or Couscous.
Bring Everything Together!
With all the ingredients combined, this is quite a hefty salad (this will easily serve 4-5 people), so use a large bowl to combine all the ingredients. Be careful not overmix; you don’t want to break down all the nice, large tender chunks of salmon.
To avoid having soggy tomatoes, I put the blistered tomatoes right on top of the salad. The bright red, tomatoes are so sweet and adds great splashes of color to this summer time dish.
Yogurt Lemon Sauce
Creamy yogurt sauce goes so good with salmon so I made a sauce with Greek Yogurt as a base. It’s got bit of lemon juice, honey, lemon zest and more fresh dill. Why not!? I made the sauce pretty thick and creamy, but if you prefer less thick sauce, add more lemon juice and adjust the sourness with more honey.
I chose my bright Italian dinnerplates to serve my main dish salad. Hand painted plates with bright blue and yellow pattern made the dish even more lively and appetizing. A day that’s bright and sunny with great food makes it a fantastic day!
Poached Salmon Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1.5 lbs wild fresh salmon fillets
- 1 cup white wine
- ½ cup water
- juice of one lemon
- 6-7 sprigs fresh dill. (use half for poaching and other half for the salad)
- ½ red onion, cubed
- 1 cup mini san marzano tomatoes or regular mini tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup whole wheat orzo
- 3 tbsp olive oil (1 tbsp to sautee onions, 2 tbsps for cooked orzo)
- 1 bag baby spinach, washed and drained.
- ¼ cup capers
- salt and pepper to taste
For Yogurt Lemon Sauce
- ¾ cup greek yogurt (nonfat or 2% milk fat)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- ½ tsp honey
- 2 tbsp fresh dill (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Poached Salmon Salad
- Sprinkle salmon fillets with salt and cover the top of fillets with dill.
- Add water to a skillet or sauté pan and let the water simmer. Place salmon fillets, add wine and cook for 3 minutes under medium heat. After 3 minutes, turn heat to low and cook for 3-4 minutes if fillet is on the thin side. If the fillet is thick, let it cook for 10 minutes or until the flesh is no longer raw.
- Once salmon is cooked, transfer onto a plate, and discard cooked dill. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the fillets, place fresh dill on top and set it aside to cool.
- Once salmon fillets have cooled, break it off in approximately 2 inch chunks and set it aside.
- Cook orzo according to instructions on the box. Once cooked, drain completely of water and place in a large bowl. Add olive oil and mix well, breaking off large clumps with fork.
- In the meantime, heat small skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Once olive oil starts to sizzle, add red onions and sauté until soft. Transfer to a plate and let it cool.
- Place tomatoes flat in the same skillet onions were cooked in. Leave tomatoes for 2-3 minutes on the each side until tomatoes have some char marks. Transfer tomatoes to a plate and let it cool.
- Add baby spinach, onions, poached salmon chunks, capers, salt and pepper to orzo and gently combine the ingredients together. Transfer the salad to a serving platter and place the tomatoes on top of salad before serving. Serve salad with lemon yogurt sauce.
Yogurt Lemon Sauce
- In a small bowl, add greek yogurt, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk well.
- Fold in fresh dill and lemon zest to the sauce, and set it aside until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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