Megan-Approved Recipe: Summer Salad + Simple Salmon

Megan-Approved Recipe: Summer Salad + Simple Salmon

Dancers Shape’s Certified Nutritional Health Coach Megan Adams Brown will be sharing her “Megan-Approved Recipes” with us here on the blog and offering personal and group nutrition programs through the studio. Learn more about Megan and how you can get a Nutrition Makeover here.

This summer salad and simple salmon is the perfect easy summer dinner on those nights when it’s too hot to cook. And the best part is you can use the same basic recipe and change it up with different ingredients and flavors so even though it’s basically the same meal, it tastes totally different.

I like to think of this, and most of my recipes really, as more of a template than a recipe. You can change it up and turn it into different meals, and essentially it’s the same recipe, just with a few tweaks.

Give it a try using the recipe below as a base and add things (any of the ingredients listed below are fair game), or sub this or that using your own favorite ingredients. Get creative and have fun with it.

Here are just a few ideas of how you could change this recipe up:

• Sub strawberries for peaches or nectarines

• Sub strawberries for raspberries, blackberries or blueberries or mix them!

• Sub strawberries for tomatoes

• Sub radishes for beets and strawberries for watermelon

• Sub radishes for red bell pepper, red onion for green onion, strawberries for corn

You get the idea…I could go on and on. That’s the beauty of a summer salad, pretty much anything goes!

If you like this laid-back, anything goes kind of cooking, check out Dinner in 10 - my online cooking class + meal prep training program that teaches you my system for making dinner in 10 minutes every night of the week. You can try it out for free here.

Summer Salad + Simple Salmon - Serves 4

Ingredients

For the salmon:

4 -6 oz salmon filets

2 cloves garlic, minced

zest of 1 lemon

1/4-1/2 cup avocado oil

sea salt

black pepper

Change it up:

1. add fresh chopped herbs like parsley and dill

2. add a squirt of dijon mustard and honey

For the salad:

1 bunch spinach

1/2 a cucumber, thinly sliced

3-4 radishes, thinly sliced

about 1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup strawberries, stemmed and quartered

For the dressing:

juice of 1 lemon

2x as much extra-virgin olive oil

1 squirt dijon mustard

1 small clove garlic, minced

sea salt

black pepper

Method

For the salad and dressing:

In a salad bowl, layer spinach, cucumber, red onion, strawberries.

To prepare the dressing, in a small bowl combine all ingredients. Whisk to combine.

Drizzle dressing (note: you may not need all of it, just use enough to coat) over salad and toss.

For the salmon:

To prepare the salmon, combine garlic, lemon zest and avocado oil in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

Place salmon filets in a prep dish and coat with marinade. Season with salt and pepper. Let marinate in fridge 30 minutes or longer.

To pan fry: Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp avocado oil and coat pan. Place filets flesh side down and cook 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook another 3-4 minutes depending on desired doneness. To remove from pan slide spatula between flesh and skin to leave the skin behind.

To grill: Heat grill to about 375°. Place filets on grill flesh side down and grill 5 minutes. Flip and grill another 4-5 minutes depending on desired doneness. To remove from pan slide spatula between flesh and skin to leave the skin behind.

To broil: Preheat broiler and make sure oven rack is at least 6 inches from heat source. Place filets skin side down on a foil-lined baking sheet and cook 8-10 minutes to desired doneness. To remove from pan slide spatula between flesh and skin to leave the skin behind.

Enjoy!

Megan

P.S. Want more easy recipes you can change up and make in 10 minutes or less? Go grab my FREE 3-Day Meal Plan here.