We all go through cycles of healthy and not so healthy eating habits. Anytime, I try to get back on track I tend to go back to my basics, wholesome food, non processed ingredients and fresh produce. I love different combinations of salmon and quinoa and today I would like to share with you my Salmon Quinoa Bowl.
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Salmon Bowl – Easiest Family Dinner
Dinners are usually stressful, especially if you have young kids, school activities or work late hours. Salmon bowls make for easy family dinners. If you have kids that want different sides with their protein, this is just the recipe for you. You can steam, bake, boil or roast sides and just add them alongside salmon to their taste. You can even use leftovers from the night before and they won’t even know it!
I tend to let quinoa cook at the same time as the lima beans, while I’m frying the salmon in a skillet. Then you can re-arrange sides next to salmon and add fresh spinach or arugula alongside tomatoes or other fresh ingredients.
Seasoning Salmon
There are so many ways to season salmon, I’m sure you all have your favorite methods. The most common ones are butter/dill, lemon, glazed, teriyaki etc. I love and have tried all of these and more. You can use any seasoning you like for this recipe, so no need to adhere to exact recipe from below recipe card.
When I’m in a hurry I just use extra virgin olive oil and this white pepper/lemon seasoning. Nothing else! It just takes few minutes to cook on each side and salmon is ready.
Ingredients, Substitutions and Recipe Tips
- You can make this salmon bowl with chicken, just make sure to cook chicken thoroughly and add few extra minutes because skillet chicken might take longer to cook than salmon.
- I used extra virgin olive oil to cook the salmon in a skillet, you can use butter as a substitute (but if you’re on Mediterranean Diet it’s better to stick to EVOO).
- Instead of the spinach you can use arugula or other greens. I try to keep ¼ of the plate filled with raw vegetables, so you can pick and choose which ones you like.
- I just used extra virgin olive oil and lemon as a dressing, keep it simple. However, feel free to use dressing of your choice.
- One of the steps that I feel helps me make this dinner really fast is that I cook quinoa, lima beans and salmon simultaneously. Use 2 pots and 1 skillet.
- Other healthy additions and substitutions can be lentils, black beans, asparagus, broccoli etc.
If you use the right amount of water, quinoa doesn’t need draining after it’s cooked. It’s just like rice. See below the red quinoa after it had cooked.
Then once lima beans cook, just drain them in a colander. Depending on type of lima beans you use, their cooking time might vary greatly. I used frozen green lima beans and they take only 20 minutes to cook but the dry ones will take a lot longer. Please plan accordingly for cooking times.
By overlapping cooking times between quinoa, beans and salmon you shorten overall dinner prep time. See below salmon fillets in olive oil, seasoned.
Healthy Salmon Quinoa Bowl
Equipment
- Medium size pot
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 14 ozs frozen lima beans (green variety)
- 6 fillets salmon (about 5 ozs each fillet)
- 9 tbsps extra virgin olive oil 3 tbsps to cook salmon and 1 tbsps for dressing per dinner bowl
- 1 tsp pepper/lemon seasoning mix
- 2 lemons (1 for dressing and one sliced to add to bowls)
- 5 ozs fresh baby spinach
- 10 ozs grape tomatoes, sliced in half
Instructions
- Get 2 medium size pots and a skillet.
- Add 2 cups of water in pot 1 and a pinch of salt. Set to boil, once water is boiling add quinoa in. Lower heat to medium and let cook until you see no more water. Turn heat off. Set aside
- Get second pot, add frozen lima beans, cover with water and set to boil. Cook for 20 minutes. Once beans are cooked, drain and set aside.
- Add 3 tbsps of olive oil in a skillet. Set heat to medium. Once oil becomes shiny (don't let it burn), add salmon. Salmon needs to be room temperature. Raise heat a little bit. Sprinkle with lemon/pepper seasoning each fillet. Let cook for about 4 minutes then flip with a spatula and repeat. Season and let cook about 4 minutes.
- Prepare the dinner bowls with spinach and grape tomatoes. Add salmon then surround with quiona, lima beans and lemon slices. I usually let each person at that point add olive oil, lemon juice and salt to each individual bowl to taste.
Notes
- My lemon/pepper seasoning does have salt already so I don’t add any salt to salmon when cooking.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin the below image to Pinterest. Feel free to contact me with any questions or tag me in social media if you made the recipe:). I love seeing everyone’s versions that spring from my recipes. Thank you:)
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Additional Seafood Recipes
If you like red quinoa, check out this Red Quinoa Salad and if you like more variations of lima beans, see this Lima Beans Salad recipe. Thank you:)
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