Salmon on a bed of white beans, fennel and orange salad accompanied with a spinach sauce is an attempt to make a crispy skin salmon dish… sadly, the skin wasn’t a success… I’ve burned it. Although the rest of the recipe turn out pretty good, maybe a little excess of sauce… This is the same spinach sauce I’ve used from the prior post; the gnocchis on spinach sauce recipe. This element is optional, of course, the original dish idea was actually without it. Fennel have a quite particular taste to it, a delicate anise flavour. I find raw fennel to be great vegetable to crave on, in summertime, there is a certain refreshing feeling to it, similar to mint. This mediterranean veggie is actually one of the primary ingredient to absinth and is filled with health benefits. When eaten raw, the fennel bulb needs to be cut finely, otherwise its taste can be overwhelming. I’ve used the mandolin and slice 2 mm slices of it and marinate it with the rest of the salad ingredient, to let all those flavours develop together.
Orange goes particularly well with raw fennel, they balance one another to perfection. Without saying… it makes the dish even more summerish and fresh. As for the rest, it’s a simple red quinoa and white bean for the protein intake of the day, a few extra veggies and the orange marinade. All this, topped with a great source of Omega 3; salmon. A healthy to the core recipe.
Let’s make this refreshing salmon!
Salmon on a white bean, fennel and mandarin salad and spinach sauce
Makes 2 portions
Ingredients
2 pieces of salmon
salt and pepper
2 tbsp of olive oil
The bean fennel salad
100g fennel bulb
250g of cooked white beans
50g of red quinoa
1/2 cucumber thinly sliced with the mandoline 2mm cut
1 carrot shaved with a peeler completely
1 orange cut into supreme quarters
The salad marinade
1 tbsp of orange juice
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper
The spinach sauce *optional
100ml of chicken broth
100g spinach
1 tsp of cornstarch (diluted in 1 tbsp of cold water)
1 tbsp of heavy cream
1 tsp of lemon juice
nutmeg
salt and pepper
Directions
Spinach sauce *optional
Add the homemade (preferably) broth to a small sized pot and reduce (cook high heat) until it loses a quarter of its liquid, about 5-6 minutes
Add the spinach and salt and let them melt into the broth
Blend the sauce with an immersion blender
Add the cornstarch mix, nutmeg, salt and pepper and reduce until slightly thicker
Add the lemon squeeze and cream at the end of coccion
Adjust the salt and pepper
The bean and fennel salad
Cook for 10 minutes the red quinoa (al dente)
Make the salad marinade by whisking the orange, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper together
Add all the salad ingredients to a bowl, add the marinade and mix
Let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes
The Salmon with crispy skin
Cut the salmon into portions, take out the bones, also take out the scales of the skin (if any) with a scaler or the back of a chef’s knife
Pat dry the pieces of fish
Add salt and pepper (generous on the skin side)
In a non stick pan, add the olive oil, medium high heat, cook the fish on its skin side for 4-6 minutes (depending of the thickness of your fish) or until the line of coccion on the side of the fish is 2/3 of the way (80% of coccion on the skin side)
Turn the fish and cook a minute more
Serve on a bed of the bean, fennel salad and a touch of spinach sauce
2 Comments
This looks like such a tasty and fresh dish! Love fennel and orange together. 🙂
Thanks! I agree… those two ingredients together are a great combination.