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!

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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

1. 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
2. Add the spinach and salt and let them melt into the broth
3. Blend the sauce with an immersion blender
4. Add the cornstarch mix, nutmeg, salt and pepper and reduce until slightly thicker
5. Add the lemon squeeze and cream at the end of coccion
6. Adjust the salt and pepper

The bean and fennel salad

1. Cook for 10 minutes the red quinoa (al dente)
2. Make the salad marinade by whisking the orange, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper together
3. Add all the salad ingredients to a bowl, add the marinade and mix
4. Let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes

The Salmon with crispy skin

1. 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
2. Pat dry the pieces of fish
3. Add salt and pepper (generous on the skin side)
4. 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)
5. Turn the fish and cook a minute more
6. Serve on a bed of the bean, fennel salad and a touch of spinach sauce

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Enjoy!