Quinoa, salmon, snow peas and creamy avocado dressing bowl

This time I wanted to share, how sometimes you just don’t get it right the first time. My husband asked for a low carb recipe, and I had salmon at hand. I usually air fry my salmon with a crunch pesto crust (recipe to come!) but I wanted something different this time.

Avocado and salmon are a classic combination. A Mexican-inspired salsa could have done just the trick. In my first try, I created this quinoa bed (for the low carb) with creaming avocado, cilantro and lemon dressing and a little tomato, onion and jalapeño salsa to top it up.

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Here is the first version of the dish:

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The result was not bad, but it did not quite hit the mark. Let’s unpack that:

What went great:

The creamy cilantro, lemon and avocado dressing provided some much need unctuosity to the dry quinoa and contrasted the fatty salmon with the lemon.

To be improved:

• The salsa on top, although good, added too much different flavors and obscured the delicate creamy avocado dressing. It should have been one or the other. For my taste in this case, the dressing had to be prioritized because of the needed unctuosity for the dish. The tomatoes are also acid, and this flavor was already covered by the lemon in the sauce.

• The biggest issue in this dish by far was the texture.

1. Quinoa: grainy/mushy

2. Salmon: also, quite tender

3. Salsa: tomatoes are a bit on the crunchier side, but nothing to outbalance the texture of the rest of the dish.

Final verdict: We needed to simplify the flavors and add something crunchy!!

Final version of the recipe:

I kept the salmon, the quinoa, and the avocado dressing to which I added a bit of tabasco to counterbalance the absence of jalapeno. Instead of the salsa, which added too many different flavors, I switched towards a neutral but crunchy green: snow peas. Edamame beans would have worked well, for instance, but they are not so easy to procure here. Other options: if they are easier for you to find would be broccoli (do not cook them much or you will lose the much-needed crunch) or bok choy cabbage.

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• 3/4 cups or 150 grams of quinoa (or rice if you prefer)
• 2 salmon filets
• 2 cups or 300 grams of snow peas
• 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 table spoon of cooking oil (can be olive as well)
• Half avocado
• The juice of 1 lemon
• A few drops of tabasco (optional to taste)
• 3 table spoon of olive oil
• 1/4 cup or 50 grams of coriander
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds (optional for decoration)

• Start by cooking the quinoa. I added twice the water or around 300 grams. I usually let it cook on high head until it boils and then turn down the heat at minimum for 15mins or until the grains are tender.
• To cook the salmon, I used an air fryer at 200°C for 13mins, but pan or oven work also perfectly. I just salted the fish and put it in the airfryer.
• Prepare the creamy avocado dressing by blending the avocado, lemon, olive oil, tabasco, salt to taste, and the whole coriander (keep a couple of leaves for decoration) in a small food processor. Do keep the stems of coriander as they are quite flavorful.
• Finally sauté the snow peas in cooking oil and soy sauce for 5min or until tender but still with crunch (do I need to repeat we need the crunch? No, I think we are good right? 😉)
• Shred the salmon with a fork
• Assemble your bowl: quinoa first and snow peas first, then salmon top it with the avocado dressing and the coriander leaves. I added some back sesame seeds for color contrast, but they are purely optional.