Baked Salmon Salad

I love a good salad! Not a little tiny side salad, but a hardy nutritious meal salad. A salad like this baked salmon salad. Lettuce with hard boiled eggs, juicy cherry tomatoes, sliced avocado, fresh baked salmon, blue cheese, pecans, and a creamy yet tart lemon garlic dressing! 

Salads often get a reputation for being a dull weight lose food that woman force themselves to eat in order to stay thin. Well I want to be healthy, fit, and lean so I design my salads to support that goal! This salad is high in protein (containing 33.7g of protein), healthy fats (like omega 3 fatty acids), vitamins (like b vitamins, vitamin a, and vitamin c), minerals (like Cobalamin, Potassium, Magnesium, and Zinc), antioxidants, fiber, and more. (1) All these nutrients, mean that this salad will help fuel your body, prevent disease, and keep you healthy and strong.

Another thing I love about these salads is that they are great to take with you on the go. I like to make 3 salads at once and then bring them to work the next 3 days. Bringing food with me helps me to stay on track with healthy eating. It relieves the temptation to eat out and by not eating out, I save money. That’s like a win, win, win!

Anyways I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I freakin love it!

With love from my kitchen to yours,

Kayley

Baked Salmon Salad

Yields3 Servings
Total Time30 mins

Ingredients:
Salad-
 0.75 lb salmon
 salt to taste
 pepper to taste
 2 tsp butter (grass fed preferred)
 3 eggs
 5 cups lettuce, chopped
 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered (100g)
 ¾ medium sized avocado (135g) (sliced and salted if eating now, left uncut if eating later) 
 11 pecan halves, crushed (17g)
  cup blue cheese (1.5 oz) (leave out for paleo or dairy free version)
Dressing-
 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
 1 garlic clove, minced
 salt to taste
 pepper to taste

Recipe:
1

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

2

Meanwhile prepare salmon. Place salmon fillet on a baking sheet or cast iron pan, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper and place the butter pieces on top of the salmon. Tuck any thinner pieces under to make a more uniform thickness for even cooking.

3

Once the oven is preheated, bake salmon for 12-15 minutes or till you get an internal temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Once done, let rest for 10 minutes. Then cut into large rough cubes (like in the picture).

4

Meanwhile, make the hard boiled eggs. Place eggs in a medium sized pot with enough water to cover, bring to a soft covered boil over high heat. Then reduce heat to medium high and let simmer for 7 minutes. Once done drain water, rinse eggs in cold water, and set aside to finish cooling. Once cool, peal, cut into slices, and season with salt and pepper.

5

Then toast your pecans in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes till golden brown.

6

Next, make your dressing. Blend all the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend till smooth. Then set aside. If you do not have a blender, combine all ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously to mix.

7

Now it’s time to assemble the salads! Divide the lettuce evenly amongst 3 bowls or tupperwares. Top with salmon, eggs, cherry tomatoes, avocado, pecans, and blue cheese. Serve with dressing and enjoy! If you are making the salad togo, wait to add the avocado. Right before you leave the house cut a quarter of an avocado, leave piece whole, season with salt (to help preserve it), and throw it in your Tupperware. Bring a knife with you and cut your avocado right before you eat it.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
Salad-
 0.75 lb salmon
 salt to taste
 pepper to taste
 2 tsp butter (grass fed preferred)
 3 eggs
 5 cups lettuce, chopped
 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered (100g)
 ¾ medium sized avocado (135g) (sliced and salted if eating now, left uncut if eating later) 
 11 pecan halves, crushed (17g)
  cup blue cheese (1.5 oz) (leave out for paleo or dairy free version)
Dressing-
 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
 1 garlic clove, minced
 salt to taste
 pepper to taste

Directions

Recipe:
1

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

2

Meanwhile prepare salmon. Place salmon fillet on a baking sheet or cast iron pan, skin side down. Season with salt and pepper and place the butter pieces on top of the salmon. Tuck any thinner pieces under to make a more uniform thickness for even cooking.

3

Once the oven is preheated, bake salmon for 12-15 minutes or till you get an internal temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Once done, let rest for 10 minutes. Then cut into large rough cubes (like in the picture).

4

Meanwhile, make the hard boiled eggs. Place eggs in a medium sized pot with enough water to cover, bring to a soft covered boil over high heat. Then reduce heat to medium high and let simmer for 7 minutes. Once done drain water, rinse eggs in cold water, and set aside to finish cooling. Once cool, peal, cut into slices, and season with salt and pepper.

5

Then toast your pecans in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes till golden brown.

6

Next, make your dressing. Blend all the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend till smooth. Then set aside. If you do not have a blender, combine all ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously to mix.

7

Now it’s time to assemble the salads! Divide the lettuce evenly amongst 3 bowls or tupperwares. Top with salmon, eggs, cherry tomatoes, avocado, pecans, and blue cheese. Serve with dressing and enjoy! If you are making the salad togo, wait to add the avocado. Right before you leave the house cut a quarter of an avocado, leave piece whole, season with salt (to help preserve it), and throw it in your Tupperware. Bring a knife with you and cut your avocado right before you eat it.

Notes

Baked Salmon Salad

Nutrition:

Ingredients Calories Fat Carbs Protein
0.75 lbs salmon 708 44g 6g 68g
3 eggs 210 15g 0g 18g
11 pecan halves (17g) 121.5 12.4g 2.4g 1.6g
1/3 cup blue cheese (1.5 oz) 150 12g 1.5g 9g
5 cups lettuce 13.3 0.3g 2.5g 1g
3/4 avocado (135g) 153.3 20.4g 10.8g 2.7g
3 Tbsp and 1/2 tsp oil 411.5 44.3g 0g 0g
12 cherry tomatoes (100g) 18.6 0.2g 4g 0.9g
Total (serves 3) 1,786.1 148.6g 27.2g 101.2g
1 serving 595.4 49.5g 9.1g 33.7g

(2)

Notes:

  • Nutrition is based on the products I use. I provide a nutrition table so that you can quickly check to see if your food products match or so that you can easily calculate the nutrition for any changes you want to make to the recipe. I think this helps if you have very specific diet goals and/or fitness and/or health goals. I also wanted you to be able to see exactly where I get the numbers for my nutrition facts so that you can see that they are reliable and learn more about macro breakdowns of food.
  • I calculated only half of the oil put on the salmon because a lot sticks to the pan. I calculated all of the oil from the dressing though, because I get practically all of that out of the food processor.

Works Cited

1. Spritzler, Franziska. “11 Impressive Health Benefits of Salmon.” Healthline. 20 December 2016. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-benefits-of-salmon

2. Nutritionix. Gladson. https://www.nutritionix.com/ Accessed 21 January 2019.