Weeknight Salmon & Lentil Salad With Lemony Dill Dressing | Recipe Drop | Food52

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BROILED SALMON WITH LENTIL, GRAPEFRUIT & AVOCADO SALAD:
“This fresh, vibrant lentil salad and salmon dish is hearty yet light, perfect for warm weather. I tossed black beluga lentils, arugula, avocado, grapefruit, and red onion in a lemony dressing made with whole grain mustard, honey, and fresh dill that does double duty as the salmon marinade and ties everything together. . . Ideal for lunch or dinner, you can pack it up for a picnic or easily pull it together on a busy weeknight.” – Nea

CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Introduction
00:32 – Prepping the Lentils
01:43 – Making the Dressing
05:01 – Broiling the Salmon
08:17 – Slice the Fruit & Veg
11:24 – Salmon Out of the Oven
11:59 – Garnishes
12:12 – Building the Plate
15:40 – Tasting!

GET THE RECIPE:
Broiled Salmon with Lentil, Grapefruit & Avocado Salad: https://food52.com/recipes/90186-broiled-salmon-with-lentil-grapefruit-avocado-salad

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perfect lunch right here it’s so good hey everyone it’s Nia I’m back with another recipe drop from the food 52 Test Kitchen where me and Caesar bring you new recipes every week and today I am making a broiled salmon with cold lentil salad it’s an example of how I eat most days it has grapefruit has avocado it has red onion and it’s dressed and marinated with a whole grain mustard vinegret dressing with dill it’s so delicious let’s get into it so the first step is to preheat the oven so I have it preheated to the broiler with a rack in the top position because we want the salmon to get nice and charred on the top so I have A3 of a cup of beluga lentils I really like Beluga lentils I feel like they hold up a little better they don’t get as mushy as red lentils I’m going to cover the lentils with about an inch of water and I’m going to cook these kind of like how you would cook pasta you don’t have to be too precious about the amount of water which I really like I’m also o going to add just a little bit of baking soda so an eighth of a teaspoon to be exact lentils cook a little bit faster and get a little softer in an alkaline environment and that’s exactly what the baking soda does it raises the ph and makes it more basic I guess I’m also going to add about a teaspoon of salt it might seem like a lot of salt but because we’re going to drain all the water anyway not all the salt is going to get into the lentils so again the idea is kind of to cook the lentils like pasta so think about how like when you cook pasta you salt the pasta water I’m going to bring this to a boil over medium high heat and let them cook for about 10 minutes on to the dressing slm marinade I’m starting with a four of a cup of extra virgin olive oil I love this because it can be a dressing it can be a sauce it can be a marinade then I’m going to add a tablespoon of whole grain mustard you could use stone ground if you want I just prefer whole grain I just think it’s really good I like the little like pops of mustard that you get I’m going to add about a tablespoon of honey I kind of hate measuring honey it’s kind of a pain to get out of the measuring spoon so I’m just going to eyeball this yeah there we go okay okay so since I forgot to do the garlic before I am going to chop about half a teaspoon of garlic so actually we probably only need one of these a one teaspoon is about the same as like one large clove of garlic so I’m just going to chop this into a paste mash it down a little do you have a garlic press or what do you do you great garlic or do you chop garlic or do you use a garlic press I do exactly what you’re doing now but I think I’m going to swap to like microplaning it yeah it’s so much easier yeah we also have a really really good garlic press on the site I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s really good okay half teaspoon of chopped garlic now I’m GNA add about a teaspoon of chopped Dill too fresh dill here is crucial definitely don’t use dried dill I feel like it is one of those things that really makes the recipe really makes the dressing so if you don’t have dill and you want to make this recipe I highly recommend just going out to buy it it’s worth it fresh herbs is also one of those things that I don’t really measure cuz a little bit extra is only going to add to the flavor so about a teaspoon all right I’m going to squeeze a bit of lemon juice I really like this little thing I feel like I use it a lot because it has tablespoon and ounce measurements so it’s really easy for things like this like when you’re measuring lemon juice or just a small amount of something like the olive oil too 2 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice or half of a lemon and then I’m going to reserve the second half to cut some wedges for serving I’m just going to season with a little bit of freshly ground black pepper and a generous pinch of salt I’m also going to Seasons taste so the idea here with this dressing is you want to whisk it until it’s really nice and emulsified and kind of becomes thick so it spreads on the salmon in really nicely and like evenly so good add a little bit more salt this is probably one of my favorite meal combinations is Dill mustard honey salmon I think it’s so good and honestly I think whenever I make salmon nine out of 10 times I do something like this all right going to set that aside okay moving on to the salmon I have 1 and 12 lbs of salmon flaze here skin on cuz I really like the skin if you don’t like it you can cut it off this is a pound and a half of salmon you could use two pounds if you want you could use one pound it really depends on how many people you are serving I’m going to move this up here going to poat this dry just to get rid of B extra moisture on top which is going to help with the boiling process and Browning okay we’re pausing on the salmon for a sec the lentils are done going to drain them because this is a cold lentil salad I am going to rinse them with cold water this is going to stop the cooking process and this is also going to get rid of all the extra lentil starch too which in my opinion makes them a lot easier to digest I’m going to transfer them back into the pot and I’m going to season them with salt and pepper it’s important especially when you’re making a dish like this with like different components of a salad that each ingredient or component should be able to hold or stand by itself so you should want to eat these lentils even without the salad or the rest of the ingredients see I would eat that just as they are going back to the salmon I’m going to sprinkle the tops with nice pinch of salt and this is kosher salt that I’m using this is going to help draw out some moisture which is then kind of going to be act do like a little Brine and the salt is going to go into the salmon and season the salmon from the inside out although it’s not sitting for that long little bit of pepper and now I’m going to top the salmon with a little bit of dressing or sauce and I’m going to save the rest to drizzle over the salad later make sure that you’re not touching the utensil to the salmon and then going back into the dressing because we don’t want to cross contaminate use a spoon or a brush like this to just spread it out over the salmon when I develop Savory recipes not so much baking recipes because I just love to bake regardless I like to think about what I eat at home on the weekends um it’s kind of my inspiration a lot of the time a lot of my Savory recipes are also on the easier side like this only takes maybe half an hour to make and as you are seeing doesn’t require that much effort all right so add any more dressing if you feel like it needs it I think this looks pretty good so I’m going to B the salmon on the top Rock for 7 minutes until it reaches 120° F I know that seems a little bit low but we’re going to take it out and the heat from the salmon is going to carry it to the finish line and it’s going to be perfectly cooked 7 minutes so in the meantime I’m going to cut the grapefruit and the avocado and the onion I just do it really basically cut the top off cut the bottom and then I’m going to just go around the sides and actually I’m going to peel it peel it cut it whatever you want sometimes if you cut it you can remove more of this white pith but sometimes I feel like I’m cutting off too much of the grapefruit so I kind of like to peel it when I can then you can always go in and get rid of more of the white stuff if it bothers you so I’m going to cut this into like half inch slices I like to use a chef’s knife make sure sure it’s sharp though this one could for sure use some sharpening if I’m making a recipe I like to stick to one knife if possible it’s not always the case but since we’re doing a lot of chopping and stuff I’m just sticking with this chef’s knife all right and then I’m going to cut it into smaller pieces so about that size because it’s really you can keep them bigger but I like to have pieces of grapefruit with every bite and you know I usually use a knife when I’m eating but if you don’t use a knife when you’re eating then you can still kind of eat this without having to cut the grapefruit so I’m cutting each half into about four pieces what’s a really fancy technique called again where you go between I’m blinking Caesar what’s the fancy like what’s it called again you go in between why am I blanking on the name Supreme yes when I first developed this recipe I did a a Supreme cut which is when you go between the pth layers and just cut off the I you get like really clean wedges but I just find it tedious so we’re doing this I also feel like it’s just kind of a waste of grapefruit you know also for assembly I’m going to slice some red onion I don’t use that much for this recipe if you love onion you know you do you add more if you want I’m just going to thinly slice about an eigh of the whole onion so half of this then I have an avocado here it’s actually already cut someone was use someone started using the other day but I’m only going to use half there goes our salmon timer let’s check it out so hot all right so it’s only at 100 and two so a few more minutes so the time of the salmon will kind of depend on how hot your oven is all ovens vary so somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes is the sweet spot now I’m going to slice it lengthwise into thin slices really like qu inch slices remove it out of the peel just to make it easier for garnishing later oh my God it’s so hot at 122 it’s perfect 123 that’s nice that’s the perfect Char could be like a little Browner on top but I really don’t want to overcook the salmon so looks really good that is the hard thing about cooking salmon that are different thicknesses is that you’re going to get some pieces that are a little bit more cooked some pieces that are a little less cooked the thinner ends are going to be much more cooked than the thick Ms now I’ll that’s left to do is cut the lemon into wedges and then here we have some more Dill that I saved as well to top the salad with I have this 5 oz container of baby aruga I’m only going to use about half but if you’re feeding a crowd use the whole thing this recipe is really easy to double as you can probably tell just going to spread it out I think this is a really good spring or summer recipe because it’s perfect for eating outside and assembling quickly just as like family style which I really like anything that can be made family style is I think really nice okay going to top with the cold belue lentils I Envision eating this on even like a Thursday midweek outside at the picnic table if you have one we’re just inside on like a sunny evening just afternoon I guess the fact that it’s a cold lentil salad also makes it really nice for lunch not just a dinner I’m going to add the grapefruit I’m going to do about half of the toppings and then I’m going to toss it and add the rest I think another thing that would be really good to add on the salad would be shaved fennel in with the avocado make make sure to separate the slices so that you get an even distribution okay I’m going to drizzle about half of the remaining dressing on top gently I’m going to gently give it a toss you can also bring this on the go you could prep all your toppings ahead of time cook the lentils bring the container of arugula and um you know make the salmon a head let it cool and then just assemble it at your picnic or or Beach or wherever it is you’re eating it so just tossing until the lentils are kind of evenly distributed amongst the arugula all right going in with the rest of the grapefruit if you are not a lentil fan you could also swap the lentils out for barley quinoa any type of grain I think would be really nice here tuck the avocado pieces in a little they’re so big and the last of the red onion okay now I’m just going to top it with the salmon so obviously depending on the size of your serving platter you know I only added three of the salon fls here because it’s clearly all I room for so make sure you choose one that’s big enough okay putting the little lemon wedges on the side to drizzle with the last of the dressing going onto the salmon too I’m so excited that I’m making this right now because it is4 to noon so perfect for lunch I purposefully did not pack lunch today because I knew I was going to make this and those are the best days so I’m going to garnish with a bit more fresh dill and then you can go in and I’m going to top it with a little bit more breshly ground black pepper and just a small sprinkle of salt there we have it super easy quick salmon and cold Beluga lentil salad that’s perfect for lunch dinner summer eating really whenever looks really good I’m starving so I’m very excited to dig in Salmon I’m going to go this one see it is perfectly cooked 120 125 sweet spot I just love the arugula and combination with the citrusy grapefruit and the cream avocado it’s so good I love distressing always hits and it’s always so good on salmon the salmon is really tender and cooked perfectly and it it just goes really nice with the lightness of an aruga salad and the lentils are really nice because they don’t weigh the salad down too much which I really like if you need a quick lunch or dinner summer recipe especially if you like salmon you can find the recipe link Down Below in the description like comment and subscribe and I’ll see you in the next video