A Spring Salmon Salad & Update

Hello, hello

Sorry for the lacklustre posting of late. I am in the final throes (read fortnight from) of submitting the manuscript for book two, amidst renovating a house so life is a little hectic to say the least! I endeavour post October 1 to put up a decent post, a sneak peak into the next book and some recipes I've been working on. But for now, here is this week's post over on Daily Life - a robust and super simple Tandoori smoked salmon and brown rice salad. This is super moorish and given Spring has well and truly sprung on us, the perfect antidote to the warm days and nights, working well for lunch, dinner, even lunch the next day.

Tandoori smoked salmon and brown rice salad

I love salads. Adore them. Even more so as the summer season hits. What I hate is the lack of longevity. It is so hard to keep them looking vibrant and fresh. This probably is compounded by my complete inability to judge quantities. I make salads to feed small armies. Always. Then I’m left with torrid leftovers that I try to will into sandwiches, pilafs and other such “please take my leftovers and appease my guilt” sort of dishes.

This, however, is a salad that seems to fair quite well, a rolling with the punches sort of salad. The inclusion of brown rice and firm hot smoked fish with hardy greens such as cucumber and peas, means it is exactly the dish to take you from dinner to lunch the next day, sans sogginess. It’s the culinary equivalent of those mythical dresses the fashion magazines talk about – you know the ones that will take you from work to cocktail hour or a dinner date. I’m still waiting to find that kind of dress but I’m truly happy that at least I’ve found that kind of salad.

Ingredients

200g hot smoked salmon fillet, roughly flaked using a fork

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 medium sized Lebanese cucumber, cut into ribbons using a peeler

¾  cup fresh peas, blanched and refreshed

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

½ bunch dill, finely chopped

½ bunch coriander, coarsely torn

To finish

2 tsp tandoori paste

1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Lemon wedges to serve

Method

Combine the salmon, brown rice, cucumber and peas in a large bowl. Toss gently to combine and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the lemon zest, juice and olive oil, stirring to coat. Reserve the herbs until you are ready to eat then roughly scatter across the top of the salad.

Combine the tandoori paste and yoghurt in a small bowl. Dollop blobs of yoghurt on top of the salad and serve with lemon wedges.