Spicy Salmon with Lemon-Olive Quinoa

September 19, 2012 Category Seafood 1 Comment Tags olives, quinoa, salmon

Ahoy! Happy National Talk Like a Pirate Day! I wanted to do an entire blog post in pirate-speak, but unfortunately that is easier said than done, matey. Instead, enjoy this what crawled out o’ t’ bung hole straight from t’ sea!

Pirate talk aside, I am pretty proud of myself for making this salmon. Not because it’s hard to make (it’s not), but because I have been physically incapable of cooking any type of salmon besides our favorite for months now. And while our favorite is still our favorite (have you tried it yet?), this was a nice change of pace that is admittedly much healthier than our go-to.

SPICY SALMON WITH OLIVE-LEMON QUINOAAAAAARGH (do you see what I did just there? adapted from Fitness Magazine)

1/2 cup green onions, chopped
Pinch red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
Nonstick cooking spray
1 pound thick skin-on salmon fillet
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup pitted, chopped black olives
Juice and zest of one lemon

1. Preheat oven to 450. In a small bowl, combine green onions, red pepper flakes, and pinch of salt with 1/2 tbsp olive oil.
2. Spray roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray and lay salmon in it, skin side down. Cover salmon with green onion/ red pepper mixture. Roast salmon in top third of oven until it is barely opaque at the center of the thickest part, 12-15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cook quinoa according to package directions. When finished, add remaining olive oil, pine nuts, olives, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Salt to taste and serve salmon over quinoa.

We both liked this – it tasted very fresh and healthy. Don’t forget to make sure your pine nuts aren’t from China — pine nuts from thar be no good!