Mindful Content: Quick & Easy No. 22 - Poached Salmon, Potato, Cos & Parmesan with Croutons

By Marcus Coates, @homeinriyadh, 19th August 2021

Why bother with salad?

Does the thought of eating salad leave you feeling empty inside?

It used to be that the mere mention of the word ‘salad’ had me running off to the local takeaway for a stack of cheeseburgers. In my mind, salad consisted of a few limp leaves scattered on a plate, designed as penance, after indulging in real food.

Then I discovered that I could pimp my salad with a dizzying array of other stuff to complement the green and healthy bits and still call it a salad.

Why not do yourself a favour and pimp your salad this week?

Ingredients (makes two servings):

1 x salmon fillet (skinned)

2 x large potatoes

1 x Romaine lettuce (Cos)

2 x heaped tablespoons of grated parmesan

½ cup of kalamata olives

1 x cluster of croutons (4 slices of bread)

6 x pickles

Seasoning

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Preparation Method

First up, fill a deep frying pan with water, place your salmon fillet in it, and put the pan on the stove. Gently heat and poach the salmon. Once the salmon has poached, remove the pan from the heat, drain the water, and put the salmon to one side. Once cool, flake the salmon into a large bowl. That’s the technical bit out of the way!

Next, wash two potatoes, place them in a cooking pot and fully cover with water. Boil these on the stove. When you think they’re nearly ready, try putting a knife through a potato – if it goes in and out smoothly, the potato is boiled all the way through. Remove from the heat, and drain the water. Once cool, cube the potatoes and add the cubes to the salad bowl.

After that, in a toaster, toast some bread and cut into small squares. That’s the croutons done. Add these to the bowl.

Last tricky bit: coarsely chop the Romaine lettuce, wash and drain or spin in a salad spinner. Add that to the bowl as well.

And for the finale, it’s time to jazz up your salad by adding heaps of grated parmesan, kalamata olives, a handful of pickles and a generous sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar; give it a good mix with a wooden spoon. Voila! A pimped up salad!

Serving

The beauty of this dish is that you can prepare the ingredients in advance and keep them in the fridge in a sealed container. Serving, then, becomes a matter of transferring salad from the container and piling it up on plates. I like mine extra cheesy :)

Enjoy!

Jokes

Salmon and potatoes masquerading as a salad are all well and good, but what about the jokes? I hear you say.

Joke 1:

Q: Who is the most powerful potato in the universe?

A: Darth Tater

Joke 2:

Q: Why did the potato cross the road?

A: He saw a fork up ahead!

Wisdom

Remember, when life gives you salad - add fish, bread, and cheese to it - and still call it a salad (you’ll sound incredibly healthy)!

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