Grilled Salmon and Spinach Salad Recipe

Do ever have a day when you want food, it is too hot to cook, you want something different from a sandwich, you have odds and ends you need to use up in the refrigerator and realize that you’re low on just about everything and need to go grocery shopping but your stomach is stomping around like an angry toddler screaming FOOD NOW?

 

Welcome to lunchtime at the Lazy Budget Chef World Headquarters and Thunderdome.

 

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 But hey, at least I get a cold dinner or lunch salad recipe out of the deal, as well as a quick and easy healthy meal that looks way more expensive than it is because I bought all of the ingredients at Aldi.  You can make this spinach salad up ahead of time to eat as a cold dinner salad. I built my spinach salad around grilling one salmon fillet and it gave me three days of yummy leafy green and omega 3 lunches.

This grilled salad recipe is what I call a Mix and Match Recipe because you can easily omit or swap out an ingredient based on your taste or what you have in your kitchen.

• Don’t like the light licorice taste of sweet fennel? Leave it out, try using fresh dill, or your favorite herb.

 

• Can’t eat walnuts? You can bump up the protein by swapping the nut out with a sliced hard boiled egg.

 

• Can’t find Baby Bella mushrooms? White button mushrooms will work just fine.

 

• If you don’t have salmon fillets, you can use canned/pouch tuna fish or  salmon although the flakes will be to small to grill. In that case, skip Step 1 of the recipe and jump down to Step 2.

 

Let’s cook!

 

You will need the following ingredients in any amount you desire:

Salmon fillet (s ) – I’m using frozen salmon (land locked Midwestern city and all) but you can use fresh, frozen, smoked or whatever floats your boat. You can get salmon fillets delivered here.

Olive oil – I buy my olive oil by the gallon here

Sweet Fennel – I grow sweet fennel in my garden and it has a much milder taste than standard fennel. If you don’t have a ready supply growing on your patio, you can buy fennel here and use a light hand when adding it to your salad.

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Spinach – you can order fresh spinach here

Sliced carrots – you can order fresh carrots here

Walnuts – I used chopped walnuts similar to this kind

Dried cranberries – you can buy dried cranberries here

Sliced Baby Bella mushrooms – you can order fresh Baby Bella mushrooms here or use white buttons mushrooms if you like

Salad dressing of your choice 

Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.

1. Lightly coat each side of the salmon fillet and season it with sweet fennel and maybe a quick kiss of salt if you feel like it. Place the salmon fillets (s ) on the grill and cook until done. Remove the salmon from the grill.

2. Add the spinach, sliced carrots, walnuts, dried cranberries (which I admit I went overboard on,) sliced Baby Bell mushrooms to a salad bowl. I threw in more sweet fennel in a desperate attempt to keep the plants in check and because it is so mild. If you used fennel seed to season your grilled salmon, it has a much stronger flavor than sweet fennel and I would skip adding more fennel seeds to the salad greens.

3. Slice, cube, flake, the salmon fillet(s ) and add them to the salad bowl.

4. Toss your salad to thoroughly mix the ingredients together.

Look at all of those dried cranberries! NO REGRETS!

5. Serve with your favorite salad dressing. I suggest an Italian salad dressing like this one

Looking for more grilled salad ideas? Check out the following options - and more! - below!

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