Salad lovin’ – salmon and potato

One of my favourite things about summer is all the beautiful salad combos that can be made. And once I realised a great salad didn’t have to contain lettuce, I was stoked! Especially as I grew up with the standard salad being iceberg lettuce, tomato [usually less than ripe], cucumber, maybe a red onion ring or 3, and a fairly basic vinaigrette. Not even close to interesting. 

I really love a salad with loads of fresh herbs, so when I picked up a beautiful bunch of fresh parsley from our local crop swap recently [and thanks to Fiona from Tiffin for sharing her haul], I knew exactly what I wanted to pair it with. Beautiful new potatoes and some poached salmon. 

Salmon and potato salad

Salmon and potato salad

What you need [serves 2]:
300g chat or new potatoes, cut in half or quarters depending on size
300g fresh salmon
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

Dressing:
100g plain yogurt [I like Chobani]
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 red onion, finely diced
generous bunch of Italian parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

What you do:
Cook the potatoes – put a medium sized saucepan with water with a bit of salt on the stove and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes and cook until just cooked [mine took about 15-20 minutes]. Remove from the heat, drain the potatoes and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes. 

Poach the salmon. To do this, almost fill a skillet or fry pan with water and bring it to the boil [leave about 2cm for the water to rise once the salmon is added]. Once the water is boiling, add the salmon so they are fully submerged in the water. Once the water is boiling again, turn off the stove, put the lid on the pan and leave it. Allow the salmon to cook in the hot water for about 10-12 minutes (maybe a bit less, depending on how thick it is). Remove salmon from water and pop on a plate with a paper towel. Leave to cool – the salmon will continue to cook. Once cool, break it ip into chunks. 

Make the dressing – add all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Adjust lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. 

Once the potatoes are cool add the dressing and mix through. 

To serve, arrange the spinach on individual plates, top with potato and the salmon. 

Serve with an extra squeeze of lemon juice.  

What are your favourite salad ingredients?