Greens Do The Body Good

In this episode, I talk about excess. Too much of anything isn’t good for you, right? Even if it feels good at the moment.

Initially, I found it very difficult to be at peace and accept my new reality so I did what any young and newly single woman in Paris would do. I partied. A lot.

Until it became too much and I started losing myself.

I wasn’t happy. 

I didn’t recognize myself.  

I was hiding from myself when all I really needed was to begin the journey of falling in love with myself again and accepting my new reality.

When I finally decided that the drinking, smoking, and going out were becoming too much and I needed to center myself, essentially stop acting a fool, this was a good dish to restart on the right foot.

This salad is so easy and takes such little time, it’s almost ridiculous.  You will be able to whip up it up in less than 15 minutes. Even if you arrive home exhausted from a long day or you’re back from that crazy boot camp class and you’re debating whether or not you even have any energy left to shower, please do yourself a favor and make this salad.

You won’t regret it, trust me.

When I made this salad I focused on chopping the veggies first since they would be the most time-consuming.  I chopped everything and put it to the side. I added a little bit of lemon to the avocado so that it didn’t get brown and gross – I recommend doing that.

While all of the veggies were sitting tight and waiting for me I pan-fried the salmon in about a teaspoon of olive oil for about 4 minutes, 2 minutes on each side. Okay to be totally honest, the first time I made this I bought the wrong type of salmon. Remember in the first episode when I said I wasn’t a GREAT cook? I wasn’t just being humble. :)  When I was ready to make this salad I realized that I bought sliced smoked salmon and not salmon fillets.

How did I make that mistake?

WHO KNOWS?!?!  

I was disappointed because my plan was to pan-fry a salmon fillet, then pull it apart and sprinkle it over the salad. Once it dawned on me what I had done I panicked for about 2.5 seconds then said to myself “What the hell, I’ll just pan-fry the smoked salmon. IT’S NOT AGAINST THE LAW”.  All that to say, you can either use a salmon fillet or smoked salmon in this recipe. The most important bit is to make sure the salmon is cooked and flakey.

I didn’t add any leafy greens to this salad, but if you need or would like a bit more roughage I would recommend spinach or boston (butterhead) lettuce because the flavors are subtle. I wouldn’t go with a mustard green or arugula because I feel like they would be a bit overpowering.

I didn’t take the most amazing photos of the salad before I dived in, SORRY! But it was very pretty and tasted even better.

Salmon, avocado and fennel salad

Ingredients

• 4 slices of smoked salmon

• 2 tomatoes

• ½ cucumber

• 1 whole avocado (because I LOVE avocado)

• 1/3 cup of sliced fennel

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Pepper

Preparation

I quickly pan-fried the salmon, adding a tiny bit of salt and some ground pepper. Once it was finished I put it to the side as I plated the salad with the aforementioned chopped veggies. You will see in my other recipes that I don’t really have plating recommendations but I think it looks pretty this way. :)

If you decide to add leafy greens to this recipe I would put that on the plate first, as the foundation. If not, then start with a layer of tomatoes on the bottom, on top of the tomatoes add the avocado, then add the chopped cucumbers, then the smoked salmon that you’ve pulled apart, then on top of that add the chopped fennel.

Sprinkle with a half a pinch of salt, a full pinch of black pepper and a bit of olive oil. Take a photo for Instagram, then mix! :) 

I had a glass of chardonnay with this dish because it was fish-based. I was not disappointed with this Mâcon-Villages chardonnay made by Valentin Vignot. It was fruity, crisp and slightly lemon-y, which was a perfect pairing with the salmon. Although I don’t like adding lemon directly to seafood, I will admit that the hint of lemon in the wine was quite divine.

I tried so hard to find the exact bottle or more information about this mysterious Mr. Valentin Vignot online but I didn’t find anything.  However, I did find a very informative site where you can learn more about Bourgogne wine.

Bisous!

Gabz, Al, Tiff, Chant, Kristin, Samar, Brenda, Camille, Nath, Evelyn, Jen and my sister Sam, thank you for either listening talking, drinking or dancing with me when I needed it the most. I am much better now and it is in large part thanks to all of you.