Spiced salmon with jewelled rice salad
Serves: 4
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Spiced salmon with jewelled rice salad
This Middle Eastern-inspired meal is lovely to look at and delicious to eat
Serves: 4
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
682Kcal
Fat
34gr
Saturates
7gr
Carbs
53gr
Sugars
18gr
Fibre
7gr
Protein
37gr
Salt
0.2gr
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Ingredients
- 4 x 120g salmon fillets
- 1 tsp baharat spice mix
- 75g Greek yogurt
- ½ tbsp tahini
- juice of ½ lemon
For the jewelled rice salad
- 150g basmati rice
- pinch of saffron threads
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 cardamom pods, lightly bashed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, finely sliced
- 1 x 380g carton cooked green lentils, rinsed and drained
- 80g pomegranate seeds
- 50g golden raisins, or use jumbo raisins and cranberries mix
- 50g pistachio kernels, roughly chopped
- large handful each of mint, flat-leaf parsley and dill, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ lemon
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the jewelled rice salad a few hours ahead.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. For the rice salad, rinse the rice in cold water until it runs clear. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the rice, saffron, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods along with some salt. Cook for 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain well and leave to steam dry.
- Heat half the oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the onions for 10-12 minutes or until soft. Discard the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods from the rice then add the rice to the onions, along with the lentils. Stir to combine and turn off the heat. Leave to cool to room temperature.
- Add the pomegranate seeds, golden raisins, pistachios and herbs to the rice and lentils and stir to combine. Whisk the remaining tablespoon of oil with the pomegranate molasses, lemon zest and juice and then drizzle this over the rice salad. Stir well and season to taste.
- Dust the salmon fillets with the baharat spice mix and some salt and put them, skin-side down, in a non-stick, ovenprooffrying pan. Turn to a medium heat and fry for 1-2 minutes until the skin has started to crisp, then flip the fillets over. Transfer to the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the salmon is just cooked through.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the yogurt, tahini and lemon juice to a drizzling consistency, adding a splash of water to let it down if necessary.
- Serve the salmon with the jewelled rice salad and drizzle over some of the tahini yogurt.
