The New Nordic Diet & IKEA 2/3

I am continuing my IKEA collaboration series with yet another super simple recipe. These bite sized avocado and gravlax wraps make a great party food, but also a delicious lunch. Instead of using the soft thin bread as a wrap, you could also use dark bread (cut up in small pieces, if used as finger food, of course) or a combination of both! The combination of avocado and gravlax is quite mellow, so you may want to considering offering a dab of mustard and dill sauce alongside. This is such a quick and easy recipe idea even if guests are already on their way! 

Avocado and Gravlax Wraps

(makes 20-25 pieces)

soft thin bread, thawed 

gravlax (marinated salmon), thawed

2 avocados

fresh dill, to serve

mustard and dill sauce, to serve

1. Peel the avocados and remove the seeds. Mash the avocados with a fork. 

2. Spread some avocado on a piece of thin bread and top with 2-3 slices of gravlax. 

3. Wrap the bread into a roll and cut to bite sized pieces. Decorate with fresh dill and serve with mustard sauce. 

The New Nordic Diet & IKEA

I am so excited to be teaming up with IKEA to promote the Nordic diet in Australia. Ever since I started this blog back in 2009, I have been doing my bit to help spread the word about the Scandinavian way of eating. Time and time again, I have mentioned the health benefits of a traditional Nordic diet, which includes plenty of seafood, game meat, wild berries and mushrooms and other fresh, seasonal ingredients. There is so much goodness packed into the cornerstones of the Nordic diet that it is about time we start taking real action towards making it familiar to the larger public. 

We all know how ingenious IKEA is in its approach to furniture, and I've always been impressed by their selection of Nordic food as well. I love finding familiar ingredients and I always stock up on a few key products for our home: different types of herring to have with knackebrod, lingonberry jam to have with pretty much everything and those handy bread mixes for long weekend breakfasts. 

In this three part series "The New Nordic Diet & IKEA", I'll share recipes using some of those ingredients found at IKEA. I'm starting off with a traditional salmon soup. This is a great dish for the cooler autumn nights we're heading towards. It's simple food and quick to prepare. If you're keen to make it that extra bit healthier, just leave out the cream and make a clear soup instead. Add seasonal vegetables like carrots and swede, and use fresh herbs for flavour. Knackebrod with cheese is a perfect companion for the soup. I can't even imagine having it without some on the side.

Creamy Salmon Soup

(serves 4)

1 litre of water or fish stock

10-15 whole peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) salt

1 onion, finely chopped

6-7 potatoes, peeled and cut to chunks

500g salmon fillet, cut into bite sized pieces

300ml cream

a whole bunch of dill, finely chopped

knackebrod, to serve

cheese, to serve

1. Add water or stock, peppercorns, salt and onion to a large casserole. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. 

2. Add potatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are half-cooked.

3. Add salmon and simmer on low heat for a further 10-15 minutes or until the fish has cooked through. Finally add cream and let the soup come to a boil. Turn off the heat, add chopped dill and serve with knackebrod and cheese.

Creamy Salmon Soup

One final winter recipe before we flip the calendar page over to September (and spring!) tomorrow. This past winter in Sydney has been exceptionally warm with temperatures reaching up to 25C and beyond. One can hardly call that winter anymore!

I couldn't help myself making one of my all time favourites soups despite the warm weather and I'm secretly hoping we will have at least one or two cooler spring days so I'll have an excuse to make this again before summer is here. 

I love this creamy salmon soup with lots of dill and a side of rye bread or rieska would have been absolutely perfect with this. I'm not sure if carrots are part of the original recipe, but to me they bring added sweetness and colour to this dish and I just must have them there.

With these thoughts I wish you all a happy spring (or autumn, depending where you are) !

Creamy Salmon Soup

(serves 4)

1 litre of water

whole peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) salt

1 onion, finely chopped

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

6-7 potatoes, peeled and cut to chunks

500g salmon, skinned and boned, cubed

300ml cream

whole bunch of dill, finely chopped

1. Add water, peppercorns, salt and onion to a large casserole. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. 

2. Add carrots and potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are half-cooked.

3. Add salmon and cream and simmer on low heat for a further 10-15 minutes or until the fish has cooked through. Add dill and serve.

Tomatoey Salmon Soup

I am enjoying a day off work and treated myself to some fresh flowers and a loaf of sourdough this morning. What better to accompany a slice of such bread than a hearty soup? We are having quite a warm July here in Sydney this year so soups haven't been on my menu as much as they usually are at this time of the year. I do, however, love making (and eating) soups when the weather allows.

It's been a while since I've posted a non-vegetarian recipe here on my blog, but I am making an effort to include a bit more fish on my weekly diet. This soup is so easy and quick to whip up and it was a perfect lunch to make between shopping and house-cleaning. I'm certainly fuelled to keep going now!

Tomatoey Salmon Soup

olive oil

1 brown onion, chopped finely

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

600-700ml water

vegetable or fish stock

4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

400g salmon, skinned, boned and cubed

a bunch of dill, finely chopped

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and add onions and carrots. Cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes, water and stock. Add potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender. 

2. Add salmon and cook for a further 5-10 minutes until just cooked. Finally, add dill.

Tomatoey Salmon Soup

Baby's Breath flowers

Rye and Spelt Crusted Smoked Trout Tart

 

Ok, so I can't seem to stop enthusing over smoked trout. Isn't it just the best summer food (and why not winter too)? I think I've made my point about how versatile it is (see the salad and the paste), but to be on the safe side here's one more dish you can make using this tasty fish. 

It was perhaps not the best idea to bake a tart in this summer heat, but I thought why not since it's going to be hot anyway, right? This smoked trout tart certainly doesn't require a lot of effort even if you are feeling like you're being snowed under (I so hope we were, literally!). There's a lot of taste thanks to fresh dill and chives, and the rye and spelt crust gives an extra healthy twist.

Rye and Spelt Crusted Smoked Trout Tart

{Crust}

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 cup rye flour

pinch of salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup cold water

{Filling}

400g smoked trout, boned and broken into pieces

250g light sour cream

100ml milk

2 large free-range eggs

small bunch dill, finely chopped

small bunch chives, finely chopped

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

To make the base, add both types of flour into a bowl, season with salt and add the oil and water. Mix into a dough and roll into a large round sheet. Place the sheet on top of a pie dish (25cm, oiled) and even the edges.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C and prepare the filling. Place the trout in a bowl and mix in the sour cream. Lightly whisk the eggs with the milk and add them in. Add in the herbs and season. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Blind bake (with baking beads) the base for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the beads and top with the filling. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until the filling feels firm to touch. Let cool, then cut into pieces and serve with fresh salad.

Smoked Trout Paste

Doesn't an extra day off in the middle of the week feel so luxurious? We were fortunate to have a public holiday this week, so I wanted to make a light dinner to celebrate. It's been scorching hot here in Sydney, so something light and summery was definitely in order!

I've fallen in love with smoked trout I used for the salad recently. It's such an awesome summertime ingredient (why not for a light meal in winter too), and surprisingly versatile. This paste is another favourite of mine from Finnish summers. Often it is served with new potatoes and a fresh salad on the side, but I bought some bread and nice olives (oh how I love those Sicilian ones!), and used rest of the trout for a salad. Perfect summer meal with a glass of wine on a day off!

Smoked Trout Paste

250g light sour cream

100g smoked trout

3 tbsp chives, finely chopped

2 tbsp dill, finely chopped

1/2 lemon zest (finely chopped) and juice

tiny pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for at least half an hour before serving. Serve with new potatoes or nice bread and a salad on the side.

Fast Food: Smoked Trout Salad

There are a few things I find it very hard, if not even impossible, to negotiate no matter how busy life gets:

1) 8 hour sleep every night (I can just about manage with 7 if I really have to)
2) daily exercise
3) clean bed sheets at least once a week
4) real food

And this is my kind of real fast food: a smoked trout salad, which is especially perfect for summer. Different versions of this salad are a staple in Finland during summer because it is so easy and quick, not to mention healthy, and you can make it more or less wholesome (by way of adding potatoes, for example) according to your wish. Tasty it is as well, of course ;-)

Smoked Trout Salad

(Serves 2)

1 smoked trout, about 400g

2 eggs, soft or hard boiled whichever you prefer

mixed salad leaves

punnet cherry tomatoes

caperberries, rinsed

1 shallot green, finely chopped

fresh dill

Dressing

150g light sour cream

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

Take the skin and the bones off the trout and break into bite sized pieces. Peel the eggs and cut in quarters. Place the salad leaves, tomatoes and shallot in a large bowl. Add fresh dill according to taste. Fold in the trout.

In a separate bowl, mix together the sour cream, lemon juice and dill and season with salt and pepper. Place some salad on a platter, top with eggs and serve with the dressing.


PS. I guess blogging should also be added to the list above... *ahem*

Finnish Food: Salmon Soup and Other Staples

I am often asked what Finnish food is like. Traditionally, Finnish food was very seasonal; even when I was small there were no Finnish tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. in winter, but nowadays the greenhouses provide these vegetables all year around. In winter, the primary purpose for food was to provide energy in the harsh climate, and many traditional recipes are simple dishes consisting of meat and potato.

I realised that living in Australia has changed the way I think about food. In Australia all fruit and vegetables are sold seasonally and I have learned to appreciate and value this. I was surprised to find exotic fruit sold in Finland in the midst of winter (all imported of course), and although I understand the need for imported goods, I think seasonal eating could be embraced more like back in the old days. Fortunately, local food movement is growing in popularity, and Finns are rediscovering the ingredients naturally grown in Finland.

Here are a few staples you might find in Finnish kitchens. The salmon soup has always been a staple in my family, whereas pyttipannu has been made less often (mum couldn't even remember the last time she had had pyttipannu!). There are many others, of course, but these dishes are what we enjoyed whilst in Finland.

Finnish Salmon Soup

800ml water
1/2 tsp whole allspice
5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 onion, finely chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
piece of celeriac, finely chopped
400g salmon fillet, boned, cut into chunks
200ml cream
pinch of sea salt

Bring the water to boil and add the allspice. Add the potatoes, onion, parsnip and celeriac and cook until almost tender. Add the salmon pieces, cream and salt and let simmer until the fish has cooked through, about 5 minutes. Serve with Finnish rye or flat bread.

Merimiespata (Sailor's Stew) is made out of beef, potatoes, onion and carrots that are cooked tender in stock and seasoned simply with salt and black pepper.

Pyttipannu is made out of cooked potato, onion and Finnish sausage (lenkkimakkara), seasoned with salt and pepper and fried until golden. This dish is served with a fried egg.

Happy New Year!

The "in between" days (between Christmas and NYE) were a busy time for us. It was too cold to go skiing, but we visited my relatives and did some shopping at the post-Christmas sales. It also happened to be our 5 year anniversary at the end of December, and I had booked us a night at the Snow Village (an ice hotel) in Ylläs, a couple of hours drive north from my hometown.

I have no idea where I got this crazy idea to spend a night at an ice hotel when it's -30C outside! Inside the ice room the temperature doesn't drop below -10C, but trust me it's cold enough when you're trying to get some sleep. I had booked a reindeer sleigh ride for the evening of our anniversary, and it so happened that during the ride we got to see the northern lights (Aurora Borealis)! They were as beautiful as ever, and it really was the highlight of our trip making it all worth it.

The Snow Village is beautiful and definitely a unique experience even for someone like me who has lived in Lapland most of her life. Was it cold? Hell yes! But it was worth it ;-)

We spent New Year's Eve at home and had a selection of cold and warm nibbles for a light dinner: gravlax, herring, muikku, smoked elk, cheeses and salads. It was another ingenious idea of mine (I blame the cold, my brain must have frozen) to buy a can of Surströmming (Swedish rotten herring).

My parents were not all too happy about having the smell of this fish lingering in the house (even though we opened the can outside!), but it's another experience my partner can tick off his list now :-) I can report that the herring did not taste any better than I remembered, but many Swedes might disagree on this.

An important New Year's Eve tradition in Finland is to melt a horse shoe made of tin in a ladle, spill it into cold water and then try telling your fortune for the upcoming year from the resulting shape. Mine was shaped like a ship which means travel, but my partner's was a clear mermaid and I am not at all sure what it might mean. Maybe we are travelling to Copenhagen to see the Little Mermaid? Mum thinks her tin had taken the shape of a stork, but I am not too sure about that...

Happy New Year!

Lemony fish with sauteed kale and roasted heirloom carrots

I often find white fish a tad boring and unimaginative to cook with. I love pairing it with lemon and in fact most times I cook with fish I use lemon one way or another. What makes this dish a bit more exciting is the ingredients I'm serving with the fish. Remember that heirloom and kale salad I made some time ago? The carrots are so sweet and delicious glaced with caramelised balsamic and roasted, and the kale gets more flavour from sautéing it with shallots. So simple, but definitely makes this humble dish a bit more exciting!

Lemony fish with sauteed kale and roasted heirloom carrots

Roasted Heirloom Carrots

small bunch of heirloom carrots
2 tbsp caramelised balsamic
1 tbsp manuka honey blend

Lemony Fish

450g white fleshed fish
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
few sprigs of lemon thyme
1/4 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp lemon extra-virgin olive oil

Sautéed Kale

1 tbsp olive oil
bunch of kale, ribs and stems removed
2 shallots, finely chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper

slivered almonds, toasted, to serve

To prepare the carrots preheat oven to 180C. In a small bowl mix together the balsamic and the honey. Place the carrots in an oven dish and pour the balsamic mix on top. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until tender scooping the glace over the carrots every now and then.

For the fish heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the fish and fry on each side for a few minutes or until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper, lemon juice and lemon thyme and finish with a small splash of lemon extra-virgin olive oil.

Sauté the kale with the shallots in a frying pan for a few minutes until soften. Serve with the fish and the carrots. Sprinkle with slivered almonds.

Salmon Cooked in Coconut Milk

Red chilli, lime, coconut... these are not the ingredients you see me use very often. I used to shun Thai food because the above mentioned ingredients are so common in Thai cooking. Although I am now much more used to these flavours, and embrace the dishes they feature in, I still don't seem to cook with them much at home.

I happened to have a can of coconut milk at home so I started browsing for some ideas on how to combine it with salmon I was planning to cook for dinner that night. I found a perfect recipe that not only compared the two, but used limes which I also happened to have at home!

This is such a fragrant dish, and even if you're not a chilli person (and I'm not), I can guarantee you can handle the heat in this dish because the creaminess of the coconut milk takes away most of it, and leaves just enough to give it a bit of a kick. Served with jasmine rice this is a welcoming change for my kitchen :-)

Salmon Cooked in Coconut Milk
(Recipe adapted from BBC Food)

450g salmon fillets, boned
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
piece of ginger, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
5-7 cardamom pods, crushed

1 tin (organic and light) coconut milk
2 limes, juiced and zested

desiccated coconut, toasted, to serve
lime wedges, to serve
lime zest, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the salmon fillets in an oven dish and sprinkle over the chilli, ginger, garlic and cardamom. Whisk the coconut milk and the lime juice in a bowl and pour over the fish. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until the fish has cooked through.

Serve the fish with jasmine rice, spoon over some of the coconut sauce and sprinkle with coconut and lime zest. Serve with an extra lime wedge.

Enjoy!

Finn Crisp Rolls with Avocado and Smoked Salmon Filling

My partner was having an international lunch day at work and asked me if I was keen to make a dish for him to bring along. I never refuse an opportunity to cook so of course I said yes!

Finn Crisps (we call them hapankorppu) is something all Finns love and we are really big on dry bread (or, as you might call them, crackers). These aren't your average 'crackers', however, they are often nearly 100% rye and thus high in fibre, and very low in fat. In Australia you can find Finn Crisps in most supermarkets, Scandinavian stores or speciality food stores. Unfortunately I can't think of anything to replace them with for this recipe, but if you can think of something, do let me know!

Finn Crisp Rolls are almost a classic at Finnish parties, and I can imagine them being a staple at many pre-Christmas parties that normally take place already in November all over Finland. The filling is often made using Philadelphia cheese, but I've opted for a healthier version using avocado and it works really well! There are many versions of fillings available too, from ham to smoked salmon to totally vegetarian versions, but I wanted to give them a more Scandinavian feel by using smoked salmon and fresh dill.

I couldn't help but feel these rolls are like an example of our home: they look like sushi rolls (Japanese), there's avocado (Australian), smoked salmon (Scandinavian) and rye (German and Scandinavian). Perfect sample dish for an international lunch and a perfect entrée to serve on the Finnish Independence Day which is today!

Finn Crisp Rolls with Avocado and Smoked Salmon
(Makes 15)

15 Finn Crisps
1 litre vegetable stock

Filling

1,5 avocadoes, mashed
1/2 lemon, juiced
60g smoked salmon, finely chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped

Heat the vegetable stock in a large saucepan until hot but not boiling. Turn off the heat. Prepare a cookie tin by lining it with baking paper. Drop the Finn Crisps into the stock (3-4 at a time), and soak for a few seconds so that both sides get soaked. Using a slotted spoon, remove from the stock and place on the tin. Continue with the rest of the crisps.

To make the filling, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Spoon small amount of the filling on each crisp bread and roll. Place the rolls seem side down into a container and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Serve as a starter or 'finger food'.

Rye and Salmon Salad with Capers and Lemon

For us Finns rye is our staple grain. We are brought up eating rye bread with a rye flour content of around 70-80% (compared to some bread sold as "rye" bread in Australia might have around 20% rye flour, rest is wheat). When I was small white (wheat) bread was something my mum didn't even consider as 'real' bread and would very rarely buy it. At school all kids from primary school through to high school get a free warm meal every day and rye bread is always part of this meal.

I was so excited to find rye grain at my local health food store. I really recommend you give it a go if you happen to find it, and use it in warm salads where you'd normally use rice. It's so earthy and wholesome! In this warm salad, I've combined the rye with some lovely fatty salmon and a tangy, vinegary dressing.

Rye and Salmon Salad with Capers and Lemon

350g salmon fillet
Himalayan pink rock salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp French capers
1/2 lemon, finely sliced

1,5 cups organic rye grain
2 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp lemon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 lemon, juiced
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the salmon fillet in an oven dish and season with salt and pepper. Add the capers on top of the fillet and arrange the lemon slices on top of the capers. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until it's just cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

In the mean time, cook the rye in plenty of boiling water for about 20-30 minutes or until tender (there will still be a bite to it). Drain and place in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, lemon olive oil and dry mustard. Pour on the warm rye and stir through. Season with some black pepper and extra lemon juice. Break the salmon into bite size pieces and fold them together with the capers through the rye. Serve warm.

Tea Poached Salmon with Fragrant Brown Rice

Being so far away from home makes everything that reminds me of home mean a lot more to me than they would if I lived in Finland. Seeing a product that has Finnish writing, for example, makes me feel a bit nostalgic and hearing news from my home country in Australian tv makes me really see the news differently. Same goes with Finnish or Scandinavian companies in Australia. I don't know how many times I've told people that Nokia is not only a famous mobile phone brand, but also a town in Finland or that KONE, the big Finnish elevator and escalator company, is actually a Finnish word for machine.

Baring this in mind you can imagine how excited I was to learn about a company called Swedelicious. The lovely Helene and Richard are blending the most fragrant teas giving them the most catching names like 'Freya's Passion' which is part of their Viking range. Us Nordic people like to stick together, so when they offered to send me some of their teas for sampling, I was more than keen to try them out.

I received three different teas from their new Christmas collection; teas which are cutely named after Swedish Christmas characters, Santa's (which happens to be from Finland but recruites helpers from Sweden, too) helpers Nisse, Lusse and Rudolf. These are incredibly fragrant teas, blends of different spices and fruit, and just perfect for Christmas. I really wanted to try how the teas would work in cooking, so I decided to make tea poached salmon. I chose to use Nisse, a blend of cardamom, orange, pink peppercorn, cloves and cinnamon. The result was fragrant and flavoursome, reminding me of Finnish Christmas to come :-)

Tea Poached Salmon with Fragrant Brown Rice

2 tsp Swedelicious Nisse tea
5 cardamom pods
1 tsp pink peppercorns
300g salmon fillet

Fragrant Brown Rice
(Recipe adapted from Ross Dobson's Wholefood Kitchen)

1,5 cups long-grain brown rice
small handful sultanas
1 tsp ground cinnamon
tiny pinch of ground clove

1/4 lemon, juiced
2 shallot greens, chopped
Himalayan Pink Rock Salt
freshly ground black pepper
pistachios, toasted, to serve

To poach the salmon, fill a medium saucepan with water, add the tea and the spices and bring to boil. Let simmer for about 7 minutes, then drain it restoring the liquid in a bowl. Return the liquid in the saucepan, add the salmon fillet and bring to boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the salmon is just cooked through (pinkish inside is good). Take out the fillet and leave to cool. Fork the fillet into bite sized pieces.

Place the rice in a saucepan along with the sultanas, cinnamon and clove. Cover with water and bring to boil. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until tender, drain out extra liquid if necessary, but leave the rice quite moist. Place the rice in a large bowl and let cool slightly. Add the shallots, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the salmon and sprinkle with pistachios.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Buckwheat, Wakame and Miso-Yuzu Dressing

I strongly believe that comfort food has healing properties. When you're feeling like you need a bit of TLC you can make a bowl of something steaming and delicious, cuddle up on a sofa and indulge with whatever you are having and soon you will realise that everything will be a-o-k. Often comfort food is something we associate with memories from childhood, something we grew up with, something that is familiar, soothing and caring and makes you feel all fluffy and warm inside. Enough said? You get the idea ;-)

This is modern style comfort food I made for my partner (therefore the Japanese flavours) for de-stressing purposes. I love using buckwheat instead of rice sometimes, and I LOVE seaweed of all kinds. I cooked the buckwheat with a piece of konbu for extra flavour, but I have also read that konbu makes it easier to digest other foods you're eating. I often cook brown rice with a piece of konbu for the same reason. The miso-yuzu dressing was really perfect for this meal, but I see no reason why I couldn't use it for salads as well.

Wish you all a safe and enjoyable weekend to come!

Salmon with Buckwheat, Wakame and Miso-Yuzu Dressing

1,5 cups raw buckwheat
piece of konbu
400g salmon fillet, boned
pinch of sea salt
4 tbs dried wakame, soaked in hot water

Miso-yuzu Dressing

60ml water
1 tbs shiro miso
1 tbs less salty soy sauce
1 tbs yuzu juice
piece of fresh ginger, grated
sprinkling of shichimi togarashi

Place the buckwheat and the konbu in a medium saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes or until just tender. Drain and leave to cool slightly.

Place the salmon in a saucepan, cover with water, season with a pinch of salt and bring to boil. Simmer until cooked through but still slightly pink in the middle. Drain and set aside to cool. Fork into bite size pieces.

Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Place the cooked buckwheat in a large mixing bowl. Take out the konbu and slice it finely. Mix the konbu with the buckwheat. Drain the wakame and fold into the buckwheat. Pour the miso dressing in and toss well to combine. Lastly, fold in the salmon pieces. Season with some extra shichimi togarashi.

Enjoy!

Salmon Kedgeree

I often like to cook meals that are easy to re-heat for lunch the following day. It's all about me being practical, I suppose. I also prefer one-pot meals (who wouldn't?!), but I've realised that I don't actually cook them that often! I feel like any cooking in my tiny kitchen creates so much mess that if I can by any means reduce the amount of washing up I have to do afterwards then it's a mission accomplished.

Technically this isn't a one-pot meal though as you will have to poach the salmon separately. It's a superbly easy dish though, and highly nutritious! It's a shame I can't eat more than a tiny piece of cooked salmon (raw and smoked is fine, but for some odd reason cooked salmon makes me nauseous) because this dish definitely has potential.

On a side note I can't tell you how happy I am it's almost Friday! I hope you've all had a good week so far ;-)

Salmon Kedgeree
(Recipe Adapted from 80/20 Diet by Teresa Cutter)

1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
small piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
200g basmati rice
375ml vegetable stock
2 carrots, diced
100g frozen peas
2 handfuls baby spinach leaves
1/4 lemon, juiced

400g salmon fillet, poached and broken into bite size pieces
20g slivered almonds, toasted

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and the spices and sauté for a few minutes. Add a little water to prevent the spices from burning. Add the rice, stock, carrots and peas, bring to boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Fold through the spinach leaves, add the lemon juice and allow to sit for a few minutes. Add the salmon and gently fold to mix. Serve sprinkled with the almonds.