Here’s a versatile dinner recipe that’s packed with protein! Try these fabulous salmon quinoa protein bowls or adapt them to your preferences. Nutritious and delicious, with about twenty grams of protein per serving!
Jump to RecipeSalmon quinoa protein bowls ingredients:
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 1 good-sized zucchini, or 2 small
- Several handfuls of your favorite greens (I used beet greens because we have beets in our garden this year.)
- 4 ears of sweet corn
- 1 1/2 pounds of salmon fillets
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Juice from one lemon
- Dressing of choice
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and get started on the vegetables.
Clean the vegetables and chop the asparagus, zucchini, and greens into bite-sized pieces.
You won’t believe the slick trick I have for you to deal with the corn on the cob. My brother found an amazing tip for removing all of the silks: how to clean corn on the cob. The method:
- Put the entire ear of corn (still in its husk) in the microwave and cook on high for three minutes. (The video recommends four minutes, but three minutes worked fine for me.) If you want to do two ears at a time, set it for six minutes.
- Use a potholder to remove it.
- Cut off the stem end. You need to cut beyond the stem a bit so that you’ve removed the bases of all the silks.
- Pick it up by the other end and gently squeeze and push so that the ear slides out. It will be perfectly clean of silks!!
I couldn’t believe how well this works! You have to try it!
Work on shucking the corn as you’re going through the rest of the recipe.
Start the quinoa and salmon.
Rinse the quinoa using a mesh strainer, and then put it in a saucepan with two cups of water. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and let it cook until the liquid is all absorbed. This should take about 15 minutes.
Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Rinse the salmon and then place it skin-side up on the prepared pan. Bake it about 15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillets) or until done. You want it to flake nicely when you insert a fork.
While the quinoa and salmon are cooking, sauté the zucchini, asparagus, and greens in a large skillet with the extra virgin olive oil. Add cracked black pepper.
While everything else is cooking, continue working on the corn until all the ears are free of silks. As they cool a bit, move them to a cutting board and cut off the kernels.
Once the salmon is done, remove it from the oven and use a fork to lift off the skin. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the pieces of salmon.
Assemble the salmon quinoa protein bowls.
This should work for four servings. Into each bowl, scoop some quinoa, green vegetables, corn kernels, and salmon. Top with your favorite dressing. I used a mixture of equal parts honey mustard and barbecue sauce, but pesto would be great too. Use anything you like!
salmon quinoa protein bowls
Ingredients
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1-2 zucchini
- 4 handfuls of your favorite greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc.)
- kernels from 4 ears of sweet corn (cooked)
- 1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- juice from one lemon
- dressing of your choice (pesto, honey mustard, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Clean and chop the asparagus, zucchini, and greens into bite-sized pieces.
- Rinse the quinoa through a mesh strainer. Place it in a saucepan with two cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let cook until the water is absorbed (about 15 minutes).
- Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Rinse the salmon and place it skin-side up on the prepared pan. Bake until done, about 15 minutes. You want this to bake at the same time the quinoa is cooking.
- While the quinoa and salmon are cooking, sauté the green vegetables in a large skillet with the extra virgin olive oil. Season with cracked black pepper to taste.
- When the salmon is done, remove it from the oven. Use a fork to lift off the skin. Drizzle with the lemon juice.
- Once everything is done, prepare the bowls. Use quinoa, green vegetables, corn, and salmon in each one. Drizzle with your favorite dressing (see recipe note).
Notes
- Swap out any of the vegetables to suit your preferences or according to what is in season.
- Likewise, replace the salmon with steak, chicken, tofu, shrimp, etc.
- I mixed equal parts honey mustard and barbecue sauce for my dressing, but I think pesto would also be delicious. Use your favorite!
- Approximately 20g protein per serving.
This is a versatile recipe!
You could swap the vegetables and corn for whatever is in season. A different protein such as chicken, tofu, shrimp, or steak would also work. Just build the bowl with the ingredients you prefer. I made the choices presented here based on the facts that I wanted to try my brother’s corn trick and my pescatarian son was here for a visit. We all loved it!
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Fondly,
Crysti
