Jamie Oliver's Sesame Seared Salmon with Tahini Avocado and Shred Salad

We are featuring recipes from the always delightful Jamie Oliver this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs as part of our Monthly Featured Chef theme. I like Jamie's style, humor, and especially his number of easy, tasty, and healthy recipes. 

On his website, I loved the look of the Sesame Seared Salmon with Tahini Avocado & Shred Salad; pretty on the plate with the colorful deconstructed salad of shredded veggies, slices of salmon and an avocado half topped with a tahini dressing--and it's pretty healthy to boot. 

I made a few small changes to the recipe--spiralizing the veggies, swapping in zucchini for the rice noodles and cucumber, omitting the olive oil, adding a little ginger to the tahini dressing, and adding some extra lime juice. My changes are noted in red below. 

Jamie says, “As well as this delicious dish giving us three of our 5-a-day, salmon is full of vitamin D, which our bodies need for absorbing calcium, keeping our bones and teeth healthy.”

Sesame Seared Salmon, Tahini Avocado, and Shred Salad
Very Slightly Adapted from JamieOliver.com
(Serves 2)

150g/5.25oz brown rice noodles (I omitted & used zucchini)
2 limes (I used 2 1/2 limes)
2 (100g/3.5oz) salmon fillets, skin on, scaled & pin-boned, from sustainable sources
4 tsp sesame seeds
1 clove of garlic
(I added 1 tsp fresh ginger, very finely minced)
4 tsp tahini
1/3 of a cucumber (I used zucchini)
2 small carrots
2 raw baby beets
cress or radish sprouts
1 ripe avocado
extra virgin olive oil (I omitted)  
fresh red chilli 
fresh coriander springs (cilantro)
(I added a few lime slices to garnish)

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, then drain and toss in a little squeeze of lime juice. (I used my spiralizer to shred zucchini to replace the noodles and squeezed the lime juice on it and the other veggies.)

Carefully slice each of the salmon fillets lengthways into three. Scatter the sesame seeds over a board and press one side of the salmon slices into the seeds to form a crust. Place a large dry non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, and once hot, add the salmon sesame side down. Leave for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden, flip over to cook for just 1 more minute, then remove from the heat.

Peel the garlic (and ginger) and pound into a paste with a pinch of sea salt in a pestle and mortar, then muddle in the tahini, the remaining lime juice and a splash of water to make a wicked dressing. Use a box grater to coarsely grate the cucumber, carrots and beets, keeping them in separate piles and dividing between two plates. Snip and divide up the cress, then divide up the noodles. (I used my spiralizer on the veggies, omitting the cucumber as I used zucchini for the noodles.)

Halve, peel and destone the avocado and add one half to each plate, then pour the dressing into the wells and add a few drips of oil. (I omitted the oil and topped with more sesame seeds.) Lay the salmon alongside, then finely slice the chilli and scatter over with the coriander leaves. Toss everything together at the table and enjoy.

Aren't spiralized vegetables pretty?!

 
Notes/Results: This plate made me happy--looking at it and especially consuming it. It's colorful and has that wonderful balance of healthy but satisfying with the protein and the healthy fat of the salmon, avocado and tahini sauce. One might say, "Do you need to top an a rich avocado with a rich tahini sauce?!" And to that person I would say, "Oh, mind your own business!" Just kidding! But really, if you have never paired avocado with sesame, know that it is amazing. I sometime trickle a bit of sesame oil on top of my avocado toast and top it with sesame seeds. Mmm... Also the tahini sauce (to which I added a little ginger and some extra lime juice), is delicious on the avocado and as you eat your shredded or spiralized veggies, you can drag them through it, giving them extra flavor. I honestly didn't think it needed the extra olive oil dripped on top of the dressed avocado and although I love rice noodles, I found this dish perfectly filling without them (and extra veggies never hurt anyone). The extra lime juice is a nice contrast to the richness, so having a couple of wedges on the plate is nice and the sprouts add a peppery bite. For plating, I like the look of the piles of spiralized veggies and it's faster/easier than grating them on a box grater. I have a small, fairly inexpensive spiralizer I got from Amazon a few years ago (like this one), and although it's not fancy, it gets the job done. All and all, a terrific dish that I will happily make again. 

It's always fun to look back and see favorite recipes from our past IHCC chefs. I have close to 30 recipes from Jamie Oliver posted and while they were pretty universally delicious, below are six of my favorites.

South Indian Rice & Seafood Soup from Jamie's Dinners
 

  
Pukkolla (Muesli) from The Naked Chef Takes Off

 Eggplant and Mint Bruschette from Jamie's Italy

Tuna Ceviche in Baby Romaine Cups from Food Network

Ciabatta Sandwich of Grilled Vegetables with Pesto & Mozzarella from Jamie's Dinners

Chickpea, Leek & Parmesan Soup from Soup Kitchen (Celebrity Chef Cookbook)

 
You can see which Jamie Oliver dishes my fellow IHCC participants made this week by checking out the picture links on the post.

 
Happy Saturday!