Go Back
Print

Fall Salmon Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

A gorgeous, healthy, complete meal salad! Paleo and Whole 30 compliant!

Course Salad
Cuisine American
Keyword easy dinner recipe, fall recipes, Whole30 recipe
Prep Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 4 salads
Author Linda Spiker

Ingredients

For Butternut Squash:

  • 4 cups Butternut squash, peeled, cut into 1/2" cubes and roasted
  • 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
  • sea salt pepper

For Salad:

  • 4 cups baby greens
  • 1 small tomato diced
  • 1/2 a small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 12 asparagus spears, 8 cut 3-4" long, the rest cut into 1" pieces

Dressing:

  • 1 large clove garlic. peeled
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup Champagne Vinegar
  • 2 cups basil leaves
  • generous pinch sea salt
  • pinch freshly ground pepper
  • pinch red pepper flakes

For Salmon:

  • Four salmon filets. skin on
  • sea salt
  • pepper
  • olive oil

Instructions

For Butternut Squash:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place oven rack in upper third of oven.
  2. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a rimmed cookie sheet.
  3. Peel and cut butternut squash into 1/2" cubes. Place on parchment covered cookie sheet.
  4. Drizzle with olive oil and toss till squash is well coated.
  5. Sprinkle with a few pinches of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss.
  6. Cut 8 asparagus spears 4" long and 4 more spears into 1" pieces, drizzle with little  olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, set aside.
  7. Place Butternut squash in oven for 40-50 minutes or until edges are brown and crispy, adding asparagus the last 10 minutes of cooking time. 
  8. While squash cooks make and assemble salad, make dressing and cook salmon.

For Salad:

  1. Place greens, tomato and onion in a large bowl or platter and set aside.

For Basil Vinaigrette:

  1. Place garlic in processor and pulse till minced.
  2. Add olive oil, basil leaves, salt and peppers. Process until will blended.
  3. You may need to scrape down the sides several times. Set aside.

For Salmon:

  1. Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper
  2. When squash has about 15 minutes left to cook: heat an oven safe panini pan (or other heavy pan) on high heat for 3 minutes
  3. When pan is hot add olive oil, butter or ghee to pan and turn heat to med/high.
  4. Place salmon skin side up on pan (flesh side down)
  5. Cook for five minutes or until golden brown.
  6. Use fish spatula to gently turn salmon skin side down and place pan in oven alongside (or on rack below) squash for 8-10 minutes. This would also be the time to add asparagus to the cookie sheet with butternut squash.
  7. Remove salmon and butternut squash/asparagus from oven. IF you want to remove the skin, slide fish spatula between skin and flesh, lift salmon. Discard skin.

To plate:

  1. Allow squash and salmon to cool for a few minutes. Toss greens, butternut squash and 1" asparagus (set aside the 4" spears for garnish) with dressing reserving a couple of tablespoons.
  2. Plate greens on four plates
  3. Place salmon on top of greens, garnish with two asparagus spears and drizzle with remaining basil vinaigrette.
  4. Serve and thoroughly enjoy!