Quinoa, Pea & Cress Salad with Honey, Soy & Mustard Glazed Salmon

This is one of those recipes that sort of came out of nowhere, I didn’t really think about it and the ingredients were determined by things I was craving at the time i.e. glazed salmon and cress and laziness, yes I did just say laziness.
Let me explain; I was in John Lewis with my mum having our free cake and coffee for the month and the only other food I’d eaten that day was muffin pie (that’s a whole other story that maybe I’ll tell one day), I was drinking my coffee and eating a scone, how English of me, and just started craving a “salad with salmon” which is a little ambiguous to say the least. After trips around two different supermarkets due to the fact that I FORGOT TO BUY SALMON, what an idiot, although maybe it was worth it because the lovely guy at the fish counter gave me half a side of salmon half price so I ended up making this salad twice because it was just so tasty. By the time we got home is was about 6, knowing I had to cook quinoa and salmon I didn’t want to cook or prep anything else. Peas replaced pulses and the rest was mostly dressing and seasoning, the most work I had to do was chop up a spring onion and go out in the garden to cut the herbs. I can’t tell you how amazing this tastes though, all the flavours combine perfectly, at the time I was going through one of those phases where even the tastiest food seemed a little bland to me and it got me out of my food funk so this is definitely a winner and will probably become my go to healthy nutritious salad.

You will need 3 tbsp quinoa plus water for cooking 2 large handfuls of garden peas 1 fillet of salmon Juice and zest of half a lemon 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper, to taste Fresh parsley and chives 1 spring onion 2 handfuls of baby kale Cress For the salmon glaze 2 tsps wholegrain mustard 2 tsps soy sauce 1 tsp honey

Side note There's a lot of debate on the perfect way to cook quinoa whether a 1:1 or a 2:1 water to quinoa ratio is the best but I always find when I'm cooking a small amount I need a 3:1 ratio, the water seems to boil away faster because of the surface area of the saucepan. I also like to leave the quinoa in the saucepan with the lid on after it's finished cooking to fluff up. I serve this salad cold but you could cook the peas and eat it hot I'm sure it would be just as yummy.

Cook the quinoa and leave to cool in the pan.
If you're using frozen peas you'll need to leave them out to defrost.
Put the fillet of salmon on a grill pan skin side up and place under the grill, while the salmon is cooking put all the ingredients for the glaze in a little dish and mix until combined. Once the skin of the salmon has started to bubble up and brown, turn the salmon over and pour the glaze on top, place back under the grill for another few minutes until the salmon is cooked and the glaze has slightly caramelised.
Once the quinoa has mostly cooled add the lemon zest and juice, olive oil and salt & pepper and mix. Slice the spring onion, chop the herbs and add to the quinoa with the peas and mix again until everything is evenly combined.
Place the kale on a plate and spoon the quinoa mixture on top. Pull the salmon apart and place on top of the quinoa discarding the skin and top with cress.