Spinach And Salmon Pasta Salad

We love fish in the Pacific Northwest. We have plentiful areas full of rivers and oceans to harvest items like salmon and crab that are local literally in my neighborhood or region. It’s great when you have the opportunity to utilize local ingredients in creative ways.  There aren’t a lot of foods that could top just snacking on crab legs with melted butter but it’s not too creative of a meal. The only fun you would get from that on this blog would be if I was secretly videotaped cracking those crab legs.  Salmon filets are a pretty plain option albeit a healthy and quick choice most of the time.

I would love to introduce you to MY salmon. It is so great in this pasta salad and such a good choice for omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin B6 and delicious protein. This salad I made is interesting because it was actually developed with leftovers but Hey! Some of the best concoctions are created by using up what ingredients you have on hand, right? One of the best things you can do is to use up leftovers and save money that way.  I know many of us shop in the produce section with good intentions. I love buying herbs but often don’t use them all before they wilt.

Okay, on to the salad. I tend to very frequently have a variety of pasta on hand as well as vegetables in my refrigerator. Here comes summer with its potlucks and hot days when you don’t dare turn on the stove or oven so you don’t heat your house anymore.  For these reasons and for the deliciousness factor, you’re going to love the variety and colorful dish I am presenting to you now.

So the next step is to discuss the leftovers. I happened to love crudités. It’s a fancy way of saying, vegetable platter, basically. I happened to have a vegetable spinach dip on hand that went on a crudite recently with leftover cauliflower. I threw those in together and added some really great salad and herb lettuce mixture. It all goes great with the pasta noodles I had on hand. I like the flavor of gluten free corn or rice pasta and have been using that a little more often. Any pasta that has big thick noodles will work here. You want some noodles that will soak up the dressing and give a texture to the salad. I don’t recommend spaghetti noodles in this salad. Thin noodles like spaghetti sometimes lose their texture and create a less than pleasant texture.  Since it is after all grilling season, I pulled together grilled salmon too for some added protein. Its so light and perfect in this salad. Chicken or Turkey Breast  and even  Tofu would work too as a great substitution.

When you’re going to grill salmon, medium heat will do. Salmon cooks quickly and loves to stick to a grill. I suggest seasoning it simply with olive oil, a little kosher salt, black pepper and some garlic or garlic powder. In this case I happened to use a few pinches of lemon zest too.  This is the time of year when I am really focused on eating as much produce and summer salads as I can handle because its such a great time of year to do that. So many great items in season here in Washington I like to take full advantage of them.

After I grilled the salmon, I cut it up in large pieces and tossed it together with some of the greens along with some small chunks of cauliflower and the leftover spinach dip. You can find the recipe for spinach dip here. You will love how super simple this salad is to make. I wanted to give you tips and an understanding on how you can throw together simple salads like this. Another suggestion I have is to start with an ingredient or two that you love and build around it.  In the summer, I absolutely love tomatoes and I don’t discriminate them. I love to search for some of the chunkiest, juiciest and off color tomatoes. I think tomatoes  are one of the most versatile ingredients out there.  You can start with a tomato and build a salad around that or think about a flavor you love and build around that. I think you will really enjoy.

The images in this post belong to Chef Julie and Emerald Menus.  This post contains affiliate links which sustain this blog and help buy groceries.