Coconut & Lime Salmon, Mushroom Fried Rice and Honey & Black Pepper Cabbage

Ingredients

For the Salmon

2 Fresh Salmon Fillets

Juice of 1 Lime

2 tsp Desiccated Coconut

1 tsp Curry Powder (optional)

For the Rice

100g boiled Rice (cooked)

1 egg

2 Garlic Cloves (finely diced)

1 Green Chilli (finely diced)

10 Large Chestnut Mushrooms (chopped)

1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds

1 tbsp Coconut Oil

1 tbsp Gluten Free Soy Sauce

2 Spring Onions (sliced)

For the Cabbage

½ Medium Cabbage (sliced)

1 tbsp Honey

Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180. Place the salmon fillets on a large sheet of foil and cover them with the lime juice. Sprinkle over the curry powder (if using) and top with the desiccated coconut. Wrap the foil around the salmon to create a parcel and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
2. Cook the cabbage in a steamer, give it about 7-10 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the egg in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Fry in a large pan or wok until just cooked and remove.
3. In the same pan, heat the coconut oil and add the mustard seeds, fry for 30 seconds and add the chilli and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes over a medium heat. Throw in the rice and mix it all around. Add the soy sauce and the cooked egg.
5. Fry the cooked cabbage in a separate pan with the honey and black pepper for a few minutes.
6. Unwrap the salmon parcel and place under the grill for a further 2 minutes to crisp up the coconut topping.
7. Garnish the rice with the spring onions and serve with a couple of lime wedges.

This dish was born because my girlfriend doesn’t really like the taste of fish on its own, but really enjoys fish as part of a meal. The crispy coconut topping just adds a different texture and the optional curry powder takes away the fishy flavour somewhat. Although the method looks fairly long and you have to multi-task a bit when cooking, this dish is pretty simple; it can be prepared, cooked and be ready to eat in 30-40 minutes if you get your game face on and in even less time if you’re using leftover rice.

I’m a huge fan of cabbage and used white cabbage this time, although to be honest it would work equally well with green, savoy or cavolo nero. The sweetness of the honey is great with the subtle fire of the cracked black pepper and transforms what many people would consider a ‘boring’ vegetable into a cracking side dish. Like I mentioned earlier, the mushroom rice is perfect for using leftover rice, which if you’re anything like me, you’ll almost definitely have in the fridge.

Because this dish is so quick to prepare this makes a great midweek dinner. It’s really light, surprisingly filling and pretty damn flavoursome, even if I do say so myself!