Summery Salmon Salad with Roasted Strawberry-Sumac Vinaigrette
I created this salad in collaboration with Honeybrains, a brain food restaurant in New York City. Yes, a brain food restaurant! Honeybrains CEO Marisa Seifan reached out to me to create a salad for Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in June to benefit the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement. Honeybrains was already on my radar having discovered their innovative and beautiful brain-healthy food on their Instagram account. The Honeybrains team (which includes a neurologist and a nutritionist) chooses their ingredients based on the science of neuronutrition. All of their dishes include some combination of what they call the HB 5 Food Groups: vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and foods that are high in omega-3 fats.
At the restaurant, we’re serving the salad with crumbled tofu on top plus an optional additional protein on the side. Here, I added slow-roasted salmon, one of the easiest (and brain-friendly) easy to prepare fish at home. Not only does it include the HB 5 Food Groups, this salad gives you a whopping 7 of the 10 MIND diet’s brain-healthy food groups—berries, leafy greens, fish, legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and extra-virgin olive oil—all on one plate. Let’s break it down.
Leafy Greens
The Summery Salmon Salad starts with heaps of tender greens. Shoot for many shades of green—from the pale green mesclun to purplish-green baby kale. Not only does this create a visually stunning plate of greens that invites you to dive in, each variety provides a unique dose of flavonoids, plant nutrients important for fending off cognitive decline. All leafy greens vegetables provide key brain health nutrients like folate, iron, lutein, and vitamin K. As a general rule, the darker the green, the better it is for your brain.
The Berries
This salad takes advantage of strawberry season with a double dose of the brain-boosting fruit. Roasted and blended with sumac, white vinegar, and extra-virgin olive oil, the strawberries transform into a creamy dressing. Sumac is a bonus berry here. The brick red spice comes from a berry that’s dried and pulverized (much like a peppercorn). Its unique flavor adds a tart, lemony contrast to the sweetness of the strawberries.
Berries have well-documented brain health benefits, thanks to their flavonoid content. (Read more here.) Strawberries and sumac are chock full of flavonoids, especially anthocyanin and pelagardonin. Eating an abundance of foods rich in these particular plant nutrients has been associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Vegetables
While radicchio may look like a leafy green, it’s actually a vegetable, part of the chicory family. A traditional food in the Mediterranean diet, radicchio adds a brilliant dash of purplish-red to salads. Its slight bitterness is a nice complement to the sweet elements in the dish. A small radicchio goes a long way—one quarter of a head, thinly sliced, yields a heaping cup. (The rest of the head is sturdy enough to keep for a day or two for more salads.) Crisp radishes—which get their color from pelagardonin, just like strawberries do—add a peppery bite and welcome crunch. If your radishes still have their tops, wash then chop the nutrient-dense greens and toss into the mix.
The Legumes
Adding a handful of edamame to a salad is an easy way to get a serving of legumes. Edamame—those addictively tasty nibbles served at Japanese restaurants—are actually soybeans, a type of legume. Find them in the frozen food section of the grocery story both in their pods and shelled. Legumes are an important food group in any brain-protective diet. They provide fiber to help stabilize blood sugar and bind up circulating cholesterol. They are packed with isoflavones (another brain-boosting plant nutrient), and are a good dose of protein. If you can find fresh peas, substitute them here instead for a hyper-seasonal spring salad.
The Topping
The Savory Matcha Granola sprinkled atop the salad adds a satisfying crunch, not to mention brain-healthy catechins (from the green tea) and a trio of nutrient-dense seeds. The recipe makes more granola than you’ll need, but you’ll be glad to have extra—sprinkle it on all your salad creations, grain bowls, roasted vegetables, or enjoy a small handful as a quick snack. To simplify, sprinkle the salad with toasted sliced almonds instead.
The Protein
Adding a serving of protein makes this salad a genuinely satisfying meal. You could add crumbled tofu, like they do at Honeybrains. But, you could also add a portion of good-quality roasted or poached chicken, grass-fed beef, or slow-roasted salmon, as I have done here. Slow-roasting salmon is not only a brain-friendlier method than cooking over higher heat, it’s practically foolproof, turning out perfectly rosy salmon every time.
While the Summery Salmon Salad feels special enough to serve to guests, I hope you’ll use this recipe as a blueprint for all your main dish salads this summer. Think: piles of leafy greens + berries + legumes + crispy vegetables + a crunchy whole grain nut or seed topping.
Ingredients
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- Preheat your oven to 300ºF with a rack set in the center position. Place the salmon, skin-side down, in a baking dish, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Pour 2 tablespoons of warm water into the pan and bake until the salmon is just turning opaque, 15 to 30 minutes (depending on the size of your fillets). If using an instant-read thermometer, take the temperature in the thickest part of the fish: 125ºF for medium-rare, and up to 140ºF for well done.
- Toss the greens, radicchio, edamame, and radishes with half the dressing in a large bowl. To serve, divide the salad, strawberries, and salmon between plates. Drizzle with more dressing, if you like, and sprinkle with granola and sumac.
Roasted Strawberry-Sumac Vinaigrette
Makes 1 cup
2 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sumac
3 tablespoons white balsamic or unseasoned rice wine vinegar
Up to 3 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 350ºF with a rack set in the top position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the strawberries, 1 tablespoon oil, and sumac on the sheet and spread out in a single layer. Roast on the top rack until the juices are syrupy and only run slightly when tilted, 30 to 40 minutes.
While still warm, scrape the roasted strawberries and their juices into a blender with the remaining oil, vinegar, 2 tablespoons water, and salt. Blend on high until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping the sides of the container midway. Add another 1 tablespoon of water if necessary for a creamy but pourable consistency.
Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The dressing will thicken with time; whisk in more water, if needed.
Savory Matcha Granola
Sprinkle leftover granola on salads, grain bowls, roasted vegetables (like butternut squash and sweet potatoes), and soups.
Makes 1½ cups
1 cup rolled oats
¼ cup raw, hulled pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas)
2 tablespoons millet or hemp seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (black, white, or a mix)
1 tablespoon culinary grade matcha
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Preheat your oven to 350ºF with a rack set in the center position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, toss together the oats, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, millet, and matcha until the matcha is evenly distributed. Stir together the olive oil and maple syrup in a small measuring cup and pour over the granola. Toss well until evenly coated and scrape onto the baking sheet. Bake until the oats and pumpkin seeds are toasty brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan, then break into clusters.
To store, keep in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
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