Asian Salad with Sriracha Glazed Salmon

I'm always looking for ways to make salad more exciting. I like using lots of different vegetables, adding herbs, switching up the proteins, and adding something crunchy on top like nuts or seeds.

In the last year, I've been trying to stick to a clean-eating diet. That means reducing the preservatives and additives in the food that I eat. This also means not using bottled salad dressing, like I've always done in the past.

Believe it or not, salad dressing is SUPER easy to make yourself. I also find that most of the time I have 90% of the ingredients in my house already, so I wind up saving money!

I cannot take credit for this particular salad dressing, as it is my mom's recipe. Whenever I taste this dressing, I always think of her and her delicious meals.

As like most of my other recipes, this salad is extremely versatile. You can pretty much switch up everything in it to suit it to your particular taste buds. For the lettuce, I used a combination of baby spinach and Napa Cabbage. You could switch this up and use romaine, arugula, or spring mix. I used cilantro as my herb in this salad, but if you don't like cilantro you could add parsley, or even fresh basil.

Lastly, you'll notice these delicious looking cashews on top of this salad. These are homemade sriracha cashews that I experimented making. Here is the recipe in case you're interested!

My superfood is the Napa cabbage. Napa cabbage contains antioxidants which help protect the body against harmful free radicals. This in turn, can help prevent many cancers as well as heart disease. Napa cabbage also contains Vitamin C which helps the body fight infection and stay healthy. Napa cabbage is also packed with fiber which is excellent for digestion and weight loss. 

Ingredients:

1 small head of Napa Cabbage- chopped

3 cups baby spinach

1 red bell pepper- sliced

1/2 English cucumber- sliced

1/2 cup water chestnuts- sliced

1/2 cup shredded baby carrots

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup cashews (optional)

Ingredients for Salmon:

3/4 lb. salmon filet 

1 tbsp. sriracha 

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. oyster sauce

1 tsp. brown sugar

Ingredients for Salad Dressing:

2 tbsp. light mayo

1 tbsp. sesame oil

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. grated ginger

1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2) Combine all salad ingredients (minus cashews) in a big bowl.

3) Prepare the dressing by whisking all ingredients together. 

4) Place salmon on a baking sheet lined with foil.

5) Combine the salmon ingredients- sriracha, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Using a pastry brush, glaze the top and sides of salmon with the mixture.

6) Bake salmon for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.

7) Pour dressing over salad and stir to combine. (We didn't use all of the dressing on ours)

8) Add cooked salmon on top of each plate and top with cashews.

9) Eat up and enjoy this healthy meal!