Creamy sesame salmon crispy rice salad 🧠

A gut-brain loving taste sensation (if I do say so myself)

The very first

Second Brain

recipe!

I’m so happy to share this recipe with you, especially as it’s packed with ingredients for both your gut and brain.

This creamy sesame salmon salad with crispy chickpea rice and vibrant greens is loaded with omega-3s, fibre (12g per portion), and polyphenols - everything your gut-brain connection craves.

Plus, it’s a treat for your tastebuds, let’s not forget they’re the first of your gut.

Ingredients

Serves 2-3 as a main meal, more if paired with other dishes.

Crispy chickpea rice:

1/2 cup uncooked rice (100g), cooked and cooled the day before (making 1.5 cups cooked rice (250g))

1/2 200g can of sweetcorn, drained

1/2 400g can of chickpeas, drained

3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp cumin

Creamy sesame dressing:

2 garlic cloves

2cm ginger

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

3 tbsp rice wine vinegar or lemon juice

1 tbsp water

2 tbsp tahini

3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce

1.5 tbsp honey or maple syrup

Salad:

2 x sustainable salmon fillets

1 avocado

1/2 cucumber

175g edamame

1 salad onion or 4 spring onions

1 pack (30g) coriander

Handful (30g) of toasted seeds

Method

Let’s start with the crispy chickpea rice.

1. Set the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

2. Mix together the cold cooked rice, chickpeas, sweetcorn, cumin, soy sauce and sesame oil, and spread it in a thin even layer on a lined baking tray.

3. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring halfway through to make sure it doesn’t burn. It should go dark brown and crispy (see before and after below).

Before

4. While the rice is cooking, you can also roast the salmon for 10-15 mins. It’s then cooled to room temperature and added to the rest of the salad later.

5. Next, make the creamy sesame dressing by whizz all the ingredients together until smooth.

6. Chop the avocado, coriander, spring onion, and mix with the rest of the ingredients.

7. Mix together the crispy chickpea rice, shredded salmon, greens and sesame dressing - and enjoy!

I can also confirm that this salad has LEGS. I’m a big fan of making extra for leftovers to save time and hassle the following days.

I’m on the train to Wales to speak at Abergavenny food festival as I write this, and this salad is my packed lunch (two days after making it).

While the rice isn’t quite as crispy, the dressing soaks into the grains, deepening the flavour.

So there you have it, my recipe for creamy sesame salmon with crispy chickpea rice and greens.

Looking ahead, I’m going to see how I go with posting a weekly Sunday recipe, but it might be that bi-weekly is more realistic.

TBC. It might be that you prefer that anyway?

Would love to get your feedback on what kind of recipes you’d be interested in? Let me know in the comments.

---

Chat soon, Emily xx