As with most of my recipes, this one was birthed out of a craving… This time it was for Sushi! I don’t tolerate rice or soy, so I had to get a bit creative to come up with something similar. I’ve tried rolling avocado, salmon, cucumber, and carrot in a sheet of nori, and it gets most of the flavours right, especially when you dip it in coconut amino sauce. But that method is time consuming, and I found it really hard to cut or bite through the nori without the contents spewing everywhere. Then I had an idea: why not just put the ingredients in a bowl to start with and eat it as deconstructed sushi?! Turns out it was a stroke of genius! Allow me to share the recipe with you:
Ingredients (one serving):
- Chopped Romaine, Iceberg, or Butterleaf Lettuce, or mixed baby greens (roughly 2 hand fulls)
- Half a Carrot, peeled, and either grated, thinly sliced, or shaved into ribbons with a peeler
- 2 inch piece of Cucumber
- Half and Avocado
- 1 sheet of Nori or SeaSnax (plain salt and olive oil, one sheet of the larger size) torn up into roughly 1 inch pieces
- 1 portion fresh, frozen, or canned Wild Salmon
- Coconut Amino Sauce (2 tsp for dressing, 1 – 2 tbsp for Salmon)
- ½ – 1 inch piece of fresh Ginger, peeled and cut into thin slivers or grated (can use powdered ginger)
- Salt
- Pepper (omit for AIP)
- 3 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + 1 tbsp for cooking the fish (Avocado oil would also be a good choice)
- 1.5 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Method:
Typically I prepare this salad directly in the bowl I plan to eat it from. If you are packing it along to eat later, store the torn Nori pieces separately, and ensure that the salmon is cool before adding it to the vegetables.
1) Place your piece of Wild Salmon in a frying pan over medium heat with a drizzle of avocado or olive oil. If using frozen salmon, ensure that it is thawed. I tend to remove the skin and bones from the fish meticulously before adding it to my salad. I also season canned salmon in the same way.
2) Prepare the fresh Ginger. Add ginger and 1 – 2 tbsp of Coconut Amino Sauce to the frying pan. Add a sprinkle of salt (and pepper). Turn over and continue cooking until cooked through (I like mine to get a bit caramelized, but watch closely because the coconut sauce is inclined to burn).
3) While the fish is cooking, wash and chop your vegetables. Add to the bowl. If you want your carrot to be in the form of ribbons as in my picture, simply peel the carrot, and once the outer layer is removed, continue peeling over your bowl or cutting board to use your vegetable peeler to make ribbons.
4) Tear and add nori or SeaSnax (remember to keep on the side if you will pack and eat this later).
5) Combine roughly 2.5 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1.5 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (or rice vinegar if you tolerate it), 1.5 tsp Coconut Amino Sauce, and salt (and pepper) to make the dressing. Pour over the salad (or keep in a separate container on the side if you will pack and eat it later).
6) Add cooked Wild Salmon and enjoy warm or cold.
This whole process should take roughly 20 to 30 minutes, making this a great meal to prepare when you’re in a hurry. Not to mention that it’s delicious and nutrient dense! Let me know what you think, or if there are other dishes that you’ve been craving that I can help to recreate in a way that will be safe for us in our gluten/grain free lives!