The Perfect Lunch – Baked Salmon, Veggies, and Rice

I’m a lazy cook. However, being lazy doesn’t mean you can cook a quick, easy lunch with little mess. Here’s my recipe for a great lunch (calorie count to follow later) of Salmon, Veggies, and Rice. Total time from starting to cook until eating: 35 minutes.

Start with the rice, as it takes the longest to cook. The best recipe I know follows below. As the rice is cooking, we’ll move on to the Salmon and Veggies.

Rice

I only dislike rice from the fact that I can’t cook it very well. However, this recipe is the first one that I’ve found that seems to work for the healthier brown rice! Special thanks to pinchmysalt.com for perfecting this little recipe.

Perfect Brown Rice

(adapted from Saveur)

(2 Cups of rice worked for me – Chas) brown rice (whichever type you prefer)
water – use at least four cups of water for every one cup of rice
salt – to taste

Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds, swirling the rice around with your hand.  Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a large pot over high heat.  When water boils, add the rice, stir it once.  Turn heat to medium and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  After 30 minutes, pour the rice into a strainer over the sink.  Let the rice drain for 10 seconds, then return it to the pot, off the heat.  Immediately cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes (if your pot lid isn’t extremely tight, place a piece of aluminum foil over pot then place the lid on top of foil for a tighter seal). After ten minutes, uncover rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt to taste.

notes: *the original Saveur recipe instructs you to use 12 cups of water for one cup of rice. This seemed wasteful to me and after trying a few times, I decided that four cups of water for each cup of rice works perfectly fine. You can cook as much rice as you want, just try to stick to that general ratio.

How to Cook Perfect Brown Rice — Pinch My Salt.

To Make the Rice Even Yummier:

Orange Yummy Rice

Per 2 Cups of Rice… 

1/2 Cup Orange Juice (from real oranges .. NOT from the store! Squeeze it yourself. Takes about 1.5 oranges depending on the size)

1 TBSP Low-Sodium Soy Sauce

1 TBSP Honey Mustard

1 TBSP Orange Peel (You can find this or make this)

1/4 Cup Raisins (or about one small box)

While the rice cooks put the 1/2 cup of Orange juice in a pan and heat to boiling. Add raisins and remove from heat and place aside. After the rice steams, add the rest of the ingredients to the orange juice, and toss in with the rice as you “fluff” the rice with a fork after the 10-minute steam. Makes the rice much yummier!

SALMON

As the rice is cooking, it’s time to prep and get the salmon ready. Salmon has all kinds of good stuff to it, all of which you can find online. Fresh is best, but frozen is better than nothing.

2 6-0z Salmon steaks

1 TBSP Olive Oil

Italian Bread Crumbs

Your favorite seasoning (NO SALT!) – Mine is Special Sh*t on meat.

Directions: Season the Salmon with your favorite seasonings. My favorite is stuff called (I kid you not) Good Sh*t seasoning. Next, coat the salmon with Olive Oil and spread a thin layer of bread crumbs on both sides of the salmon. Place on aluminum foil and a baking pan and cook in the oven at 350 degrees or until the rice is finished. If the Salmon is finished first, just turn the stove off and let them remain warm in the oven until you’re finished with the prepping.

Veggies

1/2 Package of your favorite mixed Veggies

2 TBSP of Teriyaki Sauce

Directions: With the Salmon baking and the rice cooking, it’s time to prep the veggies. Simply dump half a bag of your favorite frozen veggie mix into a pan, pour your favorite teriyaki sauce over the veggies, and heat/steam until cooked (cooking time varies). Usually the frozen veggies have a layer of frost on them which, as it heats, melts and steams the veggies in the pan. Alternatively, you could just steam the veggies then season to taste.

Putting it all Together

Place a layer of rice on the bottom of the plate. Put the Salmon on top of the rice. Place the veggies on top of the Salmon.

Eat well, train well!