Smoked salmon salad

If you find most smoked salmon is too strong, try some of Church Hill’s smoked salmon from the Christchurch Farmers Market. The smokiness is nice and light, and the fish is so moist and tender you can spread it. Of course if you love an intense smoke, the hot smoked salmon from Akaroa Salmon is fantastic too. The key is to ignore the often generous best before dates and use the salmon less than a week since you purchased it – this minimises your chances of that off fishy taste that some cheaper varieties have.

Since it’s summer, I picked some fresh, bright flavours to pair with the salmon: tender green beans (although you could use runner beans if you have them in your garden), broccoli, and a touch of lemon. I also used mustard but you can skip on that if you don’t have any on hand. The green veges are the key to offsetting the richness of the salmon, and makes the salad look especially appetizing. The potatoes soak up the bulk of the sourness of the lemon, adding little bursts of zestiness every few bites. I used a more lemony than oil based dressing this time since the salmon is so oily.

…I promise the next post won’t have any lemon OR mustard in it though – I realise it looks like I’m in a lemon mustard rut, but really it’s just that those dishes are the ones that I’ve really liked. It really has become my go-to dressing for almost every salad, because I can make it mild or strong to suit almost anything.

Smoked salmon salad

serves 1 as a large meal or 2 as a side

• about 100g hot smoked salmon, roughly torn into bite sized chunks
• 2 medium sized potatoes (or equivalent amount new potatoes), cut into 1″ chunks (unpeeled)
• 1 generous handful green beans, stalks removed and cut in half (or left whole if you want it to look really pretty). Runner beans cut diagonally into the same size would also work
• a handful small broccoli florets

lemony dressing:

• juice of one small/medium lemon, or half a large lemon
• half the amount of lemon juice in oil (cooking oil is fine, just not soy or strongly flavoured oils)
• 1 tsp salt (pref sea salt)
• few grinds black pepper
• optional: 1/2 tsp smoky wholegrain mustard

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a rapid boil.

Meanwhile, whisk dressing ingredients together in your serving bowl, then tear up the salmon over it.

Reduce heat to a simmer once the water comes to a boil. Let simmer 5 minutes before adding beans and broccoli to the pot. Simmer another 5 minutes until the beans and broccoli are just past the bright green colour stage (or until they turn bright green if you like your veges quite crunchy). Drain immediately and toss with the salmon and lemony dressing. Serve, or refrigerate for serving later.

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