Salmon Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese Croquettes

Have you ever had a restaurant dish you ordered time and again and craved in between visits? For our founder, Nina, that was a mesclun salad bowl from a cozy little café in downtown Flossmoor, Illinois. Ask That Salad Lady and she’ll tell you it was one of the best salads she’s ever had.

If you’ve ever had a favorite dish, then you know how devastating it would be if the restaurant closed or how intense the cravings could become if you moved away. In this case, both happened. To bring this deliciousness to you, That Salad Lady re-created her own version.

While they topped the salad bowl with nuts, fresh fruit and two lightly battered patties of warmed goat cheese, That Salad Lady maximized the overall nutritional value by introducing other ingredients too. In what would ultimately become our “Salmon Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese Croquettes,” That Salad Lady:

• Used a nut and seed crust to transform the goat cheese patties into nutrient-dense croquettes.
• Added salmon, by far one of the healthiest foods you can put in your bowl.
• Substituted the mesclun mix for spinach, an ostentatious superfood with a refreshingly low-key taste profile.

Enhanced with drizzles of strawberry vinaigrette dressing, That Salad Lady’s Salmon Spinach Salad bowl is one of our signature blends. Might sound eccentric and even complicated, but it’s actually super easy to make. You won’t believe how tasty and satisfying it is!

THE BALANCING ACT

Depending on your eating style, you might initially be turned off by the calories per serving of this particular salad bowl recipe (see recipe card). When it comes to judging the healthfulness of foods, we encourage you to focus more on the nutritional value of each ingredient rather than their mere calorie counts. All calories are not created equal (remember this).

While some foods may provide the same number of calories as our salads, the calories themselves may not necessarily have the same effects on your body.

What makes this Salmon Spinach Salad bowl especially powerful is the presence of healthy fats (namely omega-3 fatty acids). From lowering heart disease risk to blood sugar control, these fats come with a lot of health-promoting potential. They also boost the body’s ability to absorb certain vitamins contained in the other ingredients (study up in our Nutrition Glossary to learn more about dietary fat).

With a few tweaks here and there, this salad bowl can be an excellent choice for people following ketogenic diets and most low-carb eating styles. The perfect blend of sweet and tart, creamy and savory, you won’t even believe it’s “just” a salad.

So, what’s in the Salmon Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese Croquettes recipe and why?

Oh So Simple Oven Baked Salmon

You’ve probably already guessed that “salmon” is the first ingredient in this salad bowl recipe. You’ll find a simple seasoning blend for baking it. In terms of which salmon to buy, we recommend Pacific (or wild-caught) varieties. But, if your budget doesn’t allow you to drop an extra $5-10 a pound to go wild don’t worry, farmed-raised salmon can be a healthy, safe and more affordable option.

If you choose to go with wild-caught salmon, sockeye (or red) salmon is a particular great choice. As with all wild-caught varieties, sockeye delivers a hefty dose of omega-3 fatty acids, protein and many other nutrients. The dense, meaty texture and rich, buttery flavor of sockeye salmon is what makes it really stand out in this salad bowl.

Spinach, Spinach and More Spinach

As hinted by the title, we suggest spinach as a base for the Salmon Spinach Salad bowl. Packed with fiber, vitamins and a cocktail of antioxidants, spinach is by far one of the most nutritionally beneficial bases you can use. That Salad Lady recommends filling at least half your bowl with fresh veggies. Since spinach is really the only veggie in this recipe, we say use a whole lot of it.

By itself, spinach is quite bland – it’s virtually tasteless. That’s another reason it makes the perfect base for this particular salad bowl recipe. As all the other ingredients blend into an explosion of different flavors, it’s that blandness of the spinach that balances everything out.

Now, you might recall our mentioning that this recipe was inspired by a “mesclun salad” bowl. The term “mesclun” is basically a fancy word to describe a mixture of baby leafy green veggies. If you’ve ever had spring mix from a package, you’ve essentially had a mesclun mix. As spring mix usually contains some spinach, feel free to use that mix in your fridge if that’s what you have – and before it goes bad. We aim to avoid food waste!

Nut-and-Seed-Crusted Goat Cheese

When goat cheese comes together with salmon and spinach, something pretty amazing happens! It’s no wonder why goat cheese croquettes are the crux of this Salmon Spinach Salad bowl recipe. If you’re not yet a fan of goat cheese, we hope this recipe will convert you. Goat cheese has a tart, earthy flavor that really sets it apart from cow cheeses.

You might be surprised to know that a serving of goat cheese is just a mere ounce – that’s about the size of a ping pong ball. But a little goes a very long way. In fact, that little ounce delivers a lot of probiotics and offers more calcium than a single serving of cow cheese. The recipe calls for coating goat cheese with almonds, pumpkins seeds and flaxseeds. This introduces a whole new layer of savory flavor, texture and nutrition to the salad bowl.

Strawberries and Walnuts for the Win

We round out the Salmon Spinach Salad bowl with fresh strawberries and toasted walnuts. Each comes with its own special layer of nutrition (visit our Nutrition Glossary to learn more).

Choose the reddest, ripest strawberries you can find, as they’ll be the sweetest. Combining the natural sweetness of the strawberries and the light, crunchy texture of the walnuts with the super savory goat cheese croquettes will satisfy just about every food craving.

This recipe is even more (straw)berrylicious when tossed with That Salad Lady’s homemade strawberry vinaigrette dressing. Otherwise, a simple berry-based or balsamic vinaigrette will suffice.

GET COOKING

A bit of cooking is required for: (1) salmon, (2) goat cheese and (3) walnuts. But we’re keeping it simple and straightforward here.

The recipe calls for seasoning the salmon with a paprika-based seasoning blend, which’ll add a good spicy zing and plenty of rich, red color to the already red salmon. Once the salmon is all seasoned up, you’ll just pop it in the oven. You can use the cooking and cooling time to prepare the rest of your ingredients.

Then there are the goat cheese croquettes, which will likely be your most labor-intensive step. We suggest using a soft or semi-soft goat cheese for the recipe. All you’ll need to do is crush the almonds and combine them with the pumpkin seeds and flaxseeds. Along with egg, this combination will serve as the batter (or “crust”). From there, it’s just a matter of forming or shaping the croquettes and pan-frying them to a crisp.

And, finally, for yummy, healthy crunch, we recommend cooking or, more specifically, “toasting” the walnuts. All that’s required here is heating up the oven to 350 degrees F and baking the walnuts for 5-10 minutes. That’s it! Doesn’t really get simpler and more straightforward than that.

BUILD YOUR SALAD BOWL

Once all the cooked ingredients are prepared, the hard work is done. If using the strawberry vinaigrette dressing, start by simply adding all the ingredients to your blender or food processor. With variable speed units, start with a low speed and then gradually increase it to a higher speed until the mixture is perfectly smooth.

Whether you use our strawberry vinaigrette or another type of vinaigrette dressing, we recommend tossing your spinach with dressing prior to preparing the salad. In a large bowl, simply coat the spinach with dressing and toss it using salad spoons, tongs or your gloved hands.

From there, divide the spinach evenly between four salad bowls or plates, and top them with the salmon, strawberries, walnuts and goat cheese croquettes. Again, don’t be alarmed by the final calorie tally, as this salad bowl is packed full of “functional foods” (visit our Nutrition Glossary to better understand why this matters).

SHOW US YOUR BOWL

That Salad Lady wants to see your bowl! If you like it, which we are sure you will, drop a comment below and tag pics on Instagram with @thatsaladlady, #thatsaladlady and #buildyourbowl. If you love it, pin it on Pinterest and share it on Facebook and Twitter using #thatsaladlady.

This information is provided as a courtesy and is only an estimate. Please review our full disclaimer to get a clear understanding of the nutrition and health information and resources presented and written on our website.