Avocado Salad with Wild Salmon and Pumpkin Seeds

This recipe is one of my favorite meals for lunch or dinner. It combines avocado with wild salmon, pumpkin seeds and several other superfoods into an extremely nutritious meal.

Due to the low carbohydrates, high protein and healthy fats in this avocado salad, it tends to satisfy your hunger for much longer than a sandwich, pasta or rice dish. Eating meals like this can really help avoid that afternoon slump that leads to unhealthy snacking, or late night cravings on the couch.

Because of this, despite the relatively high fat content, it is actually a very good meal for anyone wanting to lose weight. For more information on why, see the page on Is Avocado Fattening?

Ingredients for Two

• Around 100 g of fresh wild salmon, sliced. Salmon caught in the wild is far superior to farmed salmon in its fatty acid profile. It’s usually a bit more, but it’s worth it.

• Quarter of a cup of raw pumpkin seeds.

• Half an avocado, diced.

• Two platefulls of mixed organic salad leaves. Spinach, rocket and watercress all go really well here but use whatever you like. Try to get organic if you can, or soak the leaves well in sodium bicarbonate and lemon juice to get as much pesticide residue off as possible. Green superfoods like these make an incredibly healthy base for a weight loss meal compared to the usual concentrated carbohydrate alternatives.

• 3 – 4 shiitake mushrooms diced.

• A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (carefully or they can squirt seeds everywhere).

• 2 spring onions or half a small red onion, well chopped.

• 1 tablespoon of virgin coconut oil.

• 1 clove of crushed garlic.

• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

• Chili flakes if you like it.

• Himalayan crystal salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

How to Make Wild Salmon, Pumpkin Seed and Avocado Salad

Start by melting the coconut oil in a small frying pan. New ceramic non-stick cookware is a great alternative to teflon to avoid the perfluorooctanoic acid and polytetrafluoroethylene issues with conventional non-stick pans.

Add the spring onions or diced onion, shake to coat with the oil and place a lid over the frying pan if you have one to cook them more quickly on a lower heat.

While they are cooking, arrange your washed salad leaves on your plates and top them with your diced avocado in the center of both.

Drizzle a tablespoon each of fresh lemon juice over the avocado, then sprinkle it with crystal salt and cracked black pepper. Also add the halved cherry tomatoes and lightly toss.

Add the pumpkin seeds to the onion in the frying pan and swirl to coat them with the coconut oil. Over the top of these add the salmon slices, crushed garlic and optional chili flakes.

Stir well to mix all the ingredients and then replace the lid and lower the heat so your salmon and pumpkin seeds are more steaming than heavily frying in the pan. Both these superfoods are better warmed but not cooked brown. Stir occasionally to prevent this, replacing the lid afterwards.

It should only take around a minute for the garlic and chili coated salmon slivers and pumpkin seeds to be warmed and ready. Divide the mixture between the two plates, sharing out the garlic infused coconut oil, which acts as a healthy dressing.

Gently toss again to mix the salmon and pumpkin seeds with the avocado and salad leaves and serve immediately. 

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Photo 1 credit with thanks: quasireversible
Photo 2 credit with thanks: Lori_NY