Salmon & Quinoa

After preparing a large meal on Saturday for my family and having another large meal with Michael's family on Sunday to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I felt like we needed to take a food time-out! Instead of diving into the leftovers that we had from Saturday, since I thought we could save those for later in the week, we decided to grill up some salmon and serve it with a vegetable quinoa.

The salmon was by far the best salmon that we've cooked to date.  The marinade is simply 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons soy sauce.  The key is to grill the salmon evenly, for just the right amount of time so that the marinade soaks into the salmon and give it a perfect balance between the sweet sugar and the salty soy sauce.  I'll bow down to Michael for grilling up an amazing salmon!

 Brown Sugar Salmon

Ingredients

• 4 6oz salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• cooking spray/olive oil

Directions  

1. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and soy sauce; set aside
2. Preheat grill or grill pan to medium-high heat
3. Prepare salmon by washing salmon and pat dry
4. Drizzle olive oil on a piece of foil and place salmon on foil
5. Fold the edges of the foil to create a bowl/barrier so the marinade is contained on the fish
6. Coat the salmon with the marinade
7. Place the foiled bowl on the grill and cook for about  5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of brownness

Vegetable Quinoa

Ingredients

• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 celery, finely chopped
• 1/4 carrots, finely chopped
• 1/4 mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cooked corn
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

 Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan, bring quinoa, vegetable broth, and water to a boil then cover sauce pan and reduce heat to low and allow quinoa to cook until all of the water is broth/absorbed
2. While the quinoa is cooking, in a medium frying pan, on medium heat, cook the celery and carrots until they start to soften and brown, about 4/5 minutes.  Once browned, add onions and saute for about 3/4 minutes.  Then add corn and mushrooms and continue cooking for about 5 more minutes.
3. Once quinoa is cooked, add sauteed vegetables and spices

After eating like a king and a queen all weekend, it was defiantly nice to prepare this light dinner - although we both splurged for a piece of cheesecake for dessert!