Thai Salmon Salad Bowls

The past week was pretty rocky in my life. Last Friday we celebrated my husband's birthday, but I could feel that I was getting sick. We had an awesome time, but hosting a party and staying up late certainly didn't help me feel any better. For five days I struggled with fogginess and sinus pressure. And here I was hoping to avoid sickness all winter!

Then I made a major mistake while working on new recipes last weekend. I didn't eject my SD card after importing photos and corrupted the files. What, you thought that was a 90's issue that we were all past? Do you even remember ever having to eject USBs or other external media before taking them out of your computer?

Well, my fellow photographers will (hopefully) understand the issue. I had almost 59 GB of pictures on that SD card, including pictures for three new recipes, and suddenly all files were inaccessible. UGH.

Fortunately, I figured out how to recover the files. The downside is that it's a 48+-hours-long process. I finally got that started, realized how long it would take, already feeling "meh" due to being sick... I decided fuck-all, I'm taking a social media/blog break until I feel better and I have my pictures back.

Honestly it was a great idea. I'm feeling a little better, my files are recovered, and now I get to post the recipe for Thai Salmon Salad Bowls. Huzzah!

I intentionally made these salad bowls simple, simple, simple so they're easy to whip together on busy nights (or nights I don't feel like cooking). In my world, salad bowls start off with a huge portion of kale-I guess you could alternatively call this recipe a "Big Ass Salmon Salad" or something like that. I mean, let's be real. If I'm eating a salad I'm going to eat a fucking salad. No measly portions on my plate. Let's pile on the veggies.

So we start with kale, massage it with some olive oil so it's not so tough, and toss it in a simple dressing that doubles as a glaze for the salmon. Slice up some veggies and fan them out on the kale, rest that pan-fried salmon on the ensemble, and drizzle the whole thing in an addicting, citrusy almond butter drizzle.

To my surprise, my man spouse even gobbled this up. (Typically, he won't touch greens. I'm wearing him down.)

Okay, so you might notice that the recipe calls for red cabbage, but the photos don't show it. What. The. Heck. Well, the first time I made these salad bowls, I added thinly sliced red cabbage. See below.

Pretty, right? Of course, when I remade the bowls and re-photographed the recipe, I forgot the cabbage. Whomp whomp. But I like the newer pics better.

Anyway, one thing I like about this recipe is that it's customizable. I forgot the cabbage because I didn't have it on hand - does that mean I ruined the recipe? Not one bit. Sure, that wouldn't be okay for a lot of recipes (but in reality, we all make subs and exclusions on the fly when following a recipe, even when we know it will probably change the outcome). The veggies are a central part to these thai salmon salad bowls, but feel free to make swaps to fit your veggie tastes.

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