Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables
Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables features baby potatoes, asparagus, peas, and radishes tossed with flavorful greens, fennel, pickled onions, eggs, and Sweet Mustard Sauce.
Spring is in the air and the Easter season is upon us. I love this time of reflection and renewal while watching the world around us recharge for another season. It feels wonderful to start cooking different foods to fit with the seasonal change. This Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables is a great transitional salad with roasted and raw vegetables, greens, and flavorful hot-smoked salmon.
The Ingredients:
Fresh spring vegetables are the key! Small creamer-type potatoes are ideal and are so delicious roasted for this salad. Below are “Pee Wee” potatoes in a combo of red and gold.
Leave the potatoes whole if small enough, toss with olive oil and salt, and roast until golden on the outside and creamy in the middle.
I love when markets start to fill with slender stalks of asparagus. My favorite preparation is also a quick roast to bring out the flavor.
Fennel, radishes, and radicchio add a nice earthy quality and crunch to the salad while snap peas give a fresh sweetness.
Doing a quick-pickle of red onions tames the sharpness of flavor while adding a bright savory kick to the salad.
Here is some beautiful hot-smoked Norwegian salmon. This salmon was brined and smoked at 130 degrees. This is just long enough to give it a hearty smoky flavor and gently cook the flesh. I prefer the texture of the hot-smoked salmon in this salad, but you could also use cold-smoked or even poached salmon.
Toss arugula, radicchio, fennel, radishes, snap peas, and asparagus together with Sweet Mustard Sauce and heap them onto a platter. Add the roasted and cooled potatoes, salmon, and some hard-cooked eggs (great way to use up Easter eggs for an Easter brunch!) Garnish with the quick-pickled onions, some capers, and fresh dill sprigs. A final drizzle of the Sweet Mustard Sauce and your Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables is ready to enjoy!
Perfect Pairing:
Have you ever tried wine from Corsica? If not, the Domaine Vetriccie Île de Beauté Rosé is a great place to start. The name, vetriccie, is derived from the local Corsican name for the wicker that grows wild around the sustainably farmed vineyards. The wine is a blend of 50% Niellucciu, 35% Sciaccarellu, and 15% Grenache. These unique grapes create a delicate yet energetic blend of flavors with both acidity and minerality. The fresh citrus and pomegranate flavors play perfectly against the smokiness of the salmon. The tangy onions and earthiness of the root vegetables give another layer of contrast for flavorful harmony.
This wine is a lovely pairing for an Easter brunch or springtime dinner with the Smoked Salmon and Spring Vegetable Salad, and perhaps some Swedish Oat Flatbread on the side! Glad Påsk!
Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 pound baby new potatoes
- Olive oil, for roasting
- Kosher salt, for seasoning
- 1 bunch slender green asparagus
- 5 or 6 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 small bulb fresh fennel, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1 cup fresh snap peas, sliced on a diagonal
- 2 cups fresh arugula leaves
- 2 cups chopped radicchio
- 8 ounces hot-smoked salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut into quarters
- Capers, for garnish
- Fresh dill sprigs, for garnish
- Sweet Mustard Sauce (see link below)
For Quick-Pickled Red Onion:
- 1 small red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Assembling the Salad:
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Wash the potatoes and leave whole if very small or cut in half. Toss with enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast until golden brown and tender inside. Cool.
- Wash the asparagus and trim off the tough part of the stems. Cut into 1-inch lengths, toss with olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast just until tender. Cool.
- In a large bowl, toss the asparagus, radishes, fennel, peas, arugula and radicchio together with enough Sweet Mustard Sauce to lightly coat. Transfer mixture to a large shallow platter or serving bowl.
- To the salad, add the roasted potatoes, salmon and eggs. Sprinkle with capers, fresh dill sprigs and garnish with Quick-Pickled Red Onion. Drizzle with additional Sweet Mustard Sauce.
For Quick-Pickled Red Onion:
- Add all ingredients to a 12 ounce glass jar. Add enough water to cover the onion and put on the lid.
- Allow the onion to sit in the liquid for at least one hour, or store refrigerated for up to a week.
Notes
Tips for Success:
- All of the ingredients in this salad work together quite harmoniously, however feel free to add or subtract to suit your taste.
- Find the Sweet Mustard Sauce recipe here
- Find the Swedish Oat Flatbread recipe here
Wine Pairing:
- The flavors of the Smoked Salmon Salad with Spring Vegetables pair perfectly with the Domaine Vetriccie Île de Beauté Rosé.
