Teriyaki Salmon Bowl
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You’re going to love this 20-minute Teriyaki Salmon Bowl! It uses cauliflower rice as a base and is topped with avocado, spinach and teriyaki-glazed salmon, making it a quick and healthy weeknight meal!
What can I say? I love teriyaki sauce! I’ve used it in this shrimp sushi bowl, and then again as the sauce for my pork meatballs, and guess what? It’s delicious on salmon too!
This teriyaki salmon bowl is so delicious, and rather than only giving you the recipe for the salmon, I wanted to create an entire meal, which is what this salmon bowl is. Don’t worry if you’re not into some of the ingredients — I’ve provided a handful of substitutions below.
Recipe features
- A quick meal that comes together in under 20 minutes
- The sauce is so good you’ll want to lick the skillet clean
- Uses cauliflower rice as a base, making it both gluten free and dairy free
Ingredient notes
Salmon – I used wild-caught sockeye salmon; you can use any variety. I do recommend buying salmon with the skin — skinless salmon tends to fall apart more easily when you cook it in a skillet.
Coconut aminos – Most grocery stores should carry coconut aminos in the Asian food aisle. If you can’t find any, you can sub soy sauce or tamari instead.
Maple syrup – Can technically sub honey or coconut sugar, but personally I think maple syrup tastes best.
Cauliflower rice – I love using cauliflower rice as a base for bowls (see my honey garlic chicken and banh mi bowl as examples), but if it’s not your jam, use regular white or brown rice instead.
Spinach – Can sub any kind of greens or vegetables of your choice. Personally, I think broccoli, carrots, kale, or brussels sprouts would all be delicious!
Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Cook the salmon. Begin by adding a pinch of salt and pepper to both sides of each salmon fillet. Then, heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook the salmon skin side down for 5 minutes.
Next, flip the salmon over and cook it skin side up for 5-6 minutes. Once the salmon is cooked, reduce the heat to medium-low, add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
Step 2: Make the sauce. While the salmon is cooking, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Then, once the salmon is cooked, pour the sauce into the skillet.
The sauce should thicken fairly quickly; once it does, remove the skillet from the heat and spoon the sauce overtop of the salmon. If the sauce isn’t thickening, turn the heat up to medium heat and that should do the trick.
Step 3: Assemble the bowl. Once everything is ready, this salmon bowl comes together quite quickly. Distribute the cauliflower rice into bowls, then top it with the salmon and sauce, along with the avocado. L
Last, quickly cook the spinach in a skillet for 2-3 minutes, then add it to the bowls.
Tips and tricks
- Cook times for the salmon will vary depending on the thickness of the fillets. The salmon I used in this recipe was rather thin, so it cooked quickly, but that won’t be the case for all salmon.
- If your salmon fillets are on the thicker side, you can place a lid on the skillet while the salmon is cooking, which will help speed up the cook time.
- You can learn how to cook salmon perfectly every time by referencing this Bon Appétit article which discusses common mistakes when cooking salmon.
- Using arrowroot in the sauce helps the sauce to thicken once it’s warmed, as in once it’s poured into the skillet. If the sauce doesn’t seem to be thickening, keep the skillet on the heat and increase the heat until it thickens.
Is this recipe paleo?
The recipe as it’s written is not paleo. However, if you want to make it paleo, simply omit the rice vinegar from the sauce.
How should leftovers be stored?
Store any leftovers in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
More easy salmon recipes
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Teriyaki Salmon Bowl
Ingredients
for the salmon:
- 2 salmon fillets , thawed
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
for the sauce:
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tsp arrowroot
for the bowl:
- 12 oz. cauliflower rice, cooked
- 1 avocado
- 3 cups spinach
- green onion for garnish
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the salmon. Then, heat a large, nonstick skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. Place the salmon skin side down and cook the salmon for 5 minutes. Then, flip the salmon over and cook it skin side up for an additional 5-6 minutes (note: cook times vary depending on thickness of the salmon). If the salmon is on the thicker side, you may want to place a lid on the skillet, which will help it to cook more quickly.
- While the salmon is cooking, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl, and also cook the cauliflower rice according to the package instructions.
- Once the salmon is cooked, reduce heat to medium-low, then add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Reduce the heat to low, and pour the sauce into the skillet. The sauce should thicken rather quickly; once it does, remove skillet from the heat and use a spoon to spoon the sauce over the skillet. (note: if sauce isn't thickening, turn the heat up to medium)
- Divide cauliflower rice into bowls, then top it with the cooked salmon and avocado. The last step is to cook the spinach: wipe out the skillet that you cooked the salmon in, then place it back on the top over medium heat. Add spinach, along with a little more oil, and cook until the spinach is wilted, 2-3 minutes.
- Top the bowls with green onions and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
UPDATE NOTE: This post was originally published in April 2017. It was updated with new text and photos in January 2021.
Yum!
First time using coconut aminos! So absolutely delicious in this sauce for the salmon! The technique was easy to follow the results were fantastic. I was worried my husband would still be hungry afterwards with cauliflower rice instead of rice but we was happily satisfied. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks so fresh and healthy! I am a HUGE fan of salmon so will def have to try this! Our weekend was super low key – mainly eating, drinking and we went and saw The XX last night which was amazing! Although cue the Monday morning blues! I missed my bus and it literally went straight past me! ?
Nooooo that’s the worst!! On a good note, that weekend sounds pretty perfect to make–I’m all about low-key weekends recently.
It feels like everyone is doing the Whole 30 these days. I can see how it would make you feel good in the short term because you’re ridding dairy and most processed foods but it doesn’t seem sustainable in the long-term to me. It’s really hard to eat enough veggies to get in your daily requirement for fiber.
I have to have my legumes and grains to keep things on track, if you know what I mean. 😉 But that said, this meal is gorgeous. Those seasonings are such a great combo with lime juice!
The seasonings are perfection if I do say so myself, and I agree about Whole30. I think it’s meant to be more of a “get back on track” type of deal rather than a “this is now your permanent diet”–cause that would be quite difficult!
This looks so good! I struggle with healthy and yummy lunches too, especially if we don’t have any leftovers. I am really bad at planning ahead, so Panera usually ends up taking all my money.
Yesss planning is key–some weeks I’m really good at it and others…not so much.
Not a lot to tell about my weekend, as I was feeling under the weather too! I’ve been looking for ways to spruce up my lunch game (cheese sandwich, anyone?) and this looks totally delicious. My bf doesn’t like salmon so it’s perfect to eat during the day! Thanks for sharing!
Oh no! I hope you’re feeling better. And YES–this is an awesome to make lunches a little more exciting 🙂