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This Whole30 Salmon Lunch Bowl is made with cauliflower rice, blackened salmon, avocado, roasted tomatoes, and is ready in 30 minutes or less!
This one’s for all my Whole30 friends, aka Miguel. Yup, he’s doing it, and he’s doing really well so far, but I think this blackened salmon lunch bowl would help to make his lunches just a liiiiiittle more exciting.
Hopefully you Whole30-ers will agree. Again, I’ve never done Whole30, but I think a lot of people struggle with how to make their food more flavorful while still keeping it healthy. I assure you this salmon lunch bowl is anything but bland.
Now, please tell me about your weekend! Did you eat at a new restaurant? See a good movie? I did none of the above, but still had a really nice weekend. I had the worst headache ever Friday (yeah, they’re still happening..), so the only thing I really got accomplished was one blog recipe. Miguel and I watched ‘Allied’ Friday night and both thought it was kind of “meh” and super slow in the beginning. If you’ve seen it, let me know if you agree or not because I’m curious as to what other people think.
Saturday my head felt muuuuch better, so me and the fam (Miguel and Layla) went for a walk around Point State Park and then swung by Frick Park for their mini Earth Day festival, aka live music and tons of happy Pittsburghers. I ran some errands and picked up some photography supplies, and then at night we watched Patriots Day, a movie about the Boston marathon bombing, and we both really enjoyed it. It’s genuinely entertaining and shows how the day played out from various points of view. And last, yesterday was spent doing work, work, work, work, work, in the morning and afternoon before heading to my grandparent’s house to celebrate my grandpa’s birthday. Super low-key weekend, which are often times the best.
Don’t think I forgot about this Whole30 salmon!
So what’s exactly in this bowl? The base is made of cauliflower rice and then it’s topped with blackened salmon (similar to this kind), almond flour-breaded avocado, roasted tomatoes, and plenty of lime juice. It’s flavorful and possibly best of all, super filling!
Tip: I originally used one head of cauliflower for the rice, but I realized that the salmon to cauliflower ratio was a bit off, so I’d actually recommend using two heads of cauliflower.
The best part is that this Whole30 salmon comes together in 30 minutes or less <—my favorite kind of meals!
Ingredients
- 2 heads cauliflower stem removed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- Black pepper to taste
- 1 cup cucumber sliced*
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 2 pieces of salmon approx. .5 lbs each
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1/8 tsp thyme
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Place cauliflower in a food processor (you'll probably have to do each cauliflower head separately), and pulse until cauliflower is a rice-like consistency, approximately 30 seconds; set it aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add garlic cloves, stirring occasionally. Add cauliflower rice to the skillet and stir to give the cauliflower a mild garlic flavor. Pour rice into two separate bowls and set aside.
- Once oven is heated, place tomatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle a small amount of olive oil or avocado oil over them and roast tomatoes for approximately 10 minutes.
- To make the salmon: Place a skillet over stovetop and heat on high. Next, combine spices in a bowl (pepper, chili powder, paprika, garlic, oregano, and thyme). Coat both sides of the salmon filets with lime juice and then dip them in the spice bowl until both sides are coated with spices. Place salmon in hot skillet, place a lid over the skillet and cook each salmon filet for approximately 3-4 minutes per side.
- To make the avocado: place almond flour in a bowl. Cut avocado, slice it and then place individual slices into almond flour to coat. Optional: heat 1-2 tbsp oil in a skillet and add avocado to "fry" it.
- Assemble bowl with rice, roasted tomatoes, breaded avocado, sliced cucumber, and blackened salmon, sprinkle additional lime juice over top and enjoy!
Notes
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 🙂