Chopped Salmon Arugula Walnut Salad with Honey Wasabi Vinaigrette Recipe (2024)

April 9, 2012 by Jeanette 20 Comments

The salad recipe I am sharing with you today has been on my mind ever since I took my first bite at a local pan-Asian restaurant. I met a friend for lunch at this Asian fusion restaurant one dayand she said she always orders the Chopped Salmon Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette, so naturally I had to try it. After one bite, I was hooked. As simple as the name of the dish sounds, the components are a bit more complicated. I tried to play detective work, tasting all the little tidbits in the salad. It wasn’t until a second visit to this restaurant when I ordered this salad again, this time with my husband, who was more than willing to take pictures of this salad using his iPhone, that I was finally able to decipher all the salad ingredients.

This Chopped Salmon Salad has warm and cold components. The salmon is baked or grilled in a teriyaki sauce and then tossed with warm brown rice along with some cold salad components – baby arugula, radicchio, mango, and jicama. Everything is finely chopped. In fact, the restaurant salad was so finely chopped that it was nearly impossible for me to figure out exactly what all the greens were. There might have been some baby spinach or even baby bok choy too. The star of the salad was the finely chopped sugared walnuts on top of the chopped salad, a perfect compliment to the spicy tangy Wasabi Vinaigrette.

Although this salad might seem like a lot of work, it really isn’t if you organize all the components. First, I marinated the salmon in a teriyaki style sauce. While the salmon was marinating, I made the sugared walnuts and the Wasabi Vinaigrette. Next, I chopped up the mango, jicama and arugula. I had leftover cooked brown rice in the refrigerator so I simply microwaved it for a minute just to warm it through. All in all, this salad took less than 30 minutes to make from start to finish.

Not only is this a delicious luncheon salad that would be perfect for a ladies’ lunch, but it is super heart healthy. It has salmon and walnuts, both rich in omega-3 fatty acids, heart healthy leafy green baby arugula, and brown rice (fiber).

More Heart Healthy Recipes:

Eggplant Walnut Dip, Jeanette’s Healthy Living
Spinach Walnut Dip, Jeanette’s Healthy Living
Honey Miso Glazed Salmon and Soba Noodle Soup, Jeanette’s Healthy Living
Black Bean, Quinoa & Broccoli Salad with Blackberry Serrano Sauce, Beyond the Peel
Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon, Skinnytaste
Toasted Sesame Ginger Salmon, How Sweet It Is
Ginger Spice Mixed Nuts, The Perfect Pantry
Date Nut Oatmeal, Never Enough Thyme

This recipe has been linked up to Beyond the Peel’s Whole Food Wednesday event.