One Pan Ginger Salmon and Wholegrain Rice

SERVES: 2

Ingredients:

120g (4oz) quick cook wholegrain (brown) rice
300ml cold water
2 salmon fillets (around 110g or 3.5oz each)
200g sugar snaps, baby corn or French beans (or a combination of all three)
2tsp grated ginger (you can buy jars of ready minced ginger if you find grating it difficult)
1 clove crushed garlic
1tbsp soy sauce
Juice of half a lime
1tsp brown sugar or honey

Recipe Summary

This one-pan salmon dish is a simple but flavour packed way to help you get your oily fish as part of the Conquest Diet plan. The ginger marinated salmon and vegetables simply steam over the rice to create a quick, healthy dinner. If you can find the deep pink, wild, sustainably sourced salmon in the supermarket then do choose that over the farmed kind – it’s much richer in anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids.

Ginger is purported to have anti-inflammatory properties and is often used in traditional herbal medicine for arthritis. There have been some promising early studies into its effects on inflammation and joint pain but much more research is needed to establish whether it can help and how much people would need to consume for any beneficial effect. In the meantime, it’s great to enjoy in recipes and can be very useful in settling your stomach if arthritis medications leave you feeling nauseous.

Don’t be tempted to use ordinary brown or wholegrain rice for this recipe. You need to use easy cook otherwise it will still be crunchy after the allotted cooking time! If you do want to substitute the rice, then you will need to cook it for about 25-30 minutes before you add the salmon and the vegetables.

Method:

Mix together the crushed garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar (or honey) and grated ginger in a small bowl. Pour this mixture over the salmon fillets and leave them to marinade for at least an hour in the fridge.

When you are ready to cook the meal, place a medium-sized, deep frying pan with a lid or casserole dish on the hob. Put the rice in the pan and cover with 300ml of cold water. Put the lid on the pan and cook on a low simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, remove the pan lid and stir the rice (it should be beginning to swell up and soften – if not, cook for another 5 minutes). Place the marinated salmon fillets on top of the rice and scatter the vegetables around them. Put the lid back on and allow everything to steam over a low heat for another 10-12 minutes, or until the salmon is just opaque and cooked through.

Serve immediately.