HONEY SOY GLAZED SALMON WITH BEETROOT & ASPARAGUS SALAD

Throwing this recipe together is an absolute breeze. The kind of breeze you’re looking for on a Thursday. Because Fridays have no business in having a low-calorie anything so this is the perfect thing to cap off your virtuous week.

For a while I was sceptical of beetroot purely because of stains. I have always been extremely lucky with my teeth – no braces, no filling *does a ‘ding’ style smile to camera* – and I intend on keeping it this way. I have a fear of staining my teeth, which is why red wine scares me and black coffee is Satan. Beetroot is no exception and I always got extremely nervous that the creepy malevolent dye of it would corrupt my teeth forever.

Alas, I’m a drama queen, the beetroot is fine and this salad is delicious. The salmon is sticky and smells absolutely incredible and this is packed with so much undercover goodness, you don’t even realise you’re eating a proper salad.

Preheat the oven to 200C. In a small bowl, combine a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon of soy sauce and a nice squirt of honey, mixing to combine. Grab yourself a plump piece of salmon and using a brush – or your fingers if you’re gross like me – and coat the coral flesh of the salmon in the honey mustard mixture. Leave to one side.

Slice the bottoms off of a handful of asparagus and place in a roasting dish. Drizzle with olive oil and a scattering of sea salt. Place the fish on top and slide into the oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, grab yourself a vacuum pack of beetroot (the kind you mostly ignore in the supermarket that’s all sucked up in a tight plastic container) and put a colander over a big jug.

Pierce the vacuum pack and allow the juices – and beetroots – to drop into the colander. The juices will collect in the if jug, obviously and the reason I’m asking you to do this is because you’ll only need two or three beetroots for this recipe… so with the remaining two beetroots and the collected juice, I like to make a smoothie the next day. Recipe coming soon.

Anyway, grab two or three beetroots and slice up into disks and arrange on a plate. Scatter with sea salt and a twist of black pepper. Bring a small pan of water to the boil (I tend to use water boiled in a kettle first – it’s quicker) and throw in a small handful of peas and cook on a rapid boil for 4 minutes. Drain and then throw the peas on top of the beetroot.

Remove the salmon and asparagus from the oven and place on top of the beets and peas. You could, if you had the dexterity, to lift the salmon and in one swoop slip the skin from it. But I like to fiddle with food so I leave the skin on and rip the flesh from it as I go. Scatter a small pinch of toasted sesame seeds over the richly glazed salmon and serve.

Quick. Healthy. Still hearty. Sticky. Everything I want in a salad, really.