Salmon, Cucumber, Dill Salad

healthy food tip and recipe

Today's Recipe If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
Salmon, especially Chinook (king) salmon, is a great way to add more of those hard-to-find omega-3 fatty acids to your Healthiest Way of Eating. Enjoy!

Salmon, Cucumber, Dill Salad
Prep and Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:

• 11/2 lbs salmon filet, cut into 4 pieces, skin and bones removed
• 1 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1/2 TBS honey
• 1 large cucumber, peeled (if not organic), cut in half lengthwise, seeds scooped out, diced in ½ inch cubes
• 1 large ripe fresh, diced
• 1 medium ripe, but firm avocado, diced in 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 TBS chopped fresh chives (or 2/3 tsp dried chives)
• 3 medium cloves garlic, pressed
• 11/2 TBS chopped fresh dill (or 11/2 tsp dried dill weed)
• 1 + 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Press garlic and let sit for 5 minutest to bring out its health-promoting properties.
2. Preheat broiler on high and place an all stainless steel skillet (be sure the handle is also stainless steel) or cast iron pan under the heat for about 10 minutes to get it very hot. The pan should be 5 to 7 inches from the heat source.
3. Rub salmon with 1 TBS fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
4. While pan is heating, mix together cucumber, tomato, avocado, chives, garlic, and dill in a bowl and set aside.
5. Whisk together 2 TBS lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a separate bowl. Toss with cucumber mix when ready to serve.
6. Place salmon on hot pan and cook for about 7 minutes, depending upon thickness. Combine honey and mustard and coat salmon during last 2 minutes of cooking.
7. Divide cucumber mixture between 4 plates and serve with salmon.

Serves 4 Printer Friendly Version of Salmon, Cucumber, Dill Salad
In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Salmon, Cucumber, Dill Salad
Healthy Food Tip
Should spices such as turmeric, coriander (or others) be included while cooking or added afterwards? How does heat affect the nutritional quality of spices?

In many traditional Indian and Asian cuisines, spices found in the form of a seed (for example, coriander seed, mustard seed, peppercorn, or cumin seed) are often added to cooking oils at the start of the heating process and allowed to "pop" in the oil. Powdered spices are added at different points in the cooking process, but never before the dish has been completely cooked.
I have only been able to find one research article (not published in MEDLINE) that measured nutritional changes in cooked versus uncooked turmeric. Although it shows improved antioxidant ability from cooking, I would not expect this finding to be typical. I've seen research, for example, on turmerin, one of the water-soluble peptides in turmeric, which has demonstrated antioxidant ability. I would assume that a certain percentage of turmerin could be lost in the same way as other water-soluble nutrients. In many traditional Indian and Asian cuisines, spices found in the form of a seed (for example, coriander seed, mustard seed, peppercorn, or cumin seed) are often added to cooking oils at the start of the heating process and allowed to "pop" in the oil. Powdered spices are added at different points in the cooking process.
I have only been able to find one research article (not published in MEDLINE) that measured nutritional changes in cooked versus uncooked turmeric. Although it shows improved antioxidant ability from cooking, I would not expect this finding to be typical. I've seen research, for example, on turmerin, one of the water-soluble peptides in turmeric, which has demonstrated antioxidant ability. I would assume that a certain percentage of turmerin could be lost in the same way as other water-soluble nutrients.
I would expect there to be trade-offs between cooked versus uncooked spices. These trade-offs might be unique to each particular spice. In general, however, I would expect fresh spices to have the most plentiful nutrient content, and I would expect there to be some significant nutrient losses from either the cooking or drying of fresh spices. Once a spice has already been dried, however, I would expect there to be less of an additional nutrient loss with cooking. In general, I would also expect more nutrient loss from the cooking or drying of leafy herbs than whole seeds.