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Caramelized pan-fried salmon served over fluffy seasoned rice with peppers, tomatoes, feta and fresh lemon. This easy salmon rice recipe is a colourful weeknight dinner that feels fresh, filling and full of flavour.
“I love salmon and always on the look out for a new way to serve it. This was delicious, gorgeous topping and the rice was super tasty too.”
Nicky’s Notes
This dinner is seriously tasty. The coating on top of the salmon is sweet, sticky and just a little bit crisp. It also protects the salmon from the heat of cooking, which means your salmon will be lovely and juicy in the middle.
The rice is also a little spicy (but not hot-chilli-spicy). It’s made with easy-cook rice – which I only EVER use for this dish. I find easy cook rice is less sticky, so it works better in this type of dish where you don’t want it to clump together. Dotted with peppers, tomatoes and feta it’s yummy enough to eat on it’s own.
It’s hard not to eat every bite, but if you do have any leftovers, the salmon and rice make great cold leftovers for the next day.
Table of Contents
📋 Ingredients for Spiced Salmon
***Full recipe with detailed quantities in the recipe card below***
What cut of salmon to use?
You can use your favourite cut:
- A centre fillet (long fillet with a thick bit that tapers to a thinner end)
- Tail-end fillet (a wider and fairly uniform flatter piece)
- Or you can buy a half side of salmon and slice into 4 thick (or 6 regular-size) fillets. A half side of salmon is the same part that the centre fillet comes from, but you can cut it to the size you prefer.
I’ve used all three very successfully in this recipe. If using thick pieces, they will take a couple of minutes extra to cook through fully.
Whichever cut you use, go for skin-on, and boneless.
📋 Ingredients for Vegetable Rice with Feta
🧑🍳 Abbreviated Recipe
***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card below***
Coat the salmon in the oil-sugar-spice mix, then pan-fry (coated side first, then skin-side) until golden. Cook the rice with onion, garlic, spices and stock until fluffy. Stir through peppers, tomatoes, feta, lemon and parsley. Serve the salmon on top of the vegetable rice with extra lemon.
Recipe Tips
- Be sure to use easy cook rice for this recipe. Easy cook rice is best when you need grains to stay separate, firm, and non-sticky. You need that because you’ll be stirring ingredients into the rice and you don’t want it to go mushy.
- If you find the rice is too wet, let it sit uncovered for a minute or two off the heat before stirring through the feta and vegetables. Easy-cook rice usually behaves well here, but pans and hob/stovetop temperatures do vary.
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Leftovers Guide
- Cool any leftovers quickly, then store the salmon and vegetable rice in an airtight container in the fridge. Eat within 1 day.
- The rice is lovely cold as a salmon rice bowl with extra lemon, cucumber or salad leaves.
- To reheat, warm the rice until piping hot throughout. Add the salmon at the end and heat gently, or flake it through the hot rice to avoid drying it out.
- Don’t reheat more than once.
Spiced Salmon with Vegetable Rice
Ingredients
Rice:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion peeled and chopped finely
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp coriander
- 4 cardamom pods sew them together so you can easily fish them out later
- 200 g (1 cup) easy cook rice
- 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
- boiling water – to cook the rice
- 1 green bell pepper chopped finely
- 5 cherry (grape) tomatoes chopped into small pieces
- 100 g (3.5 oz) crumbled feta
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (approx. the juice of half a small lemon)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley roughly torn
Salmon:
- 4 salmon fillets (approx 140g/5oz each)
- 1 tbsp olive oil for coating
- 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1.5 tbsp paprika
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil for frying
To Serve:
- ½ medium cucumber sliced into small pieces
- 1 lemon sliced
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Start with the rice. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan and add the onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes on a medium heat until the onions starts to soften.1 tbsp olive oil, 1 red onion
- Add in the garlic, paprika, turmeric, coriander, and cardamom pods. Give it a stir and allow it to cook for a minute.2 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp coriander, 4 cardamom pods
- Add in the rice and a crumbled stock cube. Stir until the stock cube is incorporated and then pour boiling water from the kettle over until the rice is covered by about 1cm of water. Stir once more and then leave to simmer gently for 15-18 minutes until the rice is tender. You may need to add a little more water if the pan starts to boil dry (but you shouldn't need to drain off any water at the end).200 g (1 cup) easy cook rice, 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube, boiling water – to cook the rice
- Whilst the rice is cooking, start on the salmon. Mix 1 tbsp of oil with the sugar, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Press onto the flesh side of the salmon fillets.1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1.5 tbsp paprika, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 4 salmon fillets
- Heat the remaining 1 tbsp. oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Place the salmon in the pan, spice-side-down. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until the coating darkens and caramelizes (watch is closely, so it doesn't burn) then turn over and continue to cook for another 5-6 minutes until salmon is cooked through. Turn off the heat.1 tbsp olive oil
- Once the rice is cooked, remove the cardamom pods and discard. Stir in the green pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta, lemon juice, salt & pepper, and the parsley.1 green bell pepper, 5 cherry (grape) tomatoes, 100 g (3.5 oz) crumbled feta, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice , 1/4 tsp salt, 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Dish the rice onto 4 plates and top with a salmon fillet. I like to serve with some chopped cucumber, lemon slices and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.1/2 medium cucumber, 1 lemon, 1 tsp sesame seeds
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This salmon recipe was first posted in September 2015. Updated since with recipe improvements and for housekeeping reasons.
🍲 More fantastic Salmon recipes
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Made this tonight it was absolutely delicious and so nutritious too. Clean plates all around
Very tasty and I love how you put the ingredients at the bottom of every line, it saves going up and down to see what is needed.
Hi Nicky, this was just gorgeous… Thank you! Made it as a quick supper for me and Hubby last night, with small adaptations to make it Low FODMAP (so I used Garlic Oil and green Spring Onions, and omitted the garlic and red onion. Whilst I would still love to eat garlic and white/red onions, they *really* do not like me!) The meal was totally delish… Hubby said it’s a keeper! So glad I found your site. Thanks again 😊
I love salmon and always on the look out for a new way to serve it. This was delicious, gorgeous topping and the rice was super tasty too.
This looks amazing Nicky!
Thanks Julie 🙂