Could the Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Salmon be the world's healthiest recipe? Quite possibly. All the health benefits of tart grapefruit, avocado, in a sald base of dark leafy kale and cabbage greens, and of course, omega3-rich salmon protein. Let's get into the details, or hit that JUMP button right here ↓ to go directly to the recipe. Shall we?
Explore More
- What Ingredients You Need for Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Crispy Skin Salmon
- Instructions for How to Make Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Crispy Skin Salmon
- How to Pan Sear Salmon for Crispy Skin
- What's the Best Kind of Salmon?
- Best Way to Cook Salmon with Skin On
- Is Eating Salmon Skin Healthy?
- What is the Best Kind of Kale for Salad?
- Pro Tips and Techniques for Crispy Skin Salmon
- Tools and Equipment
- FAQ
- Pan-seared Salmon with Ultra Crispy Skin and Kale Salad Recipe
Is this the Ruby Star Salmon Kale Salad from Houston's/Hillstone?
Yes, almost! This Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Salmon recipe is inspired by the Ruby Star Salmon Salad at Hillstone and Houston's Restaurants. The Ruby Star Salad doesn't get quite the same attention as the Emerald Kale Salad with Rotisserie Chicken, but it should, so that's why I'm shouting about it here!
I did a little taste-testing, true ingredient detective work, and just read the ingredients that are just straight up listed on the website. Only two things are different: 1) I add garlic the Lemon Vinaigrette, and 2) the price tag. The original Hillstone/Houston's salad costs almost $40 which just sounds sort of outrageous for a salad.
Now I'm not saying that that's way too expensive for a salad, but I'm not not saying that either. What I AM saying is that you can make and eat this salad in the comfort of your own home in your PJs for oh, I don't know, less. And once you have the pan searing technique down, you can serve the Crispy Skin Salmon with any salad.
Now, balancing tart grapefruit with rich avocado is nothing new, and neither is adding salmon to a plate of greens for protein. What IS new in this Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Crispy Skin Salmon, is hearts of palm, which make the salad craeveably unique.
What Ingredients You Need for Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Crispy Skin Salmon
Fresh/refrigerator ingredients:
- salmon, 4 4-ounce skin-on filets (see next section for what kind of salmon is best)
- red onion, ¼
- kale, 1 bunch
- cabbage, ¼ head
- red grapefruit, 1
- avocado, 1
- lemon, 1 for vinaigrette
Dry/pantry ingredients
- hearts of palm, 4-5 spears from 1 can
- sea salt, for salmon and vinaigrette
- avocado oil, 2-4 tablespoons
- olive oil, ¼ cup for vinaigrette
- Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons for vin
Instructions for How to Make Grapefruit Avocado Salad with Crispy Skin Salmon
The hardest step in making this recipe is, shockingly, not pan searing the salmon, but washing the kale. That's right, pan-searing salmon is actually dead easy!
HOWEVER. As easy as the recipe is, there are a few tips and tricks along the way that will make this Crispy Skin Salmon the best you've made.
Prep Salad and Vinaigrette
Cut red onion lengthwise into paper-thin slices. You can do this on a mandoline. Place sliced onions in a small bowl of ice cold water for 10-15 minutes to mellow out their bite. Drain and pat dry.
Peel thick outer skin from grapefruit. Over a bowl to catch the juice, cut segments into supremes, or peel the fine inner membrane off each segment by hand. It's okay if the grapefruit segments break apart a little.
Make Quick Citrus Vinaigrette: Pour any loose juice from the grapefruit into a measuring cup and add extra lemon juice if needed until you have ⅓ cup. Add ¼ cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, and ¼ teaspoon salt and whisk until combined.
If you haven't already, remove thick stems and chop 1 bunch of kale into ½-inch pieces and place into large mixing bowl.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of Quick Citrus Vinaigrette and 1 teaspoon sea salt and "massage" the kale with your hands until the kale has broken down slightly and is glossy from the dressing, about 1 minute.
Add shredded cabbage and red onion to the kale, and toss, adding more dressing if needed to coat the cabbage and red onions.
Place grapefruit segements, avocado slices, and hearts of palm on top.
Set aside while you pan sear the salmon.
How to Pan Sear Salmon for Crispy Skin
Pat salmon filets with paper towel on both sides and remove any rogue scales if your fishmonger has left any behind. I just use the tip of a knife to scrape them off. Generously sprinkle with sea salt on all sides and set aside for 10-15 minutes take the refrigerator chill off.
Heat a stainless steel skillet over medium heat until droplets of water skitter across the surface, 3-5 minutes.
While the pan heats up: Pat salmon dry with paper towels again. Sitting at room temperature with salt may draw out some excess moisture. Moisture is the essence of wetness and wetness is the enemy of crispness.
Add avocado oil to coat the bottom of the skillet, about 2 tablespoons. It should shimmer.
Skin side down, carefully place salmon into skillet by touching the edge of the filet that is closest to you into the pan then gently lowering the rest of the filet away from you.
Immediately press down on the top surface of each salmon filet with a spatula to make sure there is full contact between the salmon and the skillet's surface. Hold there with your spatula, or hand if you're brave enough, for about 30 seconds.
Allow the salmon to cook almost completely through, which will take anywhere from 5-8 minutes, without moving it.
Once the salmon is almost cooked to your desired temperature, 120°F for medium, 140°F for well-done, flip the salmon over to quickly sear the other side, then remove from the skillet to a resting plate.
Assemble Seared Salmon and Avocado Grapefruit Salad
- Place a generous handful of the salad on each serving plate.
- Place salmon on serving plate, skin side up. Drizzle with a little bit of the Vinaigrette if you like things saucy.
What's the Best Kind of Salmon?
tl;dr. For this Crispy Skin Salmon, I love wild King salmon because the amount of fat can stand up to the high-heat cooking (large, medium red-orange piece on the left side of photo)
Lately I have been getting into wild sockeye salmon, which has a darker red-orange color than the other types of salmon, and is leaner than King salmon. For tacos especially, which has a high number of other high-flavor ingredients going on, the individual taste of salmon doesn't come across as boldly as if you were serving a large piece of grilled salmon by itself on a plate.
You can use just about any kind of salmon for Crispy Skin Salmon, from sustainably farmed Atlantic Salmon, Coho or Sockeye.
USUALLY, my recommendation for any cooked preparation of salmon is always for fresh, wild-caught King salmon, which is the largest of the different types of salmon, and has the richest, most luxurious taste and texture. From a nutrition standpoint, King salmon has the highest amount of health-supporting omega3s per serving of all the different salmon types.
However, wild King salmon has a fairly short season, May-June and it's the most expensive of all the salmon types.
Check out this What is the Best Type of Salmon - Coho, King, Sockeye post for a deep dive (pardon the pun heh heh) into salmon!
Best Way to Cook Salmon with Skin On
The fastest and easiest way to cook salmon with the skin on is to pan-sear fillets with skin side down first to get shatteringly crisp skin and tender, perfectly cooked meat.
One of the things you probably don't do as often as you should is pan-searing salmon to get that ever-coveted shatteringly crip skin and perfectly cooked all the way through yet meltingly tender interior. Any why don't you? My guess is that it seems, in one word, difficult.
But pan-searing salmon to get that crispy skin is not only easy once you know how, but it's faster than many other ways to cook salmon! It requires only one pan which makes it easy to clean up! And best of all, it's delicious. Shall we get into it?
Is Eating Salmon Skin Healthy?
Depending on your health needs and dietary considerations, the skin on salmon, or any fish, is healthy! To be honest, I can't really think of a case in which the salmon skin would not be healthy, unless you have a personal health concern.
We all know salmon provides protein, but that's not all. Let's break down some of the nutritional highlights.
Highest Omega-3s in Salmon. When we talk about the health benefits of salmon, we are almost always talking about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, the all-star anti-inflammatory compound associated with supporting gut health and reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other inflammation-induced diseases. Salmon is one of the highest concentration, highest quality sources of omega-3 fatty acids, containing 2,150 mg per 3-ounce serving.
TONS of Nutrients in Salmon. Salmon is also one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world. In addition to the high levels of above-mentioned omega-3s, salmon is an excellent source of vitamin B12 for cellular energy, vitamin D which our bodies cannot make on our own, and the essential mineral selenium that has antioxidant properties that protect the heart, reduce cognitive decline, and boost immunity. (source: NIH)
Depending on the type, King, sockeye, coho, Atlantic, salmon has 20-22 grams of protein per 100-gram/3.5-ounce serving.
Crispy Skin Salmon with Avocado Grapefruit Kale Salad Health and Diet Considerations
This recipe for Crispy Skin Salmon with Avocado Grapefruit Kale Salad is:
- pescatarian
- gluten-free
- dairy-free
- refined sugar-free
- anti-inflammatory
- antioxidant rich
What is the Best Kind of Kale for Salad?
Dark green, bumpy Tuscan kale is the one I use in this recipe.
Darker green lacinato/Tuscan/dinosaur kale, has long skinny, "bumpy" leaves. The reason I generally prefer this kind of kale in cooking applications is that it's just easier to wash. Sometimes you gotta just go with practicality.
However, any type of kale-curly green, lacinato, red-works for the salad, and the nutritional profiles across the types are generally fairly similar. Some varieties are milder in flavor than others, but in this kale salad recipe, the differences are not noticeable because of the flavors of the other ingredients, namely the Crispy Skin Salmon.
Baby kale has the mildest flavor and tbh, I could eat this version of kale in a salad.
Pro Tips and Techniques for Crispy Skin Salmon
- Chop the kale as small as possible. One of the reasons you don't like eating kale salad is that it's hard to eat. We're going to fix that in two ways, the first of which is chopping the kale into the smallest pieces so you don't have to unhinge your jaw like a python to get a fistful of oversized airplane tarps into your mouth. Do I exaggerate to make a point? Yes, of course. Is it kind of true though? Also of course. Chop the kale small enough that you can eat it with a spoon. I'm serious.
- Dress and massage the kale first. The second way we're making kale salad easy to eat is by massaging the tiny chopped kale-you did chop the kale into the tiniest of tiny pieces right?- with a few tablespoons of the dressing first. I used to cringe at the idea of "massaging kale" because I don't know why, but I totally get that physically breaking down the fibers in the leaves makes kale much much easier to eat.
- Slice and add avocado right before serving. I don't have to tell you this, but I will anyway, avocados oxidize fairly quickly, so it's best combine all the other salad ingredients first-kale, white beans, seeds, dressing-and lay the avocado on top just before serving. This will keep avocado turning into squishy little bits and also let you make the salad in advance without the avocado, or even save leftovers without the avocado.
- Make double the amount of Kale White Bean Salad. If you make enough Kale White Bean Salad to eat now, it will be crisp and crunchy like a salad. If you make enough to save some for later (minus the avocado), the salad will marinate in the dressing and become ever so lightly pickled and it will be another flavor dimension.
Tools and Equipment
You don't technically need any special equipment to make this Graefruit Avocado Salad. You can simply use a large knife and cutting board to chop all the kale. However, that doesn't mean there are a couple of gadgets and tools that might make this salad even easier to throw together than it already is.
- Salad spinner - this has saved my sanity because wet, soggy greens are the worst. And in the case of kale, the drier the greens, the better.
- Chef's knife - my daily workhorse knife and what you absolutely need to make easy work of tiny bits
- Cutting board - large and sturdy so you have enough surface area for all the fluffy greens, and doesn't move around on the countertop
- Fruit and vegetable wash
For the dressing, these tools are also helpful
- Citrus squeezer-you can squeeze citrus by hand, but my
cheapfrugalvalue-driven heart likes to squeeze out EVERY last nano-drop of juice - 2-ounce (4 tablespoons) liquid measuring cup
- Mini stainless steel whisk
- Wide-mouth mason jars and air-tight screw-on lids
FAQ
Green, curly kale is the one I use in this recipe, and the one in Erewhon's version.
However, any type of kale-curly green, lacinato, red-works for the salad.
To keep them from turning brown too quickly, rub the cut surfaces with olive oil (best choice) or lemon juice.
You can prep most of the components for this salad-chopped kale, drained white beans, lemon dressing-in advance, store them separately, and assemble just before serving. However, the avocado should be prepped just before serving to keep them at peak quality. Lemon Dressing is highly recommended as an advance prep!
How to Eat More Salmon
I wasn't kidding when I said "think again!" if you thought there was nothing fresh in the fall/winter. In addition to this Kale White Bean Salad, try:
- Miso Salmon
- Salmon Piccata with Lemon and Capers
- Salmon Puttanesca
- Grilled Salmon Tacos
- Citrus Roasted Salmon
Best Kale Salad Recipes
- Tabbouleh with Kale and Cherries
- Green Shakshuka with Kale
- Eggs Florentine with Kale
- Houston's Emerald Kale Salad with Roasted Peanut Vinaigrette
- Kale Slaw with Apple Cider Dressing
- Kale Caesar
- Kale Pesto
Pan-seared Salmon with Ultra Crispy Skin and Kale Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Seared Salmon
- 4 4-ounce salmon filets
- coarse sea salt
- 2-4 tablespoons avocado oil or other neutral oil for cooking
Avocado Grapefruit Salad
- ¼ red onion sliced paper thin lingthwise
- 1 bunch Tuscan kale, finely julienned stems removed and saved for another use
- ¼ green cabbage shredded
- 1 large red grapefruit peeled, segmented, pith removed
- 1 large avocado quartered and sliced
- 4-5 hearts of palm from a can sliced
Quick Citrus Vinaigrette
- juice reserved from grapefruit
- 1 lemon, enough juice to add to grapefruit juice
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Prep Salmon: Pat salmon with paper towel on both sides. Generously sprinkle with sea salt on all sides and set aside for 10-15 minutes to dry brine and take the refrigerator chill off while you prepare the salad and dressing.
Prep Avocado Grapefruit Kale Salad
- Cut red onion lengthwise into paper-thin slices. You can do this on a mandoline. Place sliced onions in a small bowl of ice cold water for 10-15 minutes to mellow out their bite. Drain and pat dry.
- Peel thick outer skin from grapefruit. Over a bowl to catch the juice, cut segments into supremes, or peel the fine inner membrane off each segment by hand. It's okay if the grapefruit segments break apart a little.
- Make Quick Citrus Vinaigrette: Pour the grapefruit juice into a measuring cup and add extra lemon juice if needed until you have ⅓ cup. Add ¼ cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, and ¼ teaspoon salt and whisk until combined.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of Quick Citrus Vinaigrette and 1 teaspoon sea salt and "massage" the kale with your hands until the kale has broken down slightly and is glossy from the dressing, about 1 minute.
- Add shredded cabbage and red onion to the kale, and toss, adding more dressing if needed to coat the cabbage and red onions. Place grapefruit segements, avocado slices, and hearts of palm on top. Set aside while you pan sear the salmon.
Pan-Sear Salmon
- Heat a stainless steel skillet over medium heat until droplets of water skitter across the surface, 3-5 minutes.
- While the pan heats up: Pat salmon dry with paper towels again. Sitting at room temperature with salt may draw out some excess moisture.
- Add avocado oil to coat the bottom of the skillet, about 2 tablespoons.
- Carefully place salmon into skillet, skin side down. Immediately press down on the top surface of each salmon filet to make sure there is full contact between the salmon and the skillet's surface. Hold there for about 30 seconds.
- Allow the salmon to cook almost completely through, which will take anywhere from 5-8 minutes, without moving it.
- Once the salmon is almost cooked to your desired temperature-120°F for medium, 140°F for well-done-shimmy an ultra thin spatula under the salmon and flip it over to quickly sear the other side, then remove from the skillet to a resting plate.
Assemble Seared Salmon and Avocado Grapefruit Salad
- Place a generous handful of the salad on each serving plate. Place salmon on serving plate, skin side up. Drizzle with a little bit of the Vinaigrette if you like things saucy.
Notes
Nutrition
"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are." - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (I never read the book, but I watch Iron Chef!)
"How you select your produce at the market indicates how you pick your significant other." - Anonymous (paraphrased, because I heard it a long time ago)
Oh, the girl/guy/relationship psychology related to food. It covers everything from girls therapeutically eating their way through two pints of Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche "Light" ice cream after a break-up to your hatred of Thai and Vietnamese food being traced back to a cheating boyfriend. Some of it is true, some of it malarkey, and well, men are from deep-fried Mars bars and meat, women are from an entirely different galaxy made up of nutella, ice cream, and Girl Scout cookies.
Forget Dr. Phil, Dr. Ruth, and Dr. Neil Clark Warren and his eHarmonious 29 dimensions of compatibility. Forget about filling out "personal" questionnaires about yourself and what you want in significant other, whether that's a significant one night, or a significant lifetime. Go to Umberto, spend $80 on a haircut and blow-out, daaaah-ling, buy those Jimmy Choos he wouldn't let you buy for yourself, and toss your "checklist" out with his boxers. Everything now depends on...a chopped salad.
I don't know why, but somehow, I find that everything about the chopped salad is exactly how I find myself thinking about guys. Psychoanalysis in a salad? Yes. Just straight up...psycho? I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
Many restaurants around LA make good chopped salads, but none of the salads are great. None of them have ever fit my vision of the perfect chopped salad. It's too big, it's too small, there's a little too much dressing, the dressing is too tart/salty/sweet, something's missing, something's there that shouldn't be, the lettuce is wilted, the vegetables aren't chopped. Restaurant chopped salads are never quite right. I make chopped salads at home because I can make it exactly, perfectly, complementary the way I want for my persnickety tastes. Maybe that makes me a perfectionist. Or an idealist. I call it...romantic. My knight in shining artichoke hearts can only be had at home.
My all-time favorite salad is the Caesar, but the chopped salad comes in a very close second. The Caesar salad, you see, is a salad that I associate with and reserve for dining out, because a fabulous Caesar requires a great deal of effort, and thus, is reserved for those special nights when I let a professional do all the work. It is entirely dependent upon making a luxurious dressing from scratch, and I certainly don't trust myself with raw eggs. The very best Caesar salads require prim and proper fork and knife to cut whole hearts of Romaine. However, the vegetables and other ingredients in a chopped salad are already chopped, so there's no work involved in eating - all I have to do is dive right in. Does that mean I like laziness and unrefinement when I eat a chopped salad or does that mean I like an appreciation for the finer things, but at the core, comfortably casual?
Unlike the Caesar, which can hide beneath an elegant exterior of exotic anchovies and Worcestershire sauce, chopped salads are entirely about the basic quality of the vegetables. They have to be so fresh and flavorful that they require nothing more than a simple sprinkle of salt and pepper. No injectinos with hormones, no over-time at the gym and the tanning salon, no superficial glossy wax, nothing. Just about any vegetable can go into a chopped salad, but again, I choose the ones that I love - and they're never anything as fancy as an eggplant. There might be a little dirt on the soft, sweet, but slightly lopsided, tomatoes. Hey, it's all natural. The cucumber might be a little small and crooked, but it's firm. Take them home, rinse them off a bit, just as long as they taste better than they look.
I bounce back and forth between bright fresh green peppers and silky, slippery sweet roasted red peppers, but in either case, I'm getting something that tastes fabulous and is helpful in keeping me looking fabulous with all that vitamin C. It's nice to know that I'm doing something good for me, mind, body and spirit.
Adding some certain vegetables is a little more complex than a mere wash and chop, but I just couldn't have it any other way. Raw red onions make me cry. They also give me wickedly fiery heartburn, but I love them, and it's worth every backhanded swipe of my eyes, worth every plop, plop, fizz, fizz. To be quite honest, I like it when it hurts so good. *blush*
Broccoli and carrots, too, require some effort. Like bell peppers, they've got secret hidden things that keep my body , but they also offer me a moment of indulgence. Not indulgence the way a tres leches cupcake is an indulgence, but pampering. I don't need to be showered with flowers, gifted with expensive sparkly jewelry, or taken out to wildly luxurious dinners (at least, not every night). But I do like to be spoiled with a little TLC once and again - locked up in a sauna, a dip in a mineral spring, a deep-tissue massage. And conversely, I love to give a little TLC. I am a giver. A nurturer. My horoscope sign is cancer. Broccoli and carrots let me pamper them with a quick, hot, steamy plunge in boiling water to brighten their color and soften them a bit. They don't have to do it; they're fine the way they are; but it makes me infinitely happy to think that even with a salad, I'm cooking. (*gasp!* Don't call me Sandra Lee</ a> - it's totally different. Totally.)
Of course, I can't do without the tangy, puckering, sometimes shockingly sour flavor of pickled vegetables. Hearts of a palm are a luxurious bonus, only noticed as a lovely surprise, but never missed if they're not there. However, I most certainly cannot do without artichoke hearts and olives. Perhaps that's why I don't need any sort of dressing as an accessory. And if there's no spice, no heat, well, then, I think I'd rather go out, even if alone, to eat the Caesar to begin with. Banana peppers? No, love, not hot enough. Something that makes me sweat.
Italian chopepd salads often have salami, ham, and other dried, cured meats. I don't like meat in my salad. Interpret as you wish. ;)
I do however, believe in the power of protein, some comes from dairy in mozzarella cheese and some from garbanzo beans - my favorite source of non-meat protein. Garbanzo beans have a flavor all their own, and yet, are so versatile, able to fit in anywhere from a simple Italian soup to exotically ethnic chana masala to falafel and hummus right off a dirty street cart. Garbanzos beans and I are like two chickpeas in a pod. *eesh* Sorry. Couldn't resist.
clean up the mess in the morning
All these glorious ingredients in the chopped salad, each one so very particular to a specific taste, but they're all sitting on a foundation of good ol' American Iceberg lettuce. I can appreciate peppery arugula, fancy frilly frisee, even the smooth bitterness of endive. But when it all comes down to my chopped salad, I want simple. I need solid. I love honest and reliable. I pick through all the color and crunch and tang of the vegetables and ingredients on the outside with my chopsticks (yes, I eat salad with chopsticks - I haven't figured that one out yet, either), but I love to finish it off with a crisp, icy bang.
And when there's a little bit of a mess of left when I'm done, *eh* just leave it. I'll clean it up in the morning. ;)
** a year ago today, i don't play "just the (thai) tip" **
tags :: food : and drink : mediterranean : italian : cooking : reviews : los angeles
Sam says
"How you select your produce at the market indicates how you pick your significant other."
ok - so what's the produce selection method that equates to drunkeness then?
sarah says
LOL! down a half bottle of alize, hobble and sway through the market, and see what you pick up. when you wake up the next morning in a strangers bed, just hope that the salad was French. ;)
Anonymous says
No meat, huh? You don't like the salami. Hmmm... Now that speaks volumes, my dear.
And Alize? I haven't heard about that since...high school.
onetomato says
i eat everything with chopsticks. when i'm home that is. salad, pasta, even french fries. ee hee hee. and i get ya on the picky thing. my mom gives me dirty looks when i start sentences with "i don't like..."
sarah says
onetomato: everything. i eat everything with chopsticks. they're just so much easier to pick up individual pieces and little things, rather than stabbing away at stuff with a barbaric fork. LOL! i kind of wish i had one of those little tiny pink hello kitty cases that looks like a pencil case, but actually hold chopsticks. then i'd bring chopsticks out to restaurants with me, too. :)
Maure says
So your sign is cancer, you're ambivalent about hearts of palms
yet garbanzo beans hold a special
place in your heart.
I think we have the perfect match for you. He's scorpio, loves the trader joe's 69 cent can of corn, feels strongly about condiments (especially their packaging).
oh, also writes his mother and parole officer dutifully.
great post sarah - made me hungrier than a new born kitten.
and want to buy a slice-o-matic '06
Catherine says
Mmmm...your pictures look great!
There are two chop salads in L.A. that I really like: Daily Grill's Cobb Salad and Gaucho Grill's Manager's Special :)
sarah says
maure: oooh...scorpio. bad sign!
cat: i think i had that salad at gaucho grill and remember thinking that it wasn't bad.
hermz says
"just the (thai) tip"... hahaha!
Anti Guiliani New Yorker says
best diet food ever
this is why/how rich people are thin - have staff to chop the stuff
Anti Guiliani New Yorker says
best diet food ever
this is why/how rich people are thin - have staff to chop the stuff