Herb-crusted salmon with lentil salad

The lentils are fabulous! I used already prepared steamed lentils, so the salad was very fast. If you’re cooking the lentils, start them before you start the briquettes. Once they're cooking, start the briquettes and prepare the salmon. Chop everything for the lentil salad, so when the salmon is done, you can just throw everything together for the lentil salad.

Herb-crusted Salmon with Lentil Salad
Weber’s “The Art of the Grill” pg 121

Direct/Medium Heat

Lentil Salad:

2 T fresh lemon juice
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
3 dashes Tabasco sauce
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
¾ cup French green lentils
1/3 cup quick cooking couscous
2 roasted red bell peppers, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced

Salmon:

2 T finely chopped fresh parsley
2 T finely chopped cilantro
2 T finely chopped fresh basil
1 tsp chile powder
½ tsp kosher salt
½ teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
4 T olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
6 salmon filets, skin on, 1” thick (each 6-7 oz)

To make the salad: Rinse the lentils under cold water, pick out any stones. In a medium sauce pan, cover the lentils with three cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes or until tender. Drain when done.
In a small sauce pan, boil ½ cup water. Put couscous in a bowl. Pour the boiling water over the couscous and stir. Let sit until the water is absorbed, then fluff with a fork.
In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Add the basil and scallions to the dressing.
Combine the lentils and couscous, chopped carrots, chopped red peppers and salad dressing. Mix well. Serve warm.
For the salmon: combine parsley, cilantro, basil, chile powder, olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until it makes a paste. Or mash together in a bowl until it makes a paste. Cover the salmon with the herb paste. Grill until done, about 10-12 minutes or until opaque in the meatiest part of the fish.

How I did it:

I omitted the couscous because I try to keep gluten free. Usually, I’ll substitute rice, millet or quinoa for a wheat grain but the lentil salad was really good by itself, so I didn’t add anything. I used Spanish Olive oil (very fruity), sea salt and mixed peppercorns. I roasted my own red peppers under the broiler while I was making the salad because I despise canned roasted peppers (I think they’re slimy and flavorless). I only used one pepper and it was plenty.

I used Trader Joe’s already prepared steamed lentils. Just had to open them, break them apart (from the block form after being vacuum packed) and add them to the salad. I used ½ of the box.

I used one large piece of fish, about 12 oz, covered it with the entire marinade and let it sit while the briquettes were getting ready. I used a small Weber grill and natural briquettes. I let it cook undisturbed with the cover on.

I served it with a Pinot Noir, but a Savignon Blanc might be nice.

What I’ll change next time:

Next time, I’ll reduce the amount of oil in the salad to 2 T. It was oilier than I like. Everything else was great.

This would be good baked. Put in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes, until done. Take the foil off the last 5 minutes. Probably at 350 degrees.

OOPSes: I didn’t prepare enough briquettes (on-going problem with me and BBQ. Never can get the heat right, or enough briquettes to last the entire cooking time), so I cooked it covered over low heat for about 30 minutes. It turned out well, but I was lucky, since I used all the marinade, it kept the fish moist.