If you haven’t read my recent post, “Updates! Updates!” then you don’t know that my fiance & I have been experimenting with a special diet since February 22nd (Lent). This “special diet” is known as the paleolithic diet or caveman diet. This is a very natural approach to eating that helps you achieve great health and an awesome physique. As you know, the human body evolved for more than 2 million years with food found in nature meaning nothing was processed or man-made. Humans lived off of meat, fish, veggies, fruit, eggs and nuts. They didn’t have dairies or fast food joints and so on. The human race was thriving on this diet high in protein, good fats and low carbohydrates but obviously things changed as soon as we introduced unnatural, processed foods to our bodies…ironically, that is also when cancer, allergies & disease became more common.
For those of you who know me, you know that I am not a big meat-eater. I was a vegetarian for 12 years and I still have yet to eat any red meat & that’s probably never going to change. You also know that I absolutely love my cheese, beans and whole-grain carbs…so trying out this diet has definitely been a challenge for me, but fortunately you get used to it. It has given me the opportunity to try to create new dishes based around meat & veggies and some of them have actually become my new weekly favorites, like salmon. AJ has been a grill-o-holic since we started eating like a caveman, and his grilled pomegranate salmon is the bomb. I can’t give him all of the credit though because I created the yummy topping for this delicious dish. If it’s raining or if you don’t have a grill you can always broil or bake your pomegranate salmon. I LOVE broiled salmon.
The recipe:
Pomegrante, Mushroom & Walnut Salmon
- We found this delicious all natural, sugar-free organic pomegranate grill sauce and marinade at our local farmer’s market for $7 a pop…but it is def. worth it. If you can’t find anything like that at your grocery store or farmer’s market then you can also use 1 cup of pomegranate juice (preferably organic & sugar-free) mixed with 2 tbsp vinegar (try balsamic) and 1 tbsp of a low-cal sweetener. (sweetener is not paleo, FYI…I think agave nectar might be though…)
- 2 salmon fillets, skin removed
- 1/2 cup of mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
- pomegranate seeds (optional)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt and pepper
1.First either heat up your grill, set your oven on broil or if you want to bake it then pre heat oven to 400.
2.If broiling or baking place salmon on foil-lined baking pan.
3.Brush the salmon with 1 tbsp oil & 1 tbsp of the pomegranate glaze (only if you found the kind already made otherwise just brush with oil).
4.Sprinkle salmon evenly with sea salt and pepper.
5. Broil about 7-9 minutes or bake/grill for about 10 minutes or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.
6. Meanwhile, If you didn’t find a pre-made pomegranate glaze or sauce then now’s the time to mix the pomegranate juice, sweetener and vinegar in a pan- bring to a boil for about 8-10 minutes till sauce is reduced.
7. In a separate saute pan add the other tbsp of oil and chopped onions and mushrooms and saute over low-medium heat about 5-8 minutes.
8. If you did find the pre-made sauce then simply add 1/4 cup to the sautéed onions and mushrooms and keep it over medium heat for about 5 minutes otherwise keep the homemade pomegranate sauce and sautéed veggies separate.
9. Add the chopped walnuts to the mushroom mix and saute for another minute.
10. Spoon pomegranate sauce and mushroom mix over salmon. Top with fresh pomegranate seeds at the very end.
I usually serve my salmon with grilled asparagus…in this case grilled turkey bacon wrapped asparagus per my fiance’s request. Enjoy!
Note: Picture above is broiled salmon, picture right here is grilled salmon and asparagus.
Fitaholic 