Mediterranean Meal to Melt your Mood (Medicinal Cooking)
Mediterranean Herbed Salmon & Couscous Salad
Mental Health Benefit : Lifts Mood for Depression
The SUPERSTARS of this dish are the fresh Dill, Salmon, & Basil which all have properties that fight depression and lift your mood. Whenever I have a friend thats feeling down, I try to sneak them some salmon and help them feel better. :) Another thing to remember is when you use fresh herbs vs dry ones, you get more of the nutrients and health properties, so for this dish i used both fresh dill and basil for an maximum effect.
Ingrediants
Salmon
-Fresh Basil
-Medditeranean Oregano
-Sea Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic Powder
-Dried Rosemary
-Fresh Salmon (Not Frozen)
-Olive Oil
Couscous Salad
- 1 Small Lemon
-Fresh Dill - Salt
- Pepper
- 1 Cucumber
- 1/4 Bell Pepper (Color of your choice)
- Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes
-Couscous
-Olive Oil
- When you season raw fish, the flavor will keep marinating until you cook it, so I season my salmon before I make my coucous salad. Since I'm pan searing my salmon, I cut small slits about half an inch apart on the skin side, which will help it cook evenly. All over the salmon and between those slits, dress your fish with your spice & herb mixture of salt, basil, garlic powder, oregano, and rosemary.
- Now you want to cook your couscous el dente, i dont really time mine but keep tasting for the tenderness that i like. I then rinse it with cold water, and set aside in a big salad bowl. You want to chop your cucumber, pepper, and cherry tomatoes, then throw them in the couscous along with the seasonings, herbs,olive oil, and juice from your lemon. I would taste it while your making it to get your desiresd level of seasoning and lemon flavor.
- Now its time for the salmon! Its been soaking up all those good spices and will be delicous! You want to put your pan on medium heat and WAIT to add olive oil to the pan once its hot. Then immediatly put in your Salmon skin side down. From the side you can see the cooked vs raw part of your salmon. You want to wait until it is 2/3 cooked through on the skin side before you flip it.
- Your Salmon will finish cooking shortly after you flip it, then you can serve it immediatly with your couscous salad, and the medditeranean flavors and citrus will dance off eachother.
Let me know what you think of this recipe and how you think eating the right foods and directly influence mental health!!
Much Love, with positivity we will always win :)
Mary Cronin
At first glance of your post only one thing hit my mind "Sabudana khichadi" as it looked pretty similar to the one of the Indian dish. But adding Solomon and cucumber makes it different. I would like to eat it without Solomon as I'm vegetarian. :p Great post! ☺
Yum!!! That looks so delicious, especially with all the medicinal value of the herbs and nutrients. As they say, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
I think you may also enjoy looking into ayurvedic ways of preparing meals for different body types which may add to your skill set. For example those of the pitta dosha are more athletic in body with fast metabolism. Their body is very fiery, so eating peppers and spices may actually increase their energy to the point of over exertion and may affect moods like temper. Cooling foods would be nice for their body type for balance; like root vegetables, ghee, and bitter foods like tumeric and neem. Or in my case, ice cream! lol
Anyways, congrats on your detailed post with nice pictures! I look forward to more! =)
Oh wow! I've never heard of that, ayuverdic ways of preparing food sounds very interesting! I really appreciate this comment, I'm always trying to learn more! I will definitely be researching this for a future post!
Much love, and thankyou so much for reading :) Mary
Much love and blessings to you as well. If you have any questions regarding holistic health or spiritual things, feel free to send me a message =P