These Salmon Rice Bowls with Creamy Avocado Pepita Sauce are a perfect healthy weekday meal. With summer right around the corner, this meal felt needed and fresh. The creamy avocado pepita sauce adds a little edge to your meal and is super simple to throw together after work. Plus you will have extra left over and its great on salads and sandwiches for the week. Working from home and having extra sauces around is so ideal for lunches.
To make the sauce you just have to toast the pepitas a bit and then blend them until they are ground. Then just add in the rest of the ingredients and blend. Depending on the size of your avocado, you may need to adjust the amount of water. Start with 1/2 a cup and go up from there until your sauce is a consistency that can be drizzled.
I baked my salmon in my Cuisinart Air Fryer that I’m obsessed with. It just cooks it perfectly- every. single.time. If you don’t have an air fryer I encourage you to jump on the train, but you can also bake or pan fry your salmon. I cook mine at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. You can probably also tell my salmon is a little yellow. I used a pre-marinated lemon pepper salmon from the deli. They were out of plain fresh salmon and I didn’t want to buy frozen. The flavor still tasted great with the sauce.
The kale and broccoli are simply steamed and seasoned with a little salt and pepper. You do not need to do much more since the creamy avocado pepita sauce packs a ton of flavor. Once all of the components are cooked you just arrange the bowls, top with a little sauce and cilantro and you’ve got yourself one nourishing weeknight meal.
Salmon Rice Bowls with a Creamy Avocado Pepita Sauce
Ingredients
Creamy Avocado Pepita Sauce
- ¼ cup pepitas
- ½ an avocado
- ¼ cup cilantro
- 3 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 tablespoon lime juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- ½-1 cup filtered water
Salmon Rice Bowls
- 4 salmon fillets
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets
- 1 bunch kale
- salt and pepper to taste
- ⅓ cup pine nuts (optional)
- small handful of cilantro for garnish
Instructions
To make the Creamy Avocado Pepita Sauce
- In a small pan set over medium heat, toast the pepitas until they are slightly browned. Add the pepitas to a high powered blender and blend until they are ground down.
- Add the avocado, cilantro, garlic cloves, olive oil, cumin, lime juice, salt and pepper and ½ cup of the filtered water. Blend until smooth. You may need to add more water depending on the size of your avocado. You should be able to drizzle the sauce, if it is too thick add more water and blend again.
Salmon Rice Bowls
- Coat salmon fillets with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in an air fryer on the bake setting for 20 minutes at 350° If you do not have an air fryer you can either bake the salmon in an oven or pan fry it.
- Make the rice according to the directions on the package. I made white rice but brown would be good as well.
- Add 2 inches of water to a medium saucepan. Bring the water to a simmer over medium heat. Add the broccoli to a steamer basket and place into the pan. Cover and steam the broccoli for 5 minutes. Add the chopped kale to the basket and cover and steam for an additional minute until the kale softens and becomes a bright green.
- Assemble the bowls with the rice, broccoli, kale, and salmon. Top with the pepita lime sauce and garnish with the pine nuts and cilantro.