Tajin adds acidity without moisture, which means the salmon can be zesty and refreshing without compromising on delicious brown flavours.

Time: 3/5
Surprisingly quick to put together when the rice cooker, the oven and the stovetop are all going all at the same time.

Effort: 3/5
Getting my salmon already cubed saves a lot of work. Most of the effort was spent on the vegetable stir fry.

Sharp and Spicy

Salmon is a great source of protein and healthy fats, and because of that I am always looking for ways to include them in my diet. I love the variety I get with a miso honey glaze one week, teriyaki sauce the next, and honey mustard the third.

You’ll notice that most of the time, I like to cube up my salmon – or rather, I like to buy the pieces of salmon that the store cubes up and sells at a discount because they’re too small to sell as a fillet.

Why not? It’s less work and money for me, but with better results. The much bigger surface area holds on to a lot more flavour, and flavour is more important than texture when meal prepping because texture is hard to preserve after refrigerating and reheating.

Enough fluff, on to the show. This time, on my never-ending quest to discover new and exciting ways to have salmon, I experimented with using Tajin seasoning to add acidity without adding too much water from the lime juice. Moisture interferes with browning, and browning is flavour.

I have to say, I’m quite happy with the results. With a relatively simple marinade, the salmon turned out moist and umami. The Tajin worked just as I thought it would, and gave the fish a lightness and tartness that made the meals fun and refreshing to eat – even well into the week.

This might not be the most eye-catching recipe, but I would regard it as another feather in my meal prepping cap. After all, home cooking is all about min-maxing the effort to reward ratio, and these Chili Lime Salmon Bowls definitely tip the scales.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 0

Dramatis Personae

Served 6.

• 900g salmon cubes
• 900g cabbage
• A large carrot
• A few cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

Marinade

• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp kashmirilal, or chili pepper of choice
• 2 tsp Tajin
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 2 tsp salt

Executive summary

1. Mix salmon cubes with the marinade ingredients. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Begin cooking by making rice. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.
3. Line a baking sheet with foil and baking paper. Spread the salmon out in one layer.
4. Roast salmon at 200C/400F for 20 minutes, or until slightly charred.
5. In the meantime, wash and cut the vegetables. Stir fry them with garlic and oyster sauce.
6. Assemble and serve.

Play by Play

Last things first. I like to give my proteins an overnight marinade.

The oven has been preheating while I started the rice cooker. Check out that char on the salmon! Even though I definitely crowded the pan, the meat was dry enough to brown because most of the acidity came from the Tajin.

While my salmon was roasting in the oven. I had my hands free to wash and cook the vegetables. Nothing fancy here, just the application of heat until they weren’t raw anymore.

And that’s all it takes! The only thing I would add is maybe a small sprinkle of sesame seeds to liven it up. But otherwise it’s a very decent meal of rice with zesty, moist salmon.

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