AzRA’s Salmon, Quinoa & Spinach Salad Dinner Recipe

AzRA’s Signature Salmon with Mediterranean Quinoa Salad – Recreate your First Night on the River!

This is the very first meal of every one of our Grand Canyon rafting adventures when starting at Lees Ferry (so for those on a full or upper canyon trip). For our first-time guests, this first night is full of excitement and anticipation of what’s to come! You might remember pulling into a really beautiful campsite, and unloading everything off the boats, including the kitchen! While you were getting a tour of this camp, and receiving plenty of orientations on camp life, including how to use the groover, two or three of your guides were busy cooking your first meal!

To bring a flood of your river trip memories back, particularly the feelings you felt on that very first day, try making this meal. Even better, if you have a whole bunch of friends to invite over to share it with, circle up a bunch of chairs in your back yard, and eat outside.

Preparing the Salmon

There are so many different ways the guides prepare the salmon for this meal, and there’s really no right or wrong way! Feel free to prepare your salmon however you’d like. Most commonly, the guides wrap each filet in foil and cook them on the griddle. You can spice them with lemon pepper, butter and garlic, olive oil and lemon, with some dill, however you’d like it best! Try a couple of each, which is what we see on the river most often.

One of our river guides put a whole blog together on just the salmon preparation that is a great read!

No matter which way you prepare it, try to find the best sourced salmon you can! Ours are from Troller Point Fisheries, which you can read more about them here!

Ingredients for the Quinoa

Please note that this recipe is for feeding 32 people! You’ll likely need to adjust it to fit your needs.

• 7 cups quinoa
• 2 cans of white beans
• 2 jars of kalamata olives
• 1 16 oz bottle of olive oil
• 6 roma tomatoes
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 bunches of kale
• 4 lemons

Preparing the Quinoa

Combine two cups of water for every cup of quinoa and a few cubes of bullion (if you’d like) in a pot. Bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Slice up the kale, and add to the quinoa for the last 5 minutes of cooking.

In a separate pan, heat 2 cups of olive oil and add garlic. Saute for about 2 minutes, and then add juice of 2 lemons. Drain beans and olives, chop tomatoes, and add to quinoa (drain off any excess water). Top with the lemon, garlic, oil and stir to combine.

Relish the wonderful smell of your kitchen!

Ingredients for the spinach salad

Again, the ingredients below will make a nice, big salad so you may need to pare it down for how many you’ll be feeding.

• 2.5 pound bag of spinach
• 1 red onion
• 2 cans of mandarin oranges
• 1 bag of candied pecans
• 2 bottles of raspberry dressing (we use Annie’s brand)
• 2 logs of goat cheese

Easy to prepare!

Just combine all the ingredients you like, crumble the goat cheese on top and serve with the dressing on the side or smother it; however you prefer.

Substitutions

This meal used to be made with couscous, so this is an easy alternative if you don’t have quinoa or you’re not a huge fan of it. You could also make this meal with tempeh as your protein if you’re vegetarian. This would also go really well with a steak or chicken instead of salmon if fish doesn’t suit your fancy! There are so many ways to change this meal up to make it how you like it.

Serve it river ready!

This delicious dinner is served with a lemon cake if you want to add it on and fully make this meal river ready! What a great meal to make for house guests. Remember to sprinkle a little sand onto your plate too to truly reminisce about your very first night on your Grand Canyon rafting trip.

If you remember this meal and your experience fondly, comment below with your memories!

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