Lately, life’s been busy. So I’ve been reaching into my stack of homemade meals in the freezer or into the pantry for ingredients for a quick pasta. We all have those days, weeks, even months, when you don’t have the time for a big grocery store trip, or you want to pinch a few extra pennies at the end of the month.
One of my favorite things to have my grandma cook is arroz cubano. When she and my grandpa come to visit from Brazil the menu usually looks something like this:
Tortilla de Patata
Paella
Pollo Tia Ely
Arroz Cubano
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
One of these things does not fit. But that’s a long story.
Arroz cubano is pretty fancy. It’s white rice shaped into a mound using a mug, then topped with tomato sauce and a perfectly fried egg. Definitely a classic stretching-the-grocery-budget meal, and definitely a kid-pleaser. Anything is immediately more exciting when it looks like a volcano and can be smashed. That’s a fact of life.
Luckily, these days I’m about 1% more sophisticated than my rice-volcano-smashing 8-year-old self, and so I came up with this warm farro bowl that has all the nostalgic goodness of arroz cubano. This is the perfect starter meal if you’ve never cooked farro before—it’s quick cooking, simple, and pretty darn foolproof. The key is to keep tasting your farro and adding more liquid if it needs it—it’ll be done when it’s firm but not crunchy.
Salmon bacon is really just crispy, fried bits of salmon skin. And it’s insanely, crazy good! It has all the salty, crunchy, fatty goodness of bacon, but it actually won’t kill you. Salmon skin is chock full of omega-3 fatty acids that keep your heart healthy, so you don’t have to feel guilty about this bacon. This is great on any type of burger, but especially on top of healthy salmon burgers.
Salmon Bacon
Salmon skin (make sure it’s been scaled!)
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Liquid smoke (optional)
Vegetable oil
1. Scale side up, slice the salmon skin into thin strips. You’ll need a very sharp knife. Put the strips into a bowl and add several splashes of liquid smoke, if you’d like a more smoky bacon flavor. Let sit for 5 minutes, then drain the excess liquid and cover with the salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Easy and Healthy Salmon and Kale Burgers Recipe
4 servings (4 –full-size burgers or 8 sliders)
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs (learn how to make your own here)
1 pound skinless, boneless salmon fillets*
