Roasted Salmon Quinoa Bowls with Avocado, Cucumber & Green Goddess Dressing
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This salmon quinoa bowl is one of those dinners that checks all the boxes: healthy, satisfying, and packed with fresh flavor. With plenty of make-ahead components, it’s easy enough for a weeknight but good enough to look forward to all day.
This feel-good roasted salmon quinoa bowl recipe is the perfect mix of wholesome and crave-worthy. Quinoa serves as the hearty base, topped with tender roasted salmon, creamy avocado, crisp cucumber, and a generous spoonful of green goddess dressing. The quinoa and dressing can be made ahead, so all that’s left is roasting the salmon, and it’s done in just 10 minutes.
You can easily swap the quinoa for other healthy grains like bulgur or brown rice, and mix in whatever vegetables you have on hand. Just don’t skip the green goddess dressing—it’s the magic that ties everything together.
“This is a delicious, fresh and healthy one dish meal that my whole family loved. We all licked our bowls clean…”
What You’ll Need To Make Roasted Salmon Quinoa Bowls
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1. Prepare the salmon. Grease a foil-lined baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Season the salmon with ½ teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper, place on the baking sheet, and drizzle with another tablespoon of oil.
Pro Tip: If you don’t mind a repeat performance, for easy weeknight prep, roast extra salmon and keep it chilled—these bowls are great cold, too.
Step 2. Roast the salmon. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until just cooked through.
Step 3. Prep the quinoa. While the salmon roasts, toss the quinoa with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
Pro Tip: Make sure to always rinse quinoa before cooking it. This removes its natural bitter coating (saponin). Even pre-rinsed brands benefit from a quick rinse.
Step 4. Assemble the bowls. Spoon about 1 cup of quinoa into each bowl. Top with a piece of roasted salmon, sliced cucumbers, and diced avocado. Sprinkle the avocado and cucumbers with a little salt, then add fresh herbs if using. Serve with green goddess dressing and lemon wedges.
Swaps & Pro Tips
- Switch up the base: Farro, couscous, barley, or even cauliflower rice can stand in for quinoa if you want to change the flavor or texture.
- Vary the veggies: Use veggies you have on hand, like diced zucchini or bell pepper, edamame, corn kernels, halved cherry tomatoes, etc.
- Meal-prep shortcut: Buy precooked quinoa from the freezer section—it heats in minutes and tastes just as good as homemade.
- Make it a DIY bowl bar: Set out the salmon, quinoa, veggies, herbs, and dressing so everyone can assemble their own—great for a crowd.
More Flavor-Packed Bowls to Try
Roasted Salmon Quinoa Bowls with Avocado, Cucumber & Green Goddess Dressing
Ingredients
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 4 (6-oz) skinless salmon fillets
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package instructions (see note), at room temperature
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small English or hothouse cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced
- 2 avocados, pitted and diced
- ¼ cup chopped fresh herbs, like chives, basil, tarragon, or parsley, for serving (optional)
- Green goddess dressing
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line a 13 x 18-in (33 x 46-cm) baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Grease the foil-lined baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Season the salmon with ½ teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper. Place the salmon on the greased baking sheet and drizzle with another tablespoon of the oil. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until the salmon is just cooked through.
- Meanwhile, toss the cooked quinoa with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
- Assemble the bowls: Spoon about 1 cup of quinoa into each bowl. Top each bowl with a piece of roasted salmon, sliced cucumbers, and diced avocado. Sprinkle the avocado and cucumbers with a little salt. Sprinkle with the fresh herbs, if using. Serve with the bowls with the green goddess dressing and lemon wedges.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Perfect summer meal! Made this with what I thought was a too-small salmon filet and it was perfect. Certainly filling and absolutely delicious. I made the green goddess dressing and used it as a starter as a dip for vegs. MMMMMMM Another one with my hand-written comments stating how much we loved it. Another recipe to go-to when I have no ideas. Requires very little (or no) pre-planning. Thank you, JEN!!!
Green Goddess dressing, cucumber, avocado…OH MY!!! Scrumptious! Jenn, you hit it out of the park on this one! My husband is a picky salmon eater, and he couldn’t get enough. Wahoo! This recipe is a winner and a keeper. Thanks a bunch!
I made this for dinner for 2 yesterday and it was absolutely fantastic. I had an extra piece of salmon so I made it again today but I added some sweet cherry tomatoes and 2 chopped anchovy filets and mixed both with the cucumbers a pinch of salt, pepper and evoo. The green goddess dressing was better the second day. Also, I didn’t have quinoa, so I used farro instead, both nights. This is a definite winner.
Hi! So excited to make this tomorrow! I am making your halibut burre blanc tonight and have a ton of fresh tarragon left over. I LOVE that I am able to search your sight for simply Tarragon and find a handful of recipes I could use the remainder of the tarragon on. Now to my question: do you think pearled couscous would work in place of the quinoa? Thank you!
(Also your chicken Marsala made a mushroom convert out of our 7 year old!)
So glad you like the feature where you can find recipes based on the ingredients you’re looking to use! Yes, pearled couscous will work here. Just follow the package cooking directions. Enjoy!
Absolutely delicious!!! A 10. My husband loved it too!
I like all the ingredients in this recipe, and found the dish to be nourishing but I thought it was bland.
Outstanding dish!! And the bonus is that I was left with some green goddess dressing that I used the next day as a dipping sauce with some crudités. It was the perfect appetizer!
If preparing the quinoa in advance, is it reheated before serving?
I think that’s really personal preference, but if you’re not going to reheat it, I would bring it to room temperature (you really can’t go wrong here however you go).
This is a winner. The simplicity of the bowl ingredients with the yummy green goddess dressing are the perfect combination. We did grill our salmon with a soy/brown sugar glaze. Just love this and look forward to using it as a base recipe all summer! Thank you Jenn for another great recipe.
Is the calorie and fat on the recipe correct – they seem really high for what looks like a healthy recipe?
Hi Tricia, I just double-checked the numbers and they are correct.
The calorie count is for the total recipe. Divide by 4 for a single serving.
Actually, the nutritional info is per serving.