Warm Rice Salad With Salmon and Arugula
Updated December 22, 2025
Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
- Ready In
- 30 min
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
1 ½ cups white jasmine rice
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and freshly ground black pepper
1 (¾-pound) salmon fillet, skin removed
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, divided
¼ cup chopped dill
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers, chopped
1 small shallot, minced
5 ounces baby arugula
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
60 grams carbs; 47 milligrams cholesterol; 576 calories; 13 grams monosaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 26 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 554 milligrams sodium; 24 grams protein; 2 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. In a wide, lidded pot or Dutch oven, bring the rice, 2 ¼ cups of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a boil. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt, cover and simmer for 5 minutes over medium-low.
- Step 2
Brush salmon with 1 tablespoon of mustard and season with salt and pepper on all sides.
- Step 3
Gently lay the salmon on top of the rice. Cover and simmer on low heat for an additional 10 minutes, until all liquid is absorbed and the salmon is just cooked through. Remove from heat and allow to steam for an additional 5 minutes without lifting the cover.
- Step 4
While the salmon and rice cook, make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 tablespoon mustard with the dill, lemon juice, capers and shallot. Stream in the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil while continuously whisking. Taste and adjust seasoning with any of the dressing elements if needed.
- Step 5
Fluff the rice with a fork, break up the salmon into bite-size pieces, and drizzle in the dressing and gently fold in the arugula, which will wilt slightly from the heat. A final taste and seasoning adjustment, if needed, completes the meal. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
Saw this today and broke my NYTS “rule” which is that I only make recipes that have 5 stars. I’m so, so glad I did. It was such a treat and a new way, to me anyway, for cooking salmon. I followed the recipe except I used Basmati instead of Jasmine rice and 1 TBS of finely minced Vidalia onion instead of a shallot. The dressing is fabulous and I’m sure it will be good on other fish as well as just as a dressing on a salad. The directions for cooking the rice on the stove top, often tricky, were spot on. We devoured it and I can’t wait to serve it to friends. My only, very tiny quibble is that the last step needs a bit of fine tuning. You have to remove the salmon to fluff the rice so then do you toss the arugula with the dressing and add the rice on top or should you mix the rice and arugula together, add the dressing and then the salmon, etc.? I winged it by putting the arugula, the rice, and the salmon on a platter, drizzling the dressing all around and gently mixing so that the fish, rice and greens all had some of the flavor. There probably isn’t a wrong way since the combination is so delicious. Thank you Ashley Lonsdale!
So I made this in the rice cooker; when the zohrushi was done, I put the mustarded seasoned salmon on top for 8 mins on extended warm - perfect. However, I think there is too much rice; not enough dressing. Not as flavorful as I would have liked. Next time, I'll make 1/2 as much rice and keep the dressing and salmon the same. Good flavors but the balance I think could be better.
This was easy and delicious! One note: Our salmon cuts were on the thick side, and were still pretty raw at the end of the cooking time. We removed them from the pot and roasted them at 400 for 4 minutes, and they were perfect.
This is my girlfriend and my favorite recipe from the New York Times app. We have tried a couple of small modifications. Sometimes we substitute spinach for arugula, and cut the rice portions in half. An instead of mashing, the capers, we leave them whole.
To me, the flavors in this were unbalanced. Between the lemon juice, capers, and arugula, it was very briny, sour, and bitter with nothing to counteract it. I really wanted to like this, but I'm not sure exactly what I'd do next time to fix it to suit my tastes.
This came out even better than I expected. I had frozen wild caught salmon which came in fairly thin filets. I cut it into a few large pieces so they would fit in the pot. Some of it was still half frozen. Once the rice mixture started to boil I addd the salmon and it came out perfectly. My husband loved it as well and he isn’t even a huge fan of arugula. I felt it needed something else so I added some cut up avocado and the creaminess with the tartness of the dressing made it the perfect dish for me. Hubbie loved it exactly the way the original recipe was written. A great healthy addition to our week night dinners.