Roast Salmon Salad with Baby Gem, Cherries and Basil Vinaigrette

Call it niçoise-adjacent, or just your wacky reminder that it’s cherry season

Roasted salmon gets flaked over crisp baby gem with a mix of crunchy, creamy, and sweet add-ins. A bright green basil vinaigrette ties it all together.

Salmon and cherry salad might sound like a stretch, but bear with me—and remember, I want us all to enjoy cherry season To. The. Max.

This wasn’t a planned meal. I had a one-pound piece of salmon to cook for dinner, and my thought was to serve it with warmed up leftover potatoes and broccolini. Boring, but fine. I also had a few crunchy little heads of baby gem lettuce, so maybe a simple salad too.

But it was REALLY hot. Like, first heat wave of the year hot. It may have been hailing in Paris last week, but here in Los Angeles it’s been in the mid-to-upper 90s and I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything that wasn’t cool or refreshing.

I remembered the cold, boiled baby potatoes in the fridge, and thought: I could keep them cold, maybe do a niçoise-ish salad with the salmon.

If you're not familiar, a classic niçoise salad usually involves tuna (either good olive oil-packed or sometimes freshly seared ahi), those chic and tender little French green beans (haricots verts), boiled potatoes, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and tiny niçoise olives—all arranged in tidy little piles on top of greens. I love that format. I also love riffing on it. It’s forgiving and endlessly flexible. Make a big platter for a crowd, or a single-serving bowl. And while it's traditionally made with tuna, I love it just as much with salmon or steak.

But yesterday? The only truly niçoise-y ingredient I had was potatoes. So, in respect to the original, I’m not going to call this niçoise anything. But it was the inspo.

What I did have: cucumber, fennel, avocado (obviously great with salmon), a few cooked beets, kohlrabi (celery, broccoli stem, jicama or green apple will work if you’re not familiar with kohlrabi), and a big beautiful bag of cherries I’d grabbed on impulse.

I roasted the salmon simply: olive oil, salt, pepper, 425°F, about 12–15 minutes. While it was in the oven, I prepped the salad add-ons and blitzed together a quick basil vinaigrette—bright and garlicky, just the thing to pull everything together.

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It was fantastic. Savory, crunchy, fresh and actually filling with the salmon and potatoes. A real heatwave dinner hero. It’s the kind of salad that feels like a meal. And if you want to skip turning on the oven altogether, just use smoked/canned salmon, canned tuna or cold roast chicken and call it a day.

If you have young kids, the trick is: don’t call it a salad. Call it “a little dinner picnic.” Separate the ingredients they like (maybe add a wild card for fun) onto their plate—some salmon, a few potatoes, some avocado, a pile of cherries, some cucumber slices—and skip the toss-all-together step. A little bowl of the vinaigrette on the side for dipping makes it feel fun and interactive, and gives you a shot at them actually trying everything.

This is also clearly another recipes that takes well to substitutes. Use what you have, skip or swap what you don’t—this is a salad that rewards flexibility.:

Ingredient Swaps & Ideas:

• Cucumber → snap peas, zucchini ribbons, or celery

• Avocado → marinated artichoke hearts, soft-boiled egg, or goat cheese

• Kohlrabi → green apple, broccoli stem (peeled), jicama, celery, or radish

• Potatoes → white beans, lentils, or croutons

• Fennel → shaved red onion, radicchio, shaved parm, or endive

• Salmon → steak, grilled shrimp, leftover roast chicken, or seared tofu

For the dressing, I whizzed together fresh basil, garlic, grainy mustard, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, and a few grinds of black pepper. It’s a small batch, so a regular blender might struggle—but a stick (immersion) blender, food processor, or even some fine chopping followed by a good shake in a jar will do the trick. The result is a bright green, creamy vinaigrette that’s perfect for coating lettuce, veggies, and salmon. No fresh basil? You can sub cilantro, or skip the herbs entirely and keep it simple—a solid basic vinaigrette still gets the job done.

Despite sounding a little all over the place, this salad totally worked. The creamy avocado and potatoes, the crisp fennel and kohlrabi (do I need to write a post about kohlrabi? Probably), the sweet cherries and earthy beets, the juicy salmon, the herby dressing… I swear, it was one of the best things I’ve eaten in weeks.

And if you’re celebrating this weekend: Happy Mother’s Day. May someone else do the dishes, may your coffee be hot, and may your salad come with cherries and some moments of peace and quiet.