Lemon Butter Salmon with Leek Salsa and Feta

& our favorite London eats!

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more on Fridays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

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Why is coming back from vacation so tough?! Our trip to London was as amazing as I could’ve hoped, and the nostalgia hit so hard. I’ve always had a soft spot for London, and it’s why I chose to study abroad there my junior year of college.

I’ve visited briefly a couple times since, but this trip, we got to spend a full week in the city. It was Grant’s first time visiting, and it felt magical to be able to take him to all my favorite spots and reminisce about the life I lived when I was 21. It’s hard to believe that was over a decade ago, but being in the city made me feel like it was just yesterday. Man, when I say things like this, I start to feel old.

I have a whole trip recap on my Instagram story highlights, but here are my favorite food spots we visited:

• Brat in Shoreditch was perfect for a cozy fall day. It was chic but homey — it reminded me a bit of Hatchet Hall in LA. We loved the beef tartare, the raw sea bass with apples, and the roast duck rice.

• Barrafina is tapas done impeccably well. At first glance of the menu, I was surprised at how basic the dishes seemed, but once we ordered, I understood why people like this place so much. Everything was simple, but SO well executed, and you can tell they care a lot about using high-quality ingredients. Definitely get the pan con tomate, paletilla ibérica de bellota, and patatas bravas

• The Black Pig in Borough Market is one of those hyped-up places you see all over TikTok, so naturally I expected it to be overrated. I could have not been more wrong. “The Best One” sandwich lives up to its name — it was one of the best pork sandwiches I’d ever had! So flavorful, but also somehow light?!

• The Barbary was another highly recommended place that definitely delivered. They also specialize in small plates, and our favorites were the grilled halloumi, spinach borani with naan e barbari, and pata negra.

• Ottolenghi was so nice, we went there twice! We had both breakfast and lunch at the Islington and Spitalfields locations, and each time, we were throughly impressed. It felt like a great way to get in my vegetables while also enjoying an amazing meal.

THINGS I’M LOVING!

The older I get, the harder jet lag becomes, so this trip, I was determined to avoid it. I’d heard about the Timeshifter App on TikTok, so I figured I would give it a try. It basically gives you a plan that you start a few days before your trip to help you better acclimate to the time change. The tips include recommendations on when to go to bed at and wake up, when to get light and avoid light, and when to take melatonin. We followed the app’s plan to a t, and WE DID NOT HAVE ANY JET LAG. I repeat, IT WORKED! We had a full night’s sleep the first day we landed within normal hours, and it made traveling soo much easier.

I always get asked about my wavy thumb ring, and since I got mine in Kyoto, I’m never able to link it out. However, I was looking at gold jewelry on Etsy the other day, and I came across a really similar style, so I saved it immediately so I could share the link with everyone! It’s solid gold, so there will be no tarnishing, and you can always wear it on a different finger if the thumb thing isn’t for you.

Now that I’m ordering all these natural fiber sweaters, I realized I also need to better invest in the care of my clothing. I ordered this folding sweater drying rack from OXO to help me lay my sweaters flat to dry after I wash them. The surface is mesh, which allows for quicker drying, and I like that it can fold in half for compact storage.

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RECIPE!

I don’t use leeks enough, which makes zero sense because I am always using onions, garlic, shallots, etc., so why not use their equally sexy sister leek?!

If you’ve ever made my miso butter salmon with sizzled scallion salsa verde, this dish is a spinoff of that one. It’s a simple baked salmon cooked in lemony butter topped with a leek salsa that’s a mix between an Italian salsa verde and chimichurri.

You sauté the whites and greens of the leek to get them softer and sweeter, and then you finely chop some of the dark green parts of the leek to include in the salsa as well. Everything is topped with a sprinkle of feta and served over a bed of brown rice, and you’ve got yourself a hearty salmon bowl that’s loaded with green goodness.

Lemon Butter Salmon with Leek Salsa and Feta

Ingredients (serves 2)

Salmon

• 1 lb salmon, cut into 2 filets

• 2 tbsp butter

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

• 2 cups cooked brown rice

• 3-4 tbsp crumbled feta

Leek Salsa

• 1 leek

• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided

• 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley

• 1 tbsp capers

• 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Add salmon filets to a medium baking dish.

2. In a small pot, melt butter on medium-low heat, making sure the butter doesn’t get too hot or starts browning (lower the heat, if so). Remove from heat, and whisk in the in the lemon zest and lemon juice.

3. Spoon the lemon butter over the salmon, and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the oven, and bake for 15 minutes or until salmon is flaky.

4. While salmon is baking, prepare your leek salsa. Cut off the darkest part of the leeks, but set aside half to use for later. Cut the white and light grain part of the leeks into thin slices, and then add them to a bowl of water to get rid of dirt. Let sit for a few minutes, and then drain in a colander, rinsing off the leeks once more.

5. Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium pan on medium-low heat. Add the sliced leeks, and cook for 7-8 minutes or until leeks have softened. If pan starts to dry out, add a splash of water.

6. Take the dark part of the leeks that you reserved (you’re using half), rinse them, and then finely chop (you should have about 1/4 cup, give or take). In a medium bowl, add the cooked leeks, the chopped leeks, parsley, capers, garlic, crushed red pepper, remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Mix together, and add a little more olive oil if you want the salsa to be more saucey.

8. Add rice to a bowl, and top with cooked salmon, leek salsa, and a sprinkle of feta. Serve warm!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

A couple weeks ago, paid subscribers received another 30-minute budget meal recipe! As the weather gets cooler, I’m going to lean into warming foods, and we are starting off strong with this Green Minestrone Soup!

Just a reminder that anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive. You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!