It’s 5 pm, the kids are home, and the only thing in the fridge that counts as dinner is a bag of rice and a slab of salmon you bought three days ago ‘for later’. Later is now.
I’ve been keeping a pot of rice on the back burner as one of my tiny step habits for a while now. It sounds small, but it’s the difference between deciding in ten minutes or standing in front of an empty fridge for forty. This is the bowl I make when I don’t have much of either.
Why this recipe works
Salmon bites air-fry into genuinely crisp, lightly browned edges in about 8 minutes while the centre stays flaky and moist. Rice, vegetables and sauce are all no-cook work. The three-ingredient sauce does the heavy lifting: mayo, sriracha and a little honey for a sweet, mellow kick that keeps people coming back for seconds.
The thing that made me keep this one: it doesn’t have to be exactly right. I’ve traded half the toppings for whatever was in the crisper drawer. It still works. This is a lunch that forgives you.
Ingredients
Serves 4. Use cups and tablespoons as written; metric equivalents are in the notes below.
For the air fryer salmon
- 1 1/2 lb (about 700 g) salmon fillets, skin on or off
- 1 tbsp olive oil or melted butter
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional, but it makes a difference)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
For the bowls
- 1 1/3 cup raw jasmine rice, cooked (yields about 4 cups cooked)
- 3–4 Persian cucumbers (the thin, seedless English-type), sliced
- 2 avocados, cubed
- 1/4 cup sliced spring onions or chives
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds, optional
- 1 cup cooked shelled edamame, optional
- Lemon wedges, to finish
For the sriracha honey mayo
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp sriracha, or more to taste
- 1/2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
5 simple steps
1. Cook the rice first or use what’s in the pot. You need about 4 cups cooked. This is also the step I batch: cook one extra portion on Sunday and it carries me through the week.
2. Cube and season the salmon. Pat the fillets dry with paper towels (this is the difference between browned edges and grey steam), remove the skin if you like, and cut into 1 to 1 1/2-inch cubes. Drizzle with the olive oil and sesame oil, toss with the spice mix until evenly coated, and give it a break in the fridge while the rice steams.
3. Air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 7 to 9 minutes. Arrange the salmon in a single layer with a little space between the pieces and don’t crowd the basket — cook in batches if needed. They’re done when the centre flakes easily with a fork. Resist the urge to check at minute 5, they puff and stick together and you just wait longer.
4. Whisk the sauce while the salmon cooks. Mayo, sriracha, honey. Add more sriracha if you can handle it, more honey if your household runs mild. Whisk until completely smooth — ten seconds of whisking makes the sauce emulsify and look like it belongs in a takeout place.
5. Build the bowls. Warm rice, then salmon, cucumbers, edamame, avocado (cubed at the last minute, never before, it browns unlovely in walk-in air). Top with green onions and sesame seeds, then the most important step: squeeze fresh lemon over everything. It brightens the whole bowl and cuts the richness of the mayo. I’ve stopped skipping this and I hate that I used to.
A tip that saves a lot of ruined salmon: season it within 15 minutes of cooking. Salt pulls moisture out, and giving it an hour to sit makes the edges dry before the centre is warm.
Make it your own
- Veggies: shredded carrot, cabbage slaw, sliced red onion, roasted broccoli, watercress, or shaved radish.
- Fruit: mango or pineapple bring a sweet contrast that plays nicely with the spicy mayo.
- Herbs: mint, coriander or Thai basil.
- Extra protein: sliced hard-boiled egg or another half cup of edamame.
- Swap the base: brown rice, quinoa, cauliflower rice, or plain shredded lettuce for a grain-free version.
- No mayo? A drizzle of teriyaki, soy and sriracha makes it work just as well.
Make-ahead and storage
This keeps its texture beautifully if you store the parts separately: cooked salmon and rice in airtight containers, vegetables wrapped, sauce in its own pot. Cooked salmon is best within 3 days (safe up to 4); the rice freezes in portion bags for up to 3 months, much like the salmon itself. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Reheat the rice in the microwave and warm the salmon gently — 350°F (175°C) in the air fryer just until warmed through, or short bursts in the microwave. You want warm, not hot. Overheated salmon dries out and you’ve undone eight good minutes of air frying.
Start today
These are 30 minutes from decision to dinner, or less if the rice is already cooking. If you’ve got the ingredients, you’ve got the skill. The only real barrier is deciding yes at 5 pm instead of doom-scrolling the fridge at 6.
- Start a pot of rice now and let it go while you air-fry something else
- Cubely 300 g of salmon and set it on a plate in the fridge, labelled
- Mix the three-ingredient sauce and put it in the fridge — it keeps three days and takes lunch-bunch’s work away with it
Today’s tiny step
It’s the sauce, not the salmon. Mince the three components of the sriracha honey mayo tonight and cup it in a small pot with a label on it. Next time the 5 pm decision looms, the hardest part is done.
— E, your habit neighbour