These bright and colorful Blackened Salmon Bowls with Coconut Rice are bursting with the flavor of blackening seasoning, sweet mangoes, crunchy purple cabbage, and fresh cilantro-lime sauce.
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There’s just something about bowl-style meals: all the different colorful, flavor-packed ingredients combine to create something that’s way more layered and fun to eat than your standard plated dinner.
Perhaps it’s being able to assemble your own bowl, so you can customize the add-ons to your liking. Or maybe it’s the rainbow-like array of colors and textures in a bowl dish (in this case, bright purple cabbage, spice-crusted orange salmon, sweet yellow mango, and green avocado and cilantro-lime sauce).
But be forewarned: once you start making healthy, produce-packed bowl meals…you’ll want them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So bookmark our Mango Lassi Smoothie Bowl, Bison Plantain Breakfast Bowl, Mediterranean Steak Bowls, and Harissa Honey Chicken Bowls for next time.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Bright, colorful, and packed with healthy salmon and produce!
- Caribbean-inspired flavors
- Ready in just 20 minutes
- Family-friendly and easy to customize to everyone’s taste buds
Blackened Salmon Bowls Recipe Ingredients
Thanks to quick-cooking blackened salmon and fresh, raw produce, this recipe comes together in just 20 minutes. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Salmon fillets –this omega 3-packed fish is the star of this bowl
- Coconut rice – fluffy, coconut-scented rice is the perfect balance for the slightly-spicy salmon, and perfect for the tropical theme of these bowls.
- Mango – we cannot get enough of mango, and it is the perfect sweet addition here.
- Avocado – creamy avocado cubes add another layer of flavor and texture to this dish.
- Purple cabbage – shredded purple cabbage provides beautiful, vibrant color and a delicious crunch
- Extra-virgin olive oil – gets used for the salmon, and the sauce
- Cilantro – ½ cup of this fresh herb is the base of the green sauce
- Lime juice –brightens the cilantro sauce
- Sea salt – ½ teaspoon goes into the homemade blackening spice mix, along with…
- Black pepper
- Chili powder
- Paprika
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Dried oregano
- Dried thyme
- Cumin
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Swap the mango – if you want to swap out the mango, simply use pineapple in its place.
- Use a different starch – use regular white rice, brown rice, or even quinoa in place of the coconut rice.
How to Make Blackened Salmon
Cooking this blackened salmon recipe is super simple. While you can grill it, we chose to quickly pan-sear it for this recipe. Here’s what you’ll do:
Step 1: whisk together the ingredients for the blackened seasoning, then season each salmon filet with 1 tablespoon of the spice mix.
Step 2: heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, place the salmon in the pan and sear for 4-5 minutes, until browned and crisp, then flip and sear an additional 3-4 minutes, until browned, and remove from the pan.
Step 3: blend all ingredients for the cilantro lime sauce until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to thin it out as needed.
Step 4: to assemble the bowls, place the coconut rice in a bowl, then top with the salmon, mango, avocado, and purple cabbage. Drizzle the cilantro lime sauce over top and serve!
Recipe Tips
- Blackening season: our homemade blackening seasoning mix just takes a couple minutes to throw together. But feel free to use a store-bought seasoning mix instead.
- Keep your avocado fresh: if all of the servings won’t be eaten right away, wait until serving to slice the avocado in order to prevent browning.
How to Serve
Serve the rice and salmon warm or at room temperature, along with the Coconut Rice, mango, chopped avocado, shredded cabbage, drizzled with the Cilantro-Lime Sauce.
How to Store and Reheat
Store the ingredients for your salmon bowls in airtight containers in the refrigerator. You can store the rice and salmon together (if you want) because they’ll both need to be reheated, but the toppings should be stored separately to keep them nice and fresh.
Reheat the rice and salmon in a microwave, air fryer, or oven until heated through, and top with raw ingredients and sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
We typically recommend buying wild-caught salmon whenever possible. Wild-caught salmon is caught in its natural habitat using sustainable practices and is typically tastier, and better for you and the environment than farmed salmon. However, not all farmed or wild-caught salmon is created equal. Personally, we get our salmon from Pride of Bristol Bay and it is hands-down the best we’ve ever tasted!
If you prefer buying your salmon at the store, we recommend looking for wild-caught when you’re at the seafood counter and looking for salmon with a MSC Bluefish checkmark, which certifies that it is sustainable.
“Blackening” a food essentially just means forming a dark spice crust on food. Typically, a spice blend is applied to a protein like fish or chicken, which is then grilled or pan-seared to form the crust.
Blackened seasoning is usually made from chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and other spices, and can range from mild to spicy. You can either buy your blackened seasoning ready-made or use our mild blackened seasoning recipe.
There are a lot of bold spices in this recipe, but the flavor isn’t necessarily spicy. (If you want to add some heat, just add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.)
More of Our Best Salmon Recipes
If you tried this Blackened Salmon Bowls with Coconut Rice, or any other recipe on the Fed & Fit website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Blackened Salmon Bowls with Coconut Rice
Ingredients
For the Blackened Seasoning:
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon a dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
For the Bowls:
- 4 salmon fillets, about 5–6 oz each, skin-on
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 cups cooked coconut rice, may also use plain white or brown rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice
- 1 mango, diced
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
For the Cilantro Lime Sauce:
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 2 tablespoons lime juice, about 1 lime
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Make the coconut rice, if using.
- Whisk together the ingredients for the blackened seasoning, then season each salmon filet with 1 tablespoon of it.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, place the salmon in the pan and sear for 4-5 minutes, until browned and crisp, then flip and sear an additional 3-4 minutes, until browned, and remove from the pan.
- Blend all ingredients for the cilantro lime sauce until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to thin it out as needed.
- To make the bowls – place the coconut rice in a bowl, then top with the salmon, mango, avocado, and purple cabbage. Drizzle the cilantro lime sauce over top and serve!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This one is so good that I eat it way too fast and feel sad when my bowl is empty. So I get a second helping and then eat it way too fast and feel sad again. The green sauce is SO bright, the avocado and mango salsa is creamy and sweet, the seasoning on the fish is perfection, and that coconut rice is the perfect base. Make it all. Don’t skip the sauce. Make double and have leftovers. My kids beg for this one weekly.
Delicious flavours! Easy to make! Leftovers are great for lunch even cold!
Awww yay, Kari! We are so happy to hear that!
These are the best bowls! It is a family favorite and the leftovers are just as good the next day.
Wahoo! That’s so great to hear, Holly!
Such a great recipie! So many tasty summer flavors in here!
So glad you love it, Dani! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Made these for dinner tonight and they were so easy and delicious! I didn’t have any fruit to add as mango is out of season here at the moment, but I made the bowls with some guacamole instead and they were great. Highly recommend.
So glad to hear that, Emory!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
My family questioned the combo of salmon, mango and the “green sauce”, but once they tried it, everyone liked it! Great combo of flavors and a fun way to cook the salmon. I had three filets from my Butcher Box, and halved the seasoning recipe, it was more than enough.
Oh good!! We’re so glad they gave it a try and then ended up enjoying it! Thanks for sharing this with us, Christie!
This is so simple and SO GOOD! It is a beautiful blend of colors, flavor and nourishment. This is in regular rotation in our house now. 🙂
So glad you love this one, Kristi! Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
This was outstanding and so simple! Will be making again for sure! Family loved it. Gah! So good!
Awesome! We’re so glad to hear that, Kristin! Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
So yum!! I added agave to the sauce because Im A. Bougie or B. a sugar addict
Best way to eat salmon! So many good flavors!!
Agreed! SO yummy!
This is delicious! Every single component works beautifully together to create an easy meal that tastes like it took forever. It reminds me of warm summer nights and cool ocean breezes. Hubby especially loved it!
SO glad you guys loved it, Kate!! It’s a good one for sure! Thank you for sharing this with us!
This looks so good! My husband and I already love coconut rice so the salmon instead of chicken will be a great add!
Question about salmon: It’s so hard for me to find salmon that’s been caught in the wild vs. farm raised. If i do buy farm raised, what should I be looking for to make sure it’s the best? Or should I always go for wild caught?
Thanks!! 🙂