Pippen I am asking about side dishes I know how to cook the fish and have good recipe's and there are others on this site that I look forward to trying. Just getting bored with the same ol "insert type of salmon" on rice, or burgers etc.
Veggies as mentioned above are good too but hopefully some others have some different ideas.
If you are looking for a "starch" subsitute for rice...here are some ideas.
Risotto is great with salmon.....we make it from scratch but you can buy "out of the box" varieties you'll find in the section of the grocery store with all the seasoned rice/Uncle Ben's type stuff that Demco is referring to. We make various ones from just using plain arborio rice/risotto....mushroom or lemon and fresh herbs etc. There are lots of varieties in the grocery store out of the box like parmesan, herbed, tomato....I think one of the companies that makes it is Lundberg or something like that. If you google risotto recipes you'll find plenty of good ones on the Food Network website and many, many others...but for a quick fix the "out of the box" stuff is pretty darn good!
I really like to do a spin on roasted potatos. Take some baby red or white's and boil them in salted (sea salt) water til they are just starting to get soft...don't cook the crap out of them. Then...put them on a cookie sheet and take a fork and mash them down ever so slightly so they still stay together but look a bit "smashed". This is why you don't want to cook the crap out of them as they'll just fall apart....you want them to hold together but crunch down a bit. Then once you have them spread over a cookie sheet drizzle them with some olive oil and add some fresh herbs; rosemary, sage...whatever you like. Also add some salt and fresh ground pepper. Put them in the oven and then roast them at about 375 til they start to become golden brown and crisp up a bit....they are outstanding and a great twist on just regular "roasted" spuds.
We sometimes do up barley with various herbs/veggies mixed in. You just take the raw grain that you can buy at supermarkets and make it similar to rice in that it is slow cooked using water/chicken broth/white wine. We are both pretty good in the kitchen so we do quite a bit of experimenting.
Quinoa is another grain that is VERY easy to make....basically just add hot water and let it steam with some herbs and you can add in all sorts of veggies like bell peppers, peas etc. We tend to cook the veggies before adding them into the quinoa right before serving it.
We don't eat a lot of pasta in our house but occasionally we'll make it very simple using something like linguine noodles. Saute some garlic, onions, olive oil, sundried tomatoes and even black olives in a pan (be sure not to burn the garlic); then just toss the pasta in it and "voila"...you've got a pretty simple pasta dish to go as an accompaniment.
One GREAT way to do a veggie I was never much fussed on when it is boiled is oven roasted asparagus. Just break it up and toss it in olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper. Put in an oven around 350 or so and keep an eye on it....it will become a very bright green and just as the florets start to brown pull it out of the oven and enjoy. Since I started doing brocolli this way it has become one of my favourite veggies to eat....awesome flavour.
I have tons of great recipes for veggies.....we tend to eat only fresh veggies and get creative. For almost all the veggies we eat though they are done on the BBQ (you can buy veggies baskets for the BBQ that are very helpful) or we roast them as this always intensifies the flavour.
Hopefully some of this helps.