Seafood Salad with Yogurt Sauce

This book, The Soul of a New Cuisine, by Marcus Samuelsson, was gifted to me by my younger daughter. The sub title is A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa, published in 2006. The book has a foreword by Desmond Tutu! If you’re not familiar with Samuelsson, and perhaps wondering by his name isn’t of African origin, it’s a wonderfully unique story.

Chef Samuelsson, née Kassahun Joar Tsegie, was born in Ethiopia in 1971. After civil war began 3 years later, he and his sister Fantaye, were adopted by Anne-Marie and Lennart Samuelsson, a homemaker and a geologist, respectively, who lived in Gothenburg, Sweden. After getting interested in cooking and attending a culinary institute, Samuelsson moved to the U.S. to apprentice at Aquavit and soon afterwards graduated to executive chef, eventually becoming the youngest ever to receive a three-star restaurant review from The New York Times. In 2003, he was named “Best Chef: New York City” by the James Beard Foundation. On top of all of the success, this book received the prize “Best International Cookbook” by the James Beard Foundation.

His first restaurant was highly regarded – The Red Rooster in Harlem, New York, but there have been many restaurants worldwide, and more books, and even tv shows I wasn’t aware of! Plus, I just discovered his memoir, Yes, Chef, published in 2013. It will be a fascinating read.

I only mention all of this because I’ve always wanted to go to one of the chef’s restaurant, and that time finally came in 2025, when same daughter and husband took me to Hav & Mar, which opened in 2022. It’s a beautiful open restaurant in busy Lower Manhattan offering “thoughtfully sourced seafood ranging from globally inspired plates to family-style feasts prepared in an open kitchen”. Below are the crudo trio and his version of fried chicken, all exceptional and beautifully plated.

I picked this recipe because I adore salads, I love seafood, and the yogurt sauce looks wonderfully inviting, with cucumber, garlic, harissa, lime juice, Ras al-Hanout, and more. The salad consists of bulgur, cod, tuna, shrimp, grapefruits, roasted tomatoes, and much more. I couldn’t wait to make it all!

From the chef: “I remember the first time I tried tabbouleh, a common meze salad served in North Africa and the Middle East that’s made of bulgur, parsley, tomato, and mint. The bulgur had such a unique flavor and texture that the chef in me automatically thought, “What else can I do with this?”

Well this salad is unique, to say the least, but I didn’t think “tabbouleh” when I tasted it. Not a bulgur salad or a green salad, but a mixture for the salad base. The seafood – the harissa-seasoned cod, tuna and shrimp – would be a delightful meal on its own. The watercress is overpowered by the harissa, and I really didn’t see the need for the yogurt sauce.

Grilled Seafood Salad with Yogurt Sauce

10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup fine bulgur
3 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons harissa, divided
8 ounces cod fillet
8 ounces tuna
8 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 scallions, trimmed
2 grapefruits, peel and white pith removed, segments sliced from membranes
1 cup chopped watercress (I included arugula)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Juice of 3 limes
1 teaspoon salt
Yogurt Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Toss the tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the tomatoes begin to shrivel.

Meanwhile, put the bulgur in a large bowl, pour the boiling water over it, cover, and let soak for 20 minutes. Drain.

Combine 1/4 cup of the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the harissa in a large bowl. Add the cod, tuna, shrimp, garlic and toss to coat.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the cod and garlic and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Add the tuna, shrimp and scallions and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan.

Cut the cod and tuna into 1” chunks. Cut the scallions into 1” pieces, and slice the garlic.

Combine the tomatoes, bulgur, and garlic in a large bowl. Add the grapefruit, watercress, parsley, lime juice, salt, the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and the remaining tablespoon harissa, and toss well.

Mound the bulgur salad on a serving platter and arrange the cod, tuna, scallions, and shrimp on top.

Drizzle with the yogurt sauce.

Yogurt Sauce

1 cucumber, peeled, halved, and seeded
4 garlic cloves
2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon Ras al-Hanout
2 teaspoons Harissa
Juice of 2 limes
2 scallions, trimmed and chopped
2 mint sprigs, leaves only, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the cucumber and garlic in a blender and purée until smooth.