Recipe: Festive Salmon Cakes

Some healthy festive inspiration for the Christmas Holidays

Jingle bells, big turkeys and too many food coma's are coming; the season to be jolly is finally there! If you want to shake up your traditional Christmas dinner with something lighter, but still incredibly festive and delicious, this might be your winning recipe. I tried it out on some friends for the first Christmas dinner of December and it was such a success, I had to share it with you guys. If you try them at home, make sure to tag @protogofoods so we can enjoy your creations too :)

Ingredients for 12 salmon cakes* :

4 x 120g salmon filet with skin
50g panko
3 medium eggs
1 red onion, finely diced, sautéed in butter/olive oil
60g frozen peas
45g light mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcester Sauce
10g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
butter/olive oil

*This would equal 4 servings when served with mixed green veggies, when combining with richer sides such as quinoa/pasta/sweet potato, you can easily get 6 portions out of it!

Method:

Preheat oven on 200C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Season salmon with salt and pepper and place salmon skin-side up (makes it easier to peel the skin off) on the tray. Bake for 15min or until thoroughly cooked.
Set aside to cool down.
Fry the finely diced red onion in some butter/olive oil*
Peel skin of salmon and place salmon filets in a big mixing bowl. Use a fork to tear the salmon-meat apart, until it's flaked. Add the onions.
Defrost peas in microwave and add them too.
Then add 3 eggs, the mayonnaise, panko, pepper, salt, flat leaf parsley and Worcester sauce to the same mixing bowl and stir well to combine. Make 12 patties.
In a frying pan heat some butter (or combo of olive oil and butter) and fry the patties, 4 or 5 at a time.
Remove from pan when crispy on both sides.

*There is a lot to do around which oil/fat to use when cooking. There are pro's and cons to every single option and so my philosophy is to swap between a couple of them so you've got a balanced mix. Always remember hard fats have more saturated fat, liquid ones usually have more unsaturated fat. However, some vegetable oils should not be used at higher temperatures. I really recommend reading this Nutrifix article on all the pro's and cons per source of fat.

Serve with:

Little gem hearts from the oven and pasta with avocado-pesto (as on the pictures). Recipe for avocado pesto will be up on the blog soon :)
Mixed green veggies (broccoli, fine green beans, mangetout, tenderstem,...)
Quinoa and a salad
Options are endless! Just remember to adjust the serving size depending on the sides you choose!

Nutritional values per salmon cake:

Calories: 117.7

Carbs (sugars): 5.1g (0.28g)

Fat (saturated): 6.6g (1.5g)

Proteins: 7.6g

Fibre: 0.7g

Enjoy xxx Val