Salmon Cakes
These Salmon Cakes are made with fresh, flavorful ingredients and are easy to prepare. This restaurant-quality recipe will win over even the seafood skeptics in your family.
It might be a few weeks late, but happy 2020! I’m looking forward to starting a new decade, and seeing where life takes me. Where will this blog be going this year?
More fresh, flavorful recipes that make you feel like a chef right in your own home. With an emphasis on classic, well-loved dishes without fussy ingredients, like salmon alfredo and buttermilk marinade for chicken.
My goal is to provide you the very BEST version of each recipe that I offer. Behind the scenes, I test and re-test these recipes until they’re as perfect as they can be, and I’m sure that you can recreate them at home on the first try.
I like to pretend that I’m back in culinary school, and my chef instructors will be judging them and grading me on them. Except it’s YOU that will be doing the grading (you actually can rate the recipe right in the recipe card below).
And with that, let’s chat about these Salmon Cakes.
Salmon Cakes will win over the whole family.
Do you have a family that generally turn their noses up at the idea of a salmon recipe for dinner? My husband certainly does, and my 1-year-old daughter has also developed the nose crinkle when salmon shows up on her little plate. In fact, she usually tries to feed it to the dog.
While I can SOMETIMES get my husband on board with creamy salmon pasta or salmon pesto pasta, I wanted to find other ways to get my family to love this healthful fish, too.
I’m happy to report that these salmon cakes did the trick! To my surprise, both my husband and daughter gobbled them down and went for seconds. OK then, adding this recipe to our regular rotation!
I mean, it’s hard not to love them – they’re generously spiced with Old Bay seafood seasoning (or you could use my dry rub recipe), studded with onions and red peppers (buy an extra pepper for fajita veggie!), and pan fried until they’re crispy and golden brown.
How to make salmon cakes:
Because I made this recipe with fresh salmon, I started by roasting the fresh salmon until it was cooked through (you can also start with my simple salmon recipe or baked salmon with pesto for extra flavor).
From there it was as simple as flaking the salmon and combining it with vegetables, seasonings, mayonnaise and breadcrumbs.
The salmon mixture should be refrigerated at least 30 minutes (or even overnight!) so that it has plenty of time to chill. This will help the cakes not fall apart when you pan fry them.
Even after refrigeration, the salmon mixture will be a little soft. Just gently form it into patties, and trust the pan frying process. The browning in the skillet will help the patties hold together, I promise!
Use a nonstick skillet with a little bit of olive oil to fry the salmon patties until they are golden brown.
Canned salmon or fresh salmon?
It seems like most salmon cake recipes I have found on the internet use canned salmon. I have nothing against canned salmon, but I simply prefer to use fresh (especially if I have leftovers from grilled sockeye salmon or salmon sandwiches). You can use either kind of salmon for this recipe.
If you wish to use canned salmon, simply substitute an equal amount of canned salmon for the fresh salmon in the recipe, and start at Step 3.
Can you freeze salmon cakes:
Yes, these freeze well! In fact, I made a batch and froze them so that I would have a quick meal for my daughter on busy nights.
For best results, prepare recipe as written. Then, place the salmon cakes on a plate or small baking pan and transfer them to the freezer until completely frozen. Then, transfer them to a freezer bag for storage up to one month.
To reheat, I recommend baking them in a 350 degree oven until heated through.
What to serve with salmon cakes:
I served these cakes with a squeeze of lemon juice over the top and a simple salad with miso dressing. mashed potatoes with heavy cream and air fryer brussels sprouts are also an excellent side dish choices!
And if you’d like a dipping sauce, check out my recipe for tartar sauce.
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Salmon Cakes
These Salmon Cakes are made with fresh, flavorful ingredients and are easy to prepare. This restaurant-quality recipe will win over even the seafood skeptics in your family.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound fresh salmon
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for frying cakes
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions (about 6 onions)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons minced parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place salmon on rimmed baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Transfer to oven and bake 18 to 20 minutes or until salmon is almost opaque throughout and internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes.
- Slip spatula between salmon skin and flesh to remove skin; use fork to flake salmon into small pieces.
- Meanwhile, place eggs in large bowl and whisk until smooth. Add garlic, soy sauce, Old Bay seasoning, Tabasco sauce and ground mustard; whisk until well combined.
- Stir in breadcrumbs, onions, bell pepper, mayonnaise, parsley and flaked salmon. Cover and transfer to refrigerator at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Shape salmon mixture into 8 patties.
- Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add just enough olive oil to cover bottom of skillet. In batches, add salmon cakes and fry 8 minutes or until dark golden brown, turning once halfway through cooking. Transfer browned salmon cakes to rimmed baking pan and transfer to oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining salmon cakes. Serve immediately.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 2 cakesAmount Per Serving: Calories: 548Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 28gCholesterol: 153mgSodium: 1157mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 2gSugar: 10gProtein: 21g
These are good even without the Old Bay seasoning (haven’t had any on hand the two times I’ve made them). But the 8 min of frying is way too long; I did about 90 seconds on each side and still a few came out a bit more fried that I’d prefer. Still tasty though.
Glad they came out tasty, Anne!
My twin daughters find it difficult to eat seafood. I am going to make this for them with the hope that if your folks loved it, they should love it too.
Thanks for sharing this.
I hope they love it. Have a great week!
Made these tonight – so so yummy! I’ll definitely make again!
I am so glad to hear you liked them, Audrey. Thank you so much for stopping by!
Thanks for including my general malaise towards salmon … Because I truly did love these salmon cakes. I thought they were delicious. Might it have been my love of Old Bay or the fact it was in cake form? Possibly to probably. But it was a very tasty recipe. Well done.
I definitely think it was simply the Old Bay that won you over 🙂
These look amazing. I used to love it when my mom made salmon patties (what we called it) when I was a kid. Many years later I went to make it for myself and couldn’t believe it when I opened the can and found it full of tiny bones. I called her absolutely horrified. She laughed and said it was normal and very healthy. I like this recipe though since it uses fresh salmon.
Thank you so much, Heather. Yeah, canned salmon freaks me out a bit. At least with fresh, I can assure there’s no bones!