My dad has become famous over the last couple of year within our family for the crab cakes that he makes. He used to be famous for his homemade ravioli, but when the kids of the family (3 women- myself, my older sister and my little cousin) are present, he knows that serving wheat won't fly. Rather than serve a dish he knows many of us won't eat, he's been nice enough recently develop his crab cake recipe into one that's gluten free using ground up rice crackers as both the binding agent and a breading. This is from a man who uses high gluten flour to make homemade bagels, so you can imagine how huge this is, right?!
Well, since I've now abandoned rice from my diet as well, he made mine without any grains at all this year and they were just as tasty and didn't leave me feeling bloated – double win! We ate those on Christmas Eve and on Christmas I made about four pounds of wild salmon for the whole family. Thankfully, there were some leftovers from that monster piece of fish that we cooked to inspire me to create this recipe as a Christmas dinner re-mix. You can also easily do this (and I likely will in the future) with canned wild salmon as well. Trader Joe's sells it for a pretty good price so check it out there if you can't get it fresh. I might also try this with some crab sometime too.
Grain-Free Salmon Cakes
Yield: Approximately 2 servings.
Click here for estimated nutrition facts.
Ingredients
- 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 large clove of garlic, pressed or finely chopped
- 1-2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh chives (set 1 Tsp aside for garnish)
- 1 Tsp gluten-free djion mustard
- 1 egg
- sea salt & pepper to taste
- 6 oz cooked wild salmon, mashed up
- 1 Tsp coconut flour (optional, I didn't use any and they were tricky to handle but I'd still re-make them this way again)
- 1/4c coconut oil for pan-frying (quantity may vary based on pan size)
- Juice & zest from 1/2 of a lemon for garnish
Pre-heat a small cast iron skilled with coconut oil melted in approximately 1/8-1/4″ deep.
Combine onion, garlic, chives, mustard, sea salt, pepper and egg in a small mixing bowl to combine. Add coconut flour here if desired for an extra binding agent.
Cook the patties thoroughly until well browned on one side before attempting to flip them. If you try to flip them too early they may break. Brown the second side. Each side will take several minutes to brown.
This recipe makes 3, 2oz salmon cakes which is about 1 serving or 3 appetizer or snack portions. They can be reheated in a toaster oven for later snacking or a meal.
Variations
Make this recipe with crab meat or even tuna or another kind of leftover fish.
Comments 31
I had a question about using cast iron skillets. I cant anything I make to turn out good. I used to use non stick but converted to a cast iron and everything I cook basically gets messed up when I cook it on the cast iron. Especially my eggs, I basically end up eating on half of what I put on the skillet because the other half burns and sticks to the skillet. I use coconut oil or ghee to cook with…..any other suggestions???
@Smita- make sure the pan is hot and well greased before you go to use it. Also, do not wash it with soap as this will destroy the coating. If it's hot and well-greased, food should come clean easily. That said, cooking eggs shouldn't be on anything over medium heat.
I made them with leftover salmon fillets from yesterday and they were delicious. Used about 1 tsp of almond flour which worked fine(didn't have coconut flour in the house), but I'm not sure I actually needed it. I'm definitely keeping this recipe for future use. It's a winner!
Oooooh! These cakes sound really tasty! I think I have all the ingredients in my pantry, too.
thanks diane!
I made these the other night and they were really good! I didn't have coconut flour so I used some shredded coconut and that seemed to work fine. They held together perfectly, thanks for the tip about not trying to turn them too soon.
These are sooo good, I make them all the time.
Regards
Alex – top workout songs
I make a similar recipe all the time. I have experimented with different amounts of coconut flour – I like how holds them together but too much makes them much too dense. This is a good recipe to those busy nights – I used wild caught canned salmon as I always have it on hand. In a few minutes you have a delicious dinner!
I am making these tonight for us!! =D Looks delicous!
Yay!
These are actually much better from fresh salmon – and here’s a little trick – take some of the salmon and blend it in a food processor/blender to make a paste – than coarsely pulse the majority of the salmon – the paste part will like glue when you cook these up – a few shrimps or scallops are also excellent binders
And if you can get a hold of duck eggs – they are way better at holding things together than chicken eggs
I like to do these with a little Thai flavoring – add a little fresh ginger and cilantro…really yummy and they are great leftovers too…
I made these tonight, but I used Ener-G egg replacer and about 1 tbsp. Gluten/Wheat Free Panko bread crumbs instead of Almond flour. They turned out AMAZING! Totally hit the spot, and so easy to make. I hardly had any myself, as my kids snatched them up. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for this! Been looking for a nice paleo salmon pattie recipe 🙂
Thank you for this recipe; they are really good! Tip: I find them much easier to turn over if you make them smaller than patties are typically made. About 2″ in diameter works really well. A small, spring-loaded cookie dough scoop makes this really easy–you just drop each one into the pan and then lightly flatten with the back of the scoop. Much easier than shaping them by hand, and easy to get uniform sizes.
These are wonderful and so easy to make. I refrigerated mine for an hour before frying . Also added some parsley for flavour.
Terrific! these will be a new family staple. My son is allergic to egg so I used 3tbsp H20 + 1 tsp flax but they came out tasting a bit too much like flax -think I will try arrowroot next time (although he happily ate them).
Can the salmon cakes be frozen? Thanks,
I have a friend who makes up a big batch, frys them off, then when cool, puts them in baggies to freeze.
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I just made these. I had lemon-garlic infused baked salmon leftovers. These patties turned out very tasty. I added bread crumbs( had no coconut flour), graded fresh ginger and a half of a bunch of fresh italian parsley to the main recipe. serve it with sour cream and dill sauce. Thanks for the recipe. easy and delicious.
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I made these tonight using coconut flour and 3 eggs with a can of salmon (14.75 oz), onion, celery, Italian parsley garlic, citric acid, salt and pepper, no mustard. I made them small, about 2 inches and cooked them in coconut oil. It made 16 patties, and they were delicious. I was looking for a good paleo salmon patty recipe when I found yours and saved it. Mine held together pretty well using the coconut flour. Thank you!
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