By Karen
After spending the past year losing 50+ pounds on Weight Watchers®, I’m not about to backslide and regain it all (especially after replacing my whole wardrobe), so healthier eating is here to stay. Salmon cakes are a surprisingly rich, yet PointsPlus-friendly dish I devised, and I wish I’d thought of them years ago because they’re so easy. They’re only 4 PP each, have good flavor, and have enough heft to make a decent meal.
For salmon, I used Costco’s Kirkland canned brand, but any salmon you like would work.
For me, for any recipe to be a keeper, it has to meet several requirements:
- A few ingredients I would probably have on hand
- Quick prep that doesn’t destroy the whole kitchen
- Cooking that doesn’t need constant monitoring
- Quantity such that you can cook once, but eat twice or more
- Tasty and filling, but not fattening
Salmon cakes fill the bill on all counts, as opposed to my recent miserable foray into collard chips.
So here are my salmon cakes:
- 6-oz. can of salmon
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tbsp. skim milk (more OK if the mixture seems too dry to stick together)
- 1/4-1/2 cup of diced onion (I like lots of onion)
- Liberal sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning (optional)
Using your hands, mix all these ingredients in a bowl,
Split the mixture into 2 cakes. You can make 4 smaller cakes, but for me, 2 big cakes make 2 meals.
Spray a heated pan with nonstick cooking spray, then add the cakes and brown them well on both sides.
While my cakes cook, I make a topping for them by whipping together:
- 2 tbsp. light sour cream
- 2 tbsp. light mayonnaise
- dill to taste
This makes enough topping for both cakes, so I refrigerate half for the second cake.
By WW standards, each cake is 4 PointsPlus, and the topping is 1 PP.
Voila! The yellow squash, zucchini, and onion side sautéed in cooking spray is 0 PP.
They look great and tomorrow I’ll give em a try, minus the mayo topping of course, I’ll just go with sour cream. I think I’ll try fresh salmon, but get some canned for a back up. I’ve never had canned salmon is it very fishy?
For the record, people, Morgan LOATHES mayo. So much so, I saw her almost march into a restaurant kitchen when it was inadvertently served on her sandwich.
I was going for a tartar-saucy type of topping, but with salmon, I thought dill worked better than relish.
Fresh salmon would definitely work, and probably taste even better. I was leery of canned salmon myself, but I like it. I don’t mind my fish tasting fishy, but I don’t think it’s too pungent.
If you come up with any improvements on my recipe (and you probably will), let me know.
Salmon patties and stewed tomatoes were a go-to meal of my mother’s, and I’ve always liked them. Of course, panko wasn’t around in those days. I don’t much like canned salmon in anything else, but it’s fine in salmon cakes/patties.
The only thing I add to the salmon mixture is a squeeze of fresh lemon. Seems like the onion is the key as well as getting a nice crisp crust on them. Haven’t made them in awhile — I feel a bout coming on, and I have a bunch of fresh veggies in the house, so maybe ratatouille instead of my mother’s stewed tomatoes.
Ah, lemon! That’s a good idea, Adele. It never occurred to me.
I’m not big on canned salmon either, which was why buying it in a 6-pack at Costco was a big leap of faith for me. But now that I have something easy and tasty to do with it, I always keep some in the pantry.
Stewed tomatoes you can keep. Eewwww.