These salmon cakes are so tasty and gluten-free too! No one in our family has gluten issues, but being food bloggers, and cooking for a large group this past summer with a variety of dietary restrictions, we realized that we needed to step up our GF game! We haven’t been terribly happy with the all-purpose or other gluten-free flours we’ve used lately. They are often too fine for what we are baking, which creates a texture mismatch, or the flavor isn’t exactly what we’re after.
What we discovered in developing this recipe, is that finely ground nuts make a great alternative for some things, and especially for these salmon cakes. We toasted almonds and pepitas (shell-less pumpkins seeds) before finely puréeing them into a nut meal. This made a perfectly delicious replacement for the flour in these cakes and created a nice, rich, crispy coating on both the top and bottom. We really loved the flavor of these salmon cakes, and the aroma from the toasted almonds and pumpkin seeds is intoxicating! It’s almost like you can inhale the goodness! Of course, if you have no gluten allergies, you can use flour in place of the nut meal, but we don’t recommend it. Don’t miss the goodness of toasted nut meal – unless, of course, you happen to be allergic to nuts!
Dill Salmon Cakes with Almond & Pepita Crust
Equipment
- Food processor
- Skillet
Ingredients
Dill Salmon Cakes
- 1 lb. salmon fillets
- 1 large shallot, finely diced
- 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp. fresh dill, finely snipped
- 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp. lemon pepper
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds divided
- 1/2 cup toasted pepitas divided
- 1/4 cup olive or sunflower oil, for cooking salmon cakes
Yogurt Remoulade Sauce
- 1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt
- 2 tbsp. spicy brown or cajun mustard
- 1 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
- 1 tsp. Cajun seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp. prepared horseradish
- 1 tsp. freshly-grated horseradish
- 1/2 tsp. pepperoncini pickling juice (or dill pickle juice)
- 1 tsp. hot sauce (Louisiana or similar)
- 1 tbsp. finely minced parsley
- 4 sprigs fresh dill for garnish
- 4 lemon wedges for garnish
Instructions
Prepare Toasted Almond & Pepita Meal for Crust
- Toast almonds and pepitas at 350° F in the oven or toaster oven for about 4-5 minutes, or just until beginning to turn golden-brown. Cool to room temp. Note* Be careful and keep your eye on them … it’s so easy to burn nuts when you’re toasting them!
- Place cooled, toasted almonds and pepitas in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until fine, almost like a cornmeal texture. Remove from processor and set aside. You will use half this mixture in the salmon cakes and half to coat the tops and bottoms of the cakes before cooking.
Making the Salmon Cake Mixture
- Remove skin from the fish fillets and cut the fish into small chunks. Remove any obvious bones.
- Purée fish in the food processor until fairly smooth. Remove from food processor bowl and place in a mixing bowl.
- Add shallot, Dijon, dill, lemon pepper, lemon juice, beaten egg white, and 1/2 of the toasted nut meal. Mix well and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, to allow it to firm up.
- Remove from refrigerator and shape into 4 patties.
- Spread the remaining nut meal on a plate. Pat both sides of each salmon cake into the nut mixture, to coat both top and bottom.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat., When hot, place salmon cakes in the pan and cook over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 1 minute. Flip over and brown the other side. Remove from heat and cover for just a couple of minutes to allow the heat from the pan to finish cooking them. You don’t want to overcook them!
- Remove from skillet to plates and serve with remoulade sauce, a wedge of lemon and a sprig of fresh dill.
Yogurt Remoulade
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Stir well. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to serve.