Easy Salmon Patties with Old Bay

These salmon cakes remind me of summer on the East Coast. They’re great year round, on a bun, with a salad or served with sides. It’s a perfect freezable batch cooking recipe.

 
 

These salmon burgers are one of my favorite options for a healthy weeknight dinner. When it comes to weekday meals, I like meal planning a variety of flavorful dinners to enjoy at the end of the day. I find it so helpful to have a protein already prepped and made ahead to simply reheat for dinner. This way, I only have to make one or two sides depending on the meal.

I especially love having burgers on hand because of their versatility. You can serve them on a bun, on a grain bowl, with a salad or as the main protein with a couple of sides.

I particularly love this recipe because it incorporates Old Bay. I’m often surprised at things that seem so normal in the northeast, but aren’t here in LA. One thing being seafood, especially seasoned with Old Bay. On the east coast, ‘crab fries’ seasoned with Old Bay are so popular, and Old Bay is frequently used as a seafood seasoning. Even though we’re on the coast in LA, there aren’t the same kind of seafood shacks or restaurants serving fresh local-ish and well made seafood. These Old Bay burgers are a taste of home for us.

These healthy salmon patties have little filler, so they can be a bit more fragile to work with. I form tight patties, and gently handle them when adding, flipping and removing them from the pan. I use two spatulas to help make it easier.

What salmon should you use?

Wild Salmon vs. Farmed Salmon vs. Canned Salmon

This recipe is for salmon patties made with fresh salmon, wild sockeye salmon to be exact. In my experience, sockeye salmon is the easiest to find, and tends to be more affordable. This salmon tends to be more dry, so the burgers have a drier texture (perfect for a good sauce!). Some seafood cake recipes add mayonnaise or use other types of salmon, but this recipe is a way to make flavorful, lighter and healthier burgers. Wild coho salmon has a bit more fat and adds more moisture, if you can find it.

Farmed salmon tends to be fattier. I’m not sure how this recipe would be affected if you use farmed salmon. You might need more breadcrumbs to absorb the extra moisture. I’d imagine canned wild salmon can be used in this recipe, it might be even more dry than the fresh salmon though.

How to Serve Salmon Patties

Salmon Burgers on a Bun

You can serve these salmon burgers on a bun, I love the whole wheat brioche I find at Whole Foods. You can add simple burger toppings like lettuce, tomato and onion, or even a simple slaw. Tartar sauce pairs really well with these burgers.

Salmon Cakes and Sides

I love servings these with couscous and a side vegetable like sautéed peppers, garlic sautéed kale or garlic sautéed zucchini. If you love sauces like we do and want to add one, tarter sauce works well. We also like Sir Kensington’s chili lime sauce with it.

Salmon Cake on a Salad

These are so versatile, they’re great with a big salad too. You can use a crunchy lettuce and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, radish, carrot and red onion with a creamy dressing like ranch.

Meal Prep Salmon

I cook the salmon ahead of time, allow it to fully cool and then freeze it. You could use this frozen salmon to also make salmon salad! I find breaking up the meal prep in a recipe that has multiple steps, helps simplify the process and boost my productivity. You can scale this recipe for as big of a batch as you need. I often double it to get 8-10 portions. After cooking them, I cool and refrigerate, then add them to baggies to freeze.

Recipe for ‘Easy Salmon Patties with Old Bay’

Prep Time: ~ 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 mins + 20ish mins

Yields: 4 burgers (or more small sized burgers)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of cooked wild salmon (I used sockeye)

  • 2 tsp+ Old Bay seasoning (more if you want them more spiced)

  • 3/4 tsp fine sea salt

  • 1+ tbsp unseasoned breadcrumbs

  • 1 tbsp grated onion (yellow or red onion works)

  • 2 large eggs

  • Olive oil (or ghee or avocado oil) for sautéing

Directions

  1. If possible, bake the salmon in its skin to get more omega 3s into the flesh. I add about a half inch of water to the bottom of the baking dish to help prevent the salmon from drying out. Allow it cool fully. Then remove the skin and gray bits and flake into small pieces. I use my hands and find that’s the best method to break it all up! To make the prep easier, I bake the salmon ahead and then make the burgers at a later time.

  2. In a big bowl, add all the ingredients and mix thoroughly. The mixture should clump together and hold. You can add the eggs last if you want to adjust seasoning by taste before adding them in. If you find the mixture is too dry and it doesn’t easily stay together when you test squeeze it, you can add another egg.

  3. Form 4-5 even patties, tightly. Allow them to set for 15-30 minutes before cooking. This helps them stay together.

  4. Heat a skillet to medium heat, add a drizzle of oil to coat bottom, add burgers in a single layer and saute for about 6-8 minutes on each side, until they are golden browned.

  5. Cool the burgers and package for the freezer.

  6. To reheat, thaw and bake for 10 minutes at 375F until heated through (I’ve done hotter temps if I’m roasting something else too)


Weeknight Dinner, Meal Prep Protein, Freezer Friendly, RecipeKate MartinoComment