Recipe: Baked Salmon Quinoa Cakes

Fish cakes, whether crab, tuna, salmon, or something else, are a fabulous way to sneak some healthy seafood into your diet! Most Americans don't get the recommended 2-3 servings per week of fatty fish that provides the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins that our body's need.

Making a variety of cakes using fish high in omega-3's like salmon, albacore tuna, mackerel, sardines, and herring has become one of my staples. They're easy to make and great to pop in the freezer for those in-a-pinch times. The thing I usually don't like about them is that they can contain up to half bread crumbs! Why are bread crumbs not a good thing? Well, first off, it's usually white bread crumbs, which offers no nutritional value. Secondly, most people don't take account for this carbohydrate source in their fish cake, and usually include other carbohydrate heavy foods in their meal, leading to carb overload.

So what's a gal to do? Swap! One of my favorite things to do is to take a recipe and figure out how I can tweak it to still make it taste great but pack in as much nutrition as possible :) For bread crumbs in fish cakes, I've come up with all sorts of creative alternatives. A few of my favorites are white beans, sweet potatoes, almond or coconut flour, and as in this recipe, quinoa! These all act as great binders and 'fillers' while adding in their own health benefits. This one is my latest due to having lots of left over cooked quinoa!

Salmon Quinoa Cakes

Servings: 10-12 cakes

Ingredients

• 1 14oz can of Salmon

• 1/2 medium Red Onion, diced

• 2 Tbsp dried Parsley

• Zest of a small Lemon (organic)

• 2 Eggs

• 1.5 Cups cooked Quinoa

• 1/4 tsp cayenne

• Black pepper to taste

• Olive oil

Method

Preheat over to 385F.

Flake salmon with fork in a mixing bowl. Mix in onion, parsley, lemon zest, eggs, cayenne, and pepper. Stir in cooked quinoa.

Form patties and put on baking sheet. Spray generously with olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes and then flip, spray other side and bake for another 15 minutes. I like my crispy on the outside so I will then turn on the broiler and let them brown up a bit more, which can happen fast, so keep watch!

These will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days or can be stored in the freezer.

Enjoy!