Salmon Cakes

I've been working on omitting unnecessary gluten and processed foods from our diet. I can tell I feel better from doing this. I'm not a purist by any means but I can tell I feel better from reducing the amounts I consume. Additionally, I am realizing how much I rely on cheese for snacks and in recipes. It's become an interesting challenge to find substitutes that taste just as delicious.

Last night, I substituted chopped almonds/cashews for breadcrumbs in my salmon cakes recipe and it was delicious!

Here is the recipe:

2 packets of pink salmon, wild caught
2 T BBQ sauce
1 T Worcestershire
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup of finely chopped almonds/cashews (or really any nut blend you prefer)
1/2 small bell pepper or 2 snack peppers, diced in small pieces
1/2 c carrots
1/2 zucchini or yellow squash
1/2 small onion
1 T diced garlic
*I found this really cool mixed super foods pouch at Trader Joe's the other week. I added about 2 T of that this time too.

Mix salmon, bbq sauce, Worcestershire, 1 egg and 1 egg white in a medium size mixing bowl. Set aside, it's time to prepare the vegetables.

Process your onion in a food processor, then heat 1T of olive oil in a skillet. Add garlic and onion to the pan and stir until fragrant and slightly glossy.

Process your remaining vegetables in the food processor and add to the garlic/onion mixture. Cook until slightly softened.

Once the vegetables are ready, add to your salmon mixture. Ideally, you will be able to chill this mixture at least 1 hour until fully chilled. This will make it a lot easier to form your salmon patties.

Get out one 12-cup muffin pan. Spray with cooking spray. This next step is optional but I feel it gives the salmon patties a better texture and bake. Get a salad plate and pour about 1 c of cornmeal onto it. Form your salmon cake, roll in the cornmeal/pat cornmeal onto it and then place into a greased muffin cup.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 - 25 minutes until you see a slight browning on top. Serve with more BBQ sauce or ketchup.

You can also cook these on the stove in a skillet, in vegetable or olive oil but again, it makes them a little heavier of a dish.