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Salmon Patties Recipe | Healthy Recipes & Snacks

November 23, 2008 on 9:52 pm | By Matt | In Healthy Recipes & Snacks | 2 Comments

A salmon pattie recipe made extra-healthy without sacrificing flavor … and it’s even lightly fried!

Whenever I sing the praises of my salmon patties recipe, people who have never had a salmon patty always seem surprised that salmon can be “pattied.” After-all, isn’t salmon something you eat filleted on a cedar plank? They also get that same weirded out look that people get when they first find out escargot are snails.  The thought of fish shaped into a patty probably brings back bad memories of “fish fillet” day in the elementary school cafeteria, so I supposed you can’t expect to turn someone into a salmon patty lover over night.

Unless, of course, you can get them to try one — which usually involves me comparing them to crab cakes, which nearly everyone loves. Or, you can just call them salmon “croquettes” and the substitution of a French word for the word “patties” makes them sound gourmet and upscale. Suddenly, people think they are chic and want to try one.

Here’s the thing though: Salmon patties are wicked healthy, especially if you make a few modifications to the traditional salmon patties recipes floating around out there.  So if you are trying to add more healthy fats from things like fish into your diet, it’s worth your time to at least give this salmon pattie recipe a spin. If you like it, it will probably become a staple recipe in your clean eating diet.

First, a few things you should know about salmon patties and this particular salmon patty recipe.

Salmon Patties Are Easy!

One of the great things about salmon patties is that they are one of the simplest dishes to make, and they don’t take any special ingredients or equipment. Think meatloaf, but made out of salmon and pressed into little discs.

You literally can put this salmon patty recipe together in less than 10 minutes with canned salmon and six additional ingredients you probably already have in your pantry and refrigerator.  All you need is a glass bowl, a fork and your hands (that’s why they call them “patties.”) Cooking time is about 15 minutes, so you can have a healthy, clean meal in less than 30 minutes. And if you make extras (which I would recommend) you can either eat them for lunch or dinner the next day, or freeze them for a later meal.

If you want to make them with fresh salmon the preparation is a little more involved. Since we are trying to limit your time in the kitchen, so you can instead spend it running, working out or staying physically active, we’re going to use the tried and true canned salmon, which makes preparation very fast.

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Herbs and Spices: The Secret Spice To Clean Eating | Fitness Food

October 30, 2008 on 9:51 pm | By Matt | In Clean Eating | 4 Comments

Learn how picking the right herbs and spices can make eating clean go from dull to delicious 

Healthy, whole foods get a bad rap when it comes to flavor.

“Eating clean” often gets associated with eating “bland” — especially among fitness buffs, bodybuilders and athletes who think that a good “training diet” consists of meal-after-repetitive-meal of oatmeal, boiled chicken breast, yams, steamed broccoli and green side salads with some kind of fat-free liquid on top that calls itself “dressing.”

The good news is that there is actually a simple solution to making clean eating not just tolerable, but enjoyable — and it’s as close as your grocer’s baking isle: Herbs and spices.

Herbs and Spices: The Key To Making Clean Eating Enjoyable

Any cook worth their salt knows that a recipe or dish isn’t complete until it’s been seasoned.

“Seasoning” could simply mean adding some salt and ground pepper, but more often than not, it includes the use of all kinds of other herbs or spices to either layer additional flavor on top of a food, enhance or complement an existing flavor, or provide a contrast.

While it’s pretty hard to screw up a dish or recipe by adding the wrong herb or spice, it does pay to know your seasonings ahead of time to avoid some funky combinations that might send that brown rice to your dog’s bowl, versus your plate.

Herbs and Spices: Not Just For Flavor, But Also Healthy 

Herbs and spices also have an additional role in healthy, clean eating beyond simply seasoning foods, recipes or dishes.

Nearly all herbs and spices have very high concentrations of healthy phytochemicals and antioxidants. Scientists believe that these naturally-occurring plant compounds work together in the body to protect tissues and cells from damage and may help prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease. 

When you combine herbs and spices with other antioxidant-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, their protective properties may be enhanced even more, similar to The Portfolio Diet approach to cholesterol-reduction observed by researchers like David Jenkins at the University of Toronto.

Just how much antioxidant punch do certain herbs and spice have? Plenty.  

In fact, oregano, that ubiquitous herb found in nearly every batch of pizza or spaghetti sauce is one of nature’s most concentrated sources of antioxidants, having four times more antioxidants than blueberries. Just one tablespoon of dried oregano has the antioxidant content of a large apple.

Herbs and spices can also have beneficial medicinal uses, in addition to simply making your food taste better.

For instance, ginger aids digestion and can calm nausea and even alleviate motion sickness. Fennel and juniper berries can help with fat digestion, and cinnamon has been shown to help reduce cholesterol and increase insulin sensitivity, helping people better digest sugar. It also may lessen the symptoms of certain inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

So herbs and spices don’t just make your food taste better, they’re good for you as well.

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