These kid-friendly, homemade wild salmon bites use canned fish, delicious breadcrumbs and capers and come together so quickly on busy days!
Salmon. Chock full of protein, healthy omega-3s and the hard-to-find-naturally vitamin D. Yes, salmon is a pretty great food. It’s one that I eat and I want my kids to eat. Luckily for me, they like it.
Unluckily for me, it is pretty expensive to buy wild caught consistently.
I’ve had good luck buying pre-made wild caught salmon bites, and those are great for heat-and-eat snacks and dinners on busy days. But the kind my kids love (see here) is hard to find outside of one local store. And others that are available have salmon way down on the list of ingredients — behind pollock and cod. Not worth the money.
So what’s a mom to do? Make your own!
The best part of these bites is it uses wild caught salmon from a can.
No, I take that back. The best part is that everyone in the family will fight over who gets the biggest serving.
It only takes 6 minutes — tops — to cook!
Here’s the recipe:
- 1 (6 oz) can wild salmon
- 1 egg
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 Tbsp capers, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp chives, finely chopped
- 1 tsp yellow mustard
- ½ c Panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup Italian style breadcrumbs
- 2 Tbsp olive or coconut oil (for pan fry)
- Mix everything together (minus the oil).
- Form into 10-12 bite sized patties.
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.
- Add salmon bites to pan.
- Cook 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip and cook 2-3 minutes on the other.
The patties are delicious on their own but I highly recommend making a dipping sauce. I mixed up a simple dip of 2 Tbsp sour cream and the juice from 1/2 a lemon and a sprinkle of salt. I garnished with chives.
You could use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream if you’d like. Enjoy!
What’s your favorite way to eat salmon?
Oh my gosh. H is growing up! She looks so mature!
Thank you for this post- I keep reading about how I need to be eating a lot of omega 3s at this point in my pregnancy and I was just telling my husband that I need to buy some canned salmon to up my DHA.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the salmon once I bought it but this recipe sounds perfect! And I feel confident that Lula will wolf these down as well…I’m always looking for foods to boost her protein intake.
Thanks for the great recipe and have a great day, Brittany!
Kelly @ Runmarun recently posted..Pregnancy 2: 32 Week Update
Oh my gosh thanks for posting this! I was one of the ones who asked what you were going to make with the canned salmon! 🙂 I can’t wait to try these for my little guy. I recently made something similar… ground turkey nuggets and he loved it! He likes tuna and is a big fish stick fan so hopefully he likes this as well!
Love the idea of ground turkey! To be honest, anything in nugget or ‘bites’ form has been pretty popular around here lately 🙂
SO FUNNY – Brittany, I actually made some salmon “cakes” for Parker last night! I got the exact same Salmon at Trader Joe’s a couple weeks ago. I used a very similar recipe – but baked them in silicone muffin cups. Parker loved them! (He really likes grilled salmon when we go out to eat).
GMTA!
Haha, GMTA indeed! Great idea to bake them, too. Did Parker use any dipping sauce? I feel like we always need sauce around here…
I didn’t do a sauce (but I should’ve – Parker loves to dip these days)…only b/c I wasn’t 100% sure what to do! Something greek yogurt-y sounds good for next time.
I wish my 20 month old son would eat these. He has become the pickiest eater!! We started off very young trying all sorts of food and he was a great eater. once he hit 12 months, all he eats are fruits, veggies, yogurt, goldfish, and deli baked ham (ick). While I”m happy he’s not eating hot dogs and french fries, its hard!
But, I might make those salmon cakes for the rest of my family, who doesn’t typically like salmon in its natural state. Thanks for the recipe!
H goes through finicky stages where she won’t eat more than a few bites of each meal for a day or two, then she devours stuff the next. Kids are so hard to keep track of! Sounds like your son is still eating some great foods though. Just keep offering and hopefully he’ll come back around to his wide variety palate? 🙂
Last night I was at our big box grocery store and found this new greek dip from Sabra called Cucumber Dill Veggie Dip. This would be great on your homemade salmon patties I would think.
I love how you feed your daughter a variety of foods, I just wish all parents would put as much effort into what they feed their children. In my profession, I see how bad most children are fed, and its hard to bite my tongue and not say anything.
Awesome salmon patties, we catch salmon here on lake Michigan, so I will have to give them a try sometime:)
Karen recently posted..When life hands you lemons, make lemonade….
Cucumber dill dip sounds so good! I have a ridiculous amount of dill in my yard… wonder if I could create a copycat recipe?
And the idea of catching fresh salmon sounds amazing… overnight me some?! 😉
I make something similar for my husband and me, so this is a great way to modify it for the baby. Thanks!
Erin @ The Grass Skirt recently posted..Product Rave: Supercritical Chia Oil by One Love Organics
I wish I liked salmon. But I do like tuna and I wonder if I could sub that or do 50/50 salmon and tuna. Oh, who are we kidding, you know I’ll just pick up a box of frozen at Whole Foods 😉
I also believe Hailey, a toddler, has a better palate than I do. I’m so proud of her.
Maria recently posted..A Little Inspiration
I’m not a huge salmon fan, but my boys both are so I will have to try this one. Your little one is so precious 🙂
Beth Sheridan recently posted..New Workout Wednesday
Great idea!!
Chantal recently posted..Hawt
She looks so grown up all of the sudden! These look delicious, too.
Ashley recently posted..Tales From the Crib: Month 20
salmon bites look tasty and all but the star of this post is Hailey’s huge grin! She’s simply adorable!!
Do you have any substitutes for the breadcrumbs? We are Gluten Free!
Kelsey recently posted..Newborn Pics (+Samantha 20 months)
I buy the same salmon and always wondered if buying canned was gross…Glad to know I’m not alone. I mean it’s just salmon and salt, who cares what it comes in, right? haha. Sooo making these. I have all the ingredients on hand! 🙂
christina recently posted..The Greatest Wrap of All
So, not gonna lie, I used to LOVE fish sticks when I was little. Now that I sometimes flirt with fish, I think I might love these….even if you SAY they are for kids. 🙂 [Kids at heart?]
Sarah @ The Smart Kitchen recently posted..Blend 2013: (Some Of) What I Ate
I love canned salmon! I eat it weekly 🙂 Definitely doing to try something like this. I make a mean salmon cake though!
Matt @ The Athlete’s Plate recently posted..Weekend In Photos
Thank you. Nice recipe and nice pics. Have a great long weekend and make it a safe one.
These LOOK really good!! Now if only I wasn’t a vegetarian! 😉
Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl recently posted..Indian Naan Pizza
I guess that I must be a kid! these look and sound absolutely delicious 🙂
Neil Butterfield recently posted..How to Get your Feet Healthy and Beautiful
It’s a great finger meal for small toddlers. Great recipe as well. Fried foods aren’t something we consume in our household anymore because we have a teenager son which skin nowadays break out when he eats fried foods and me/hubby don’t eat fried foods anymore whatsoever.
blackhuff recently posted..Supersets Friday
I like that it uses canned salmon! So easy! 🙂
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