Grain Free Quinoa Salmon Cakes

These are a great meal when you forget to take something out of the freezer to thaw, or you are trying to stretch the food budget a wee bit until pay day. They go together quickly if you have some quinoa set aside, and bake in just enough time to set the table and toss a salad to serve on the side.  Be sure to choose a wild caught salmon with no extra added ingredients.

Grain Free Quinoa Salmon Cakes

2 cans wild caught salmon, drained

1 cup pre-cooked organic quinoa

2 eggs, preferably pastured

½ cup Best Baa Raw Sheep’s Milk Feta Cheese, crumbled (or feta of choice)

2 cups organic baby spinach, (chop after measuring)

2 Tbsp chopped fresh organic basil (or 2 tsp dried)

1/3 cup organic sun dried tomatoes, finely diced (drained if in oil, soaked in hot water and drained if dry)

1/8 tsp organic cayenne

½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt of choice

Preheat oven to 375F

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until very well combined. Using hands shape into patties, and place on a greased baking pan.(Mine made 10 patties, about 1 inch thick and 3 inches across)

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked thru. Serve warm or chilled.

Ready to go in the oven to bake!

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

This is a bonus two-recipes- in-one post. We very often cook with pre-planned leftovers, to be used either as is, or changed up somehow to be used in our lunches for the next day.  After dinner, while we are tiding up (Jim calls me “Hurricane Janine” in the kitchen) we get our lunches ready for the next day to keep our mornings less hectic. Freezing 1 cup portions of quinoa gives a great salad filler for the extra veggies or proteins from dinner. If you freeze it spread out and flat in baggies, it thaws in no time.

I threw together this tasty salmon topping, and the pan juices become the dressing for the salad. Easy and tasty!

We served our salmon with some organic baby spinach sauted in butter, and these potatoes from my old blog. (Gluten warning: the malt vinegar mentioned in the linked recipe does contain Gluten, substitute a raw apple cider vinegar or a nice organic balsamic)

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

5 Wild caught salmon pieces or one very large piece, thawed if frozen

1/3 cup organic walnuts, finely chopped

Zest of ½ an organic orange

Juice of whole organic orange (mine was not very large)

1 T coconut nectar

2 T melted coconut oil or olive oil

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp Herbamare (or sea salt of your choice)

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, woody stems removed, finely chopped (or sub 1 tsp dried)

Preheat oven to 450F. Place Salmon, skin side down,  in an oven safe dish. Set aside.

Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly on top of salmon pieces. Bake on middle rack in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the salmon flakes easily with fork and is opaque thru.

Serve hot!

Salmon Quinoa Salad:

1 piece of the above salmon, plus the extra pan juices,

1 cup of pre-cooked quinoa

 2-3 cups mixed organic baby greens

Flake the salmon in a medium mixing bowl. Add quinoa, salad greens and the pan juices from the salmon. Toss well, makes two servings.

Asparagus, Salmon and Barley Salad

 During the summer, we have a lot of salads for lunches. And I get asked for the recipes often. But most of them don’t actually have a recipe, they kind of evolve from the ingredients I have on hand.  (and "salad" does not always mean some kind of lettuce, not even close!) When we are cooking dinner, we always try and cook extra, to add to our lunch somehow.  Sometimes leftovers get eaten as is, but more often than not, they get morphed into some kind of soup or salad. Some of the leftovers also get frozen in portioned size baggies.  Grains and proteins work very well for this, my freezer is often full of bags of frozen barley, quinoa, rotisserie chicken, steak, etc. Add to whatever veggies you have on hand, toss with some dressing, and Voila! No more boring leftovers! I will try very hard to write down more of these concoctions-- they are usually tasty and it sucks when I don’t remember how I made them!!

There really are no rules for these concocted salads, just start with what you have, throw in some extra chopped up vegetables and herbs,  throw together a basic oil and vinegar dressing, and check out your fridge and freezer for whatever else may be lurking, just waiting to be turned into something yummy!

Here is what I did with our leftover salmon and asparagus from dinner tonight  for our lunch tomorrow.

Asparagus, Salmon and Barley Salad

1 ½ cups cooked barley (I used leftover frozen pot barley)

1 ½ cups cooked salmon (you could use canned salmon or tuna for this in a pinch)

1 cup of cooked asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces

½ cup chopped herbs (I used chives and garlic chives)

1 tsp maple syrup

1 tbsp Hoisin sauce

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or other mild flavoured vinegar)

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavours mingle. Enjoy!