Recipe: How to Make Low-Fat Salmon Burgers

This recipe provides a way to stretch your salmon fillets into a bigger meal of salmon burgers. The result is a lower fat meal than ground beef hamburgers, a more filling meal the grilled salmon, and a delicious way to save money. 

Remove the skin from eight ounces of salmon fillets. Place meat in a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1/2 tablespoon of mayonnaise (can substitute dijon for lower fat option), a pinch of kosher salt, 1 egg, and mix all by hand. Form into burgers and place on oiled cookie sheet or oven safe grill pan. Broil until internal temperature of burger reads 135 degrees F.

These burgers go well on a bed of greens or on fresh buns.

Other variations change out the lemon juice for teriyaki sauce. You can also add minced garlic or minced shallots. Have fun with it.

I've done my own calculations on these salmon burgers based on the label information of each of the ingredients.

Each burger should have 14.5g of fat per burger. Compare that with the 22g of fat that comes in a hamburger made with 80/20 ground beef. The total drops even lower if the egg is replaced by egg substitute. Plus, salmon has Omega-3s and other helpful minerals.

If you have canned salmon on hand and want to try something more filling, you can make a salmon casserole or hot dish. Mix three large cans of salmon with three cups of crushed saltines or panko bread crumbs. Add 1 tb. salt and 1 tsp. pepper. Add 12 oz. of peas and cover with 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese. Bake the dish at 350 F until the cheese is melted and it is hot throughout.