Baked Salmon with Rosemary, Lemon & Strawberries

A couple months ago, I purchased a slab of fresh salmon with the skin still on.  I love it so I bought a half fish. I knew I’d have plenty left.  I love that, too.

I prepared the entire slab, then cut it into portions.  I enjoyed it freshly prepared but what I did with the leftovers was remarkable.

I prepared the fresh slab by brushing it with rosemary olive oil.  I laid lemon slices and fresh rosemary over it and baked it in the air fryer oven.  I didn’t put it in a pan, just laiid it on the baking screen in the air fryer skin side down.  I wanted the skin to get crispy.  The weight of your salmon determines the length of time you need to bake it.  My slab weighed 2.5 pounds and was pretty thick on the big end.  I baked it for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Copying a recipe my daughter had recently used, I made a strawberry relish to serve with it.  I chopped fresh strawberries and drizzled them with balsamic glaze.  This combination was scrumptious. 

Beautiful Salmon

I plan to share my recipes for my left over salmon, but I originally served it with caulifloweer and cheese sauce.  I used the left over cauliflower in a neat way, too.  I’ll share that.

Cauliflower Toast

I’ve seen lots of recipes for Cauliflower Toast.  Always thought they sounded good, but I love cauliflower so much, that I really enjoy eating it left over and never thought about repurposing it.  I’m so glad I did, this time.   I wanted to use a new spice blend from Pampered Chef, Honey Sriracha.  I had about 1 ½ cups of mashed cauliflower.  I didn’t mash it too much because I wanted some actual bites still in it.  I added 4 ounces of room temperature cream cheese to the cauliflower and about a tablespoon of finely chopped sweet onion and the same amount of finely chopped bell pepper.   I stirred in 2 teaspoons of the honey siracha blend.

To prepare the toasts, I sliced the end of a loaf of French bread into small rounds.  I brushed one side of them with honey and put them in the air fryer.  It took about 4 minutes on 370 degrees to toast them nicely.

I gently piled the cauliflower mixture on each piece of toast, sprinkled a little cheddar cheese on each piece and put them back in the air fryer oven.  In less than 8 minutes they were toasty brown and delicious.  I had them for lunch one day, but they would make great appetizers.  They’d be scrumptious served with tomato soup or a fresh green salad.

Salmon Patties

What to do with all that left over salmon?   I used half of the slab of cooked salmon to make 2 more meals.  That was probably about a pound of fish.   Flake the fish and mix the following ingredients with it.

½ cup combined of finely chopped onion, bell pepper and celery.
½ teaspoon of salt
A couple grinds of peppercorns
The zest of a lemon
¼ cup of unseasoned breadcrumbs

Blend until smooth 1 Tablespoon of lemon infused olive oil with an egg  and a squirt of Dijon mustard.  Now mix the above ingredients with the wet ingredients.  You should be able to form patties with your hands.

Gently fry the patties in a couple Tablespoons of oil  Shouldn’t take but 4 minutes on each side for them to brown nicely. 

This recipe makes 4 patties. Serve them with tartar sauce, lemon and fresh dill.  These are also delicious.

Salmon Burger

I couldn’t eat all the patties, so I froze the leftovers individually and look what I had the next time I wanted salmon.  This pretty salmon burger was simply reheated in the air fryer for a couple minutes.  Let them thaw in the fridge overnight.   I served mine with sweet potato fries.  So good.

So here we started with a pricey piece of salmon, but it made 6 meals for me.  As it turned out it wasn’t so pricey.  Frugal doesn't always mean cheap.  It also means getting as much as possible from something!