Salmon salad, tartar sauce

When there are left-overs, especially Salmon I make this for a dinner salad the next day. The flavor is so different from the filet it is hard for people to realize they are eating yesterday’s leftovers. The photo is of Salmon salad lying on fresh butter lettuce with home grown tomato slices. The dark color drizzle is Trader Joes, Balsamic Vinegar Glaze; very tasty.


This is a 2-part recipe. One that will first save you money and second will get you rave reviews.

Part One:
Tartar Sauce – Commercial Tartar Sauce is made with Mayonnaise, dill pickle relish, pickle juice, lemon juice and finely chopped white onion. I’ve got another way to make Tartar Sauce that you may like even better; and homemade is cheaper.

2 Cups Mayonnaise… (Opinion – lite mayo is made with soybean oil (read the label). At least 90% of the soybeans grown are genetically modified i.e. GMO. If you go to the trouble of catching wild fish use real mayo. I use Winco house brand).

2/3 cup of Vlasic Sweet pickle relish… (Opinion – I buy my Vlasic at Winco. It is less than the other brands and taste great).

3-4 tablespoons of finely chopped red onion… (Opinion – if you like onions use more, it won’t hurt anything; if you have or prefer sweet, yellow or white onion; use them).

3-4 tablespoons of coarsely chopped celery… (Opinion – I like the added crunch the celery gives and it doesn’t seem to affect the flavor. I usually use the same amount of celery as I do onion; most often more celery than onion.

I do not add lemon juice and the Vlasic pickle relish is ‘wet’ enough I don’t have to add pickle juice.

Part Two:
Salmon Salad – I’ve made this with left over chicken, trout, rockfish, imitation crab (yum) and tuna. If you make those variations, you’ll have to call your gastronomical delight by its appropriate name i.e. Crab Salad, Tuna Salad, Chicken Salad, etc

With what-ever you decide to create, you’ll need to process the meat first. With cooked fish it is very easy to use two forks to flake the filets apart; sort of like pulled pork.


With other meats, you’ll likely need a food processor. I have an old “little Oscar” by Sunbeam. I’m not sure they are even made any longer, however I found a nice one on E-Bay for my sister. Mine has lots of miles on it and it’s still a great machine. I use it to process the finely chopped onions then after a quick rinse I process the meat. I think the imitation Crab is my favorite, it only take a couple of seconds to process any of the meats. You’ll want it chunked, not ground up like burger meat.

Using the measurements from Part One you will first place 3-4 cups of salmon (or other meat) that you’ve flaked in a large mixing bowl, and then add the pickle relish, onions and celery. The last thing to add will be the mayo and it’s best to do that in stages largely because not all cooked Salmon will have the same moisture content.

Add 1 cup of mayo and fold it into the Salmon and other ingredients, with a spatula. If it seems to dry add more mayo until you’ve got a nice and thick mix that is well covered with the mayo acting as a binder. No worries, if it appears too dry later, simply add more mayo. You just don’t want the mayo to be the number one taste.

After making your ‘Salad’ - refrigerate and chill until ready to serve.

After you’ve added the first cup of mayo, if you’d care to think about calories, it is completely acceptable to add plain (not flavored) Greek yogurt; if you intend to serve this the same day.
If you are making this to serve the following day you’ll find it best to mix in chilled yogurt just before serving.

I like the sweet pickle relish variation with the added chopped celery. Sometimes I will add lemon juice if I happen to have a real lemon available, but most often I just don’t use it and no-one seems to notice (or care).

About that course chopped celery. I find it easiest to first slice the celery stalk lengthwise into three long pieces, and then do the chopping; I believe it make for a better crunch to have those square little pieces.

I rarely use a measuring cup but instead just make the Salad have the consistency I am looking for. You might say my variation on Tartar Sauce, or Salmon Salad is not an exact science. Then again, neither is any of my cooking.

If you are thinking this would be great on bread with a bit of lettuce and tomatoes, you are absolutely right. My favorite is the Crab Salad sandwich, closely followed by Salmon then Tuna.
 
  • Salmon Salad.jpg
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Reactions: sapo and rogerdodger
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
excellent, great post!
 
C_Run
C_Run
Our left over salmon usually ends up in pasta or on a bun but this looks like another nice option. Thanks for posting. If you are into making your own tartar sauce, another one to try is the Joy of Cooking recipe which also has capers, green olives, and a boiled egg. Similar but without the celery.
 
B
Billamicasr
Thanks C_Run, not sure why, but I just don't seem to end up buying capers. Then again if I wrote it down, they may make it into the cart.

I like the idea of the green olives and those are already in the cupboard, that would add a bit of a bite to the sweet pickle relish.
The egg would be nice also; rough chopped a little larger than the meat. Sounds good; have to BBQ some salmon and make extra so I can give it a try.

It's one of those things that would be hard to screw-up... my kind of recipe.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
GaryP1958
GaryP1958
Nothing personal but mayonnaise is nasty heart clogging crap, olive oil and vinegar with lemon maybe but don't have a heart attack to save fish meat please!
 
B
Billamicasr
Most would think the eggs in Mayo would be bad for you...

Most would think the eggs in Mayo would be bad for you...

Mayo has gotten a bum wrap over the years; my Winco Mayonnaise is made from real eggs, so yes it contains cholesterol; in fact there are 10mg per tablespoon, I'll guess a good helping of salmon salad uses a couple of tablespoons or possibly 20mg or put another way 6% of my recommended daily intake (not so bad).

On the other hand Salmon has 65mg of cholesterol in 4oz or roughly the size of a deck of cards. So, which is worse? Some may think the cholesterol in salmon is much less than say chicken, and they would be right, sort of; chicken has 70mg per 4oz of meat; not much difference.

Hold the salmon and eat the mayo... nah, I don't think that works either.

Every product on the market is Caveat Emptor…But any person who has taken a marketing course knows that first impressions leave the best impression.

Consumer reports took on Quaker Oatmeal’s claim of reducing cholesterol. It’s true, it really does but so does any vegetable or legume with high soluble fiber. Black bean, kidney beans, Brussel sprouts, and broccoli are just as effective because they actually have more grams of soluble fiber per ounce. Apparently it is agreed the soluble fiber is said to bind with the cholesterol to help expel it from the body.

In a four week study, it is found Quaker Old Fashion Oatmeal effectively lowered test subjects cholesterol by roughly 5%. What is not noted is the amount of “other” cholesterol loaded food stuffs; i.e. bacon, eggs, waffles, butter etc. etc. that the oatmeal had replaced during that period of time; but does it matter?

So, how trues are the statistics? They are just as true as the marketing folks want them to be to sell more products.
 
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GaryP1958
GaryP1958
Its not the eggs that are bad its the hydrogenated oil that clogs the arteries make your own out of olive oil and you are ok!
 
B
Billamicasr
And, my mayo (Winco) does not have hydrogenated oils, cannot say if others do. So I guess we are all safe with Winco Brand.

By the way the change in labeling occured when FDA first proposed in 1999 that manufacturers be required to declare the amount of trans fat (hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil) on Nutrition Facts labels because of public health concerns. That requirement became effective in 2006.

IMO the current concern is GMO foods in otherwise possibly safe products. It appears the chemical companies have so much clout and resources they can hide which foods are possibly not safe; seems FDA doesn't think we should know.

I mispoke when I mentioned in my first post that Winco regular mayo does not use soybean oil; they in fact do. As I mentioned most soybeans are grown with the GMO technology, and we don't really know how safe modified foods are, in the long term. Now I have to go look at other brands to see the labeled contents...geeze!
 
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rogerdodger
rogerdodger
GaryP1958 said:
Its not the eggs that are bad its the hydrogenated oil that clogs the arteries make your own out of olive oil and you are ok!

correct, saturated fat is the best thing to minimize.

there are now some mayos with a majority of olive oil and no sat./trans fat. for example, Kraft "Mayo with Olive Oil", a reduced fat mayonnaise, has 0g sat. fat, 0g trans fat, and the ingredients list starts: water, olive oil, soybean oil, modified food starch, vinegar...
 
B
Billamicasr
You are absolutely right, that would be a better mayo.
(not too sure soybean oil & GMO)

Kraft is wrong (sort of) in their labeling. Olive oil, is 13% and Soybean oil is 12% saturated fat by volume. When added to the other ingredients how can the total package have zero? Truth in labeling?

Saturated fat is another name for "fatty acids". When a fatty acid is bad for you (Stearic, Lauric, Myristic, etc.) they label it saturated fat. When the fatty acid is good for you (Omega 3, Omega 6) it is then called by its recognized good name of fatty acid.

I have never found government regulation that dictates the labeling be as it is to separate the name difference, but that is clearly what is going on or Kraft and others using olive, soybean or other oils would be forced to change their label.

I looked at another product called Vegenaise (expensive at over twice the cost of regular mayo) which is highly touted for the Vegan lifestyle. It contains what they call Soy Protein but also is labeled NON-GMO. I've not tried it yet, but was told it seperates easily and may not be the best alternative for Salmon salad.
 
rogerdodger
rogerdodger
Billamicasr said:
You are absolutely right, that would be a better mayo.
(not too sure soybean oil & GMO)

Kraft is wrong (sort of) in their labeling. Olive oil, is 13% and Soybean oil is 12% saturated fat by volume. When added to the other ingredients how can the total package have zero? Truth in labeling?

Kraft is correct; the answer is rounding.

each serving has 3g of fat: 2g monounsaturated and 1g polyunsaturated. but they are not reporting tenths of a gram, so there is some +/- in each value. so if those oils contain ~13% sat fats, then of the 3g total (actually 2.5g to 3.4g), you have about 0.4g sat fat which rounds down to 0g under current labeling. changing the labeling rules to show tenths of a gram would fix things.

but the bottom line is that olive and soybean are among the lowest in sat. fat.
 
B
Billamicasr
That's a ah-ha (lightbulb) moment. That's exactly how they can label it so... Thanks!
 
J
Johnato
Hey,thank you to the brilliant minds who crafted this recipe
 

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