Nutritionally Dense Salmon Cheese Dip / Fresh Veggie Stuffing
After falling into a canned salmon wormhole the other night, I found a video describing a similar recipe that I wanted to adapt for simplicity. Must admit, I mixed up a batch and have been eating it basically all day with super thinly sliced seedless cucumber "chips" (I serve them with hummus too sometimes) cut with a mandolin. I'm also considering stuffing jalapeno and mini sweet peppers with this dip next time. It would also be great with celery sticks too.
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Keyword: easy, party platter
Servings: 4
- 7 1/2 oz canned wild red sockeye salmon I removed the larger bones before adding the contents of the can.
- 1/2 cup minced green onions
- 8 oz neufchâtel cheese You can use cream cheese instead, but I like the moisture of Neufchâtel
- 1/4 oz walnut pieces you can use more if you wish
- 1 mineral salt to taste be careful, some brands of salmon are saltier than others
- 1 coarsely cracked black pepper to taste, but I get very heavy handed with the pepper on this one
- 1 pinch powdered cayenne pepper Optional
- 1 pinch powdered smoked paprika Optional
This is really simple...
In a large bowl, add the contents of the 7.5 oz can of salmon. I chose to fish out the larger spine bones, but keep the rest in there as long as you are committed to mashing them up. They're a great source of additional nutrients like calcium. If you do a great job mashing and mixing, no one will know they're even in there!
Next, add chunks of the Neufchâtel cheese with the minced green onions and mix everything super well. It will take a little longer than you may think for the mixture to become fully combined.
Add the salt and pepper to taste, then either turn the mix out onto a serving dish (in a large ball) and top with the walnut pieces and optional spice dusting. Alternately, you can flatten out the mixture in a shallow dish and top it with the nuts and spices.
I love this with cucumber slices and sliced vegetables. It's also great along with a green salad.