These simple potato free Salmon Fish Cakes are the perfect quick weeknight family meal. They’re low carb and dairy free fishcakes that only take 20 minutes from start to finish. And they’re kid-approved!
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Fish cakes are a staple in this house and these easy salmon fishcakes without potatoes are my personal favourites – even the children happily wolf them down!
With just four ingredients they are very simple to make. The key is to chop the salmon fillets up into tiny pieces. This ensures that the fish cakes bind together properly without the need for any potato to hold them together.
In a ‘normal’ fish cake recipe mashed potato holds the fish together. However if you’re following a low carb diet (or the SCD or GAPS diets) then you can’t eat potatoes, which makes these no potato fish cakes a great option for dinner.
The ginger and lime add a delicious Asian flavour to the salmon fish cakes, making them taste like you’ve slaved over them for ages.
These are great for family suppers together or for entertaining friends and family.
Ingredients for No Potato Salmon Fishcakes
To make the obvious little joke, I thought I ought to specify that these no potato salmon fishcakes do not require any potatoes – in case you didn’t already realise that!
Salmon
I used skinless salmon fillets here. You can buy them skinless from your local fishmonger or just remove the skin yourself – it’s very easy to do.
If you can afford it, try to make sure that the salmon is good quality and from a sustainable source, although I do appreciate that this is sometimes difficult due to costs and availability.
Ginger
It’s best to use fresh ginger here – you can buy pre-grated ginger under the title ‘lazy ginger’, but fresh is often cheaper and has a better flavour.
You only need a little bit of ginger for these salmon fish cakes – a thumbnail-sized piece is just about perfect. Don’t forget to peel it before grating, either. It can be easiest to use a teaspoon, although personally I prefer to shave the outside off with a knife.
Lime
These potato-free fish cakes also use one lime, both the zest and juice. It’s best to use fresh lime juice instead of bottled as fresh has a much stronger, more vibrant flavour.
Plus, using bottled still won’t mean that you can avoid buying a lime since you’ll need the zest anyway.
Onion
I chose to use spring onions here as there’s an onion-hater in my house, although you could also use red onion. I prefer these to regular yellow or brown onions as they have a flavour that I find matches the Asian qualities of the ginger and lime better.
You’ll need to finely chop the onions, although if you’re pushed for time then it can be quicker and easier to just blitz them in the food processor. Chopping onions in the food processor is one of my favourite ways to keep prepping for meals as quick as possible.
Equipment needed to make Salmon Fishcakes
Most of the equipment that you’ll need is fairly standard, so it’s unlikely that you’ll need to buy anything specific.
You’ll probably already have weighing scales for measuring the ingredients and a knife (I highly recommend investing in this amazing set by Zwilling) for chopping the salmon and onion, although you’ll also need the finest edge of a grater for the ginger. You’ll also need a juicer and zester for the lime.
Then, you need a frying pan to soften the onions in, and you can then cook the low carb fish cakes in this same pan to reduce washing up.
So really, you only need fairly minimal equipment, although you may also need a food processor if you decide to use that method to chop the onions.
How many Salmon Fish Cakes is a portion?
The quantities I’ve specified in the recipe are for two adults and two small children (age 3 & 5).
If you have older children or ones with a big appetite then you might want to increase the quantity of salmon to four 140g fillets. That should be plenty for four people.
What should you serve with Dairy Free Salmon Fishcakes?
I like to serve these with lots of fresh vegetables.
If you can eat carbs you might like to serve them with home made potato wedges or sweet potato chips. I haven’t tried the sweet potato chip recipe from Easy Peasy Foodie but it looks amazing.
More Simple Fishcake Recipes
If you like this recipe you might like my other fish cake recipes. I did tell you I was a little bit of a fan of fish cakes!
Pin the recipe for salmon fish cakes without potatoes…
The Full Recipe
Salmon Fish Cakes (Without Potatoes)
Ingredients
- 420 g salmon fillets - skin removed
- Thumbnail-size piece of ginger, grated
- 1 lime, zest and juice - plus wedges to serve if desired
- 1/2 bunch spring onions finely chopped or 1 small red onion finely chopped - or ‘whizzed’ up because I have an onion disliker!
Instructions
- Chop salmon as finely as possible, then add the grated ginger, lime zest and some ground pepper
- Soften the onion in a little oil in a frying pan over a low heat (I generally add a table spoon of water and put a lid over the top for approx 5 mins to make sure it is nice and soft)
- Add softened onion to the salmon mix and mould into ‘patties’
- Fry the fish cakes in a little oil until golden and cooked through (about 10 mins)
- Serve with mayo or ketchup, vegetables and home-made potato wedges, mash or polenta chips (recipe will go up at some point!)
Jill says
When I make these, I make sides of frozen peas, or green veg of choice, and tinned or fresh tomatoes, not sure if that fits in with diet requirements. Lovely, simple and most important – tasty recipe.
Vicki Montague says
Well that sounds just fabulous!