There’s not a whole lot I wanna say today other than the fact that I’ve got another easy 15 minute recipe that you’re going to absolutely LOVE. It’s the first recipe that got my husband Tony to actually enjoy canned salmon. Can you believe it? He LOVES them and now when I want a quick and easy dinner, I always whip these up. Best part is that the recipe works well with canned tuna, too!
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I love cooking with salmon because it’s a great source of protein and healthy fats, plus this recipe makes it easy to use canned wild salmon, keeping it inexpensive yet still nourishing. These 15 minute sweet potato salmon cakes made with less than 10 ingredients and perfect for quick lunches, a fun appetizer or dinner!
Before we get into all the details, I wanted to share a new service that I’m trying out called Sitka Salmon Shares, which delivers premium, sustainable, WILD Alaskan seafood from fisherman directly to members doorsteps. They don’t do canned salmon, but since we’re talking about wild salmon, I figured they’d be worth mentioning here. You can sign up for a monthly box of seafood delivery risk-free. Use the code ‘AmbitiousKitchen19’ for $25 off your purchase! They have various fish they send every month and it’s a great way to support fisherman, eat sustainably and get more healthy seafood in your diet.
What’s in these healthy salmon cakes?
These sweet potato salmon cakes are super easy and made with just four main ingredients (plus delicious spices). The core ingredients are:
- uncooked, peeled sweet potato
- canned wild salmon (I prefer this brand)
- egg
- panko bread crumbs (or sub gluten free bread crumbs)
I also added cumin, garlic, and a kick of heat from cayenne to give these salmon cakes savory flavor that compliments the sweetness from the sweet potato.
How to make salmon cakes:
These healthy salmon cakes take just 15 minutes. Just throw everything in your food processor, form into cakes, then pan-fry until well done.
- Add sweet potato cubes to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until your sweet potato is well-grated
- Add canned drained wild salmon, bread crumbs, and spices, and process until well-combined.
- Form sweet potato salmon mixture into 4 cakes by hand.
- Cook both sides on a skillet until golden brown, and serve!
What to serve with salmon cakes:
I love serving these sweet potato salmon cakes with my Cashew Crunch Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad, and then drizzling it with this flavorful Jalapeño Green Tahini Sauce or my avocado lime sauce. It adds a delicious freshness to the salmon cakes. Here are other recipes to serve them with:
Best Healthy Coleslaw Ever (no mayo!)
Chopped Thai Chickpea Salad with Curry Peanut Dressing
Vegan Curried Broccoli Chickpea Salad
How long will salmon cakes last in the refrigerator?
These healthy salmon cakes will last for about 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. To reheat, place them in the microwave or warm them in the oven.
To freeze these salmon cakes: for later, form the cakes and place them in the freezer on a baking sheet until firm. Then, transfer each salmon cake to a resealable freezer bag and place in freezer for up to 1 month. To cook them once ready, defrost in the refrigerator overnight and cook them on the skillet the next day as directed.
See Monique make the sweet potato salmon cakes:
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I know you’re going to love sweet potato salmon cakes, please let me know if you make them by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below. I’d love to hear from you and it helps encourage others to make the recipe too! xo.
15-Minute Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes
Ingredients
- For the salmon cakes:
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
- 1 (6 ounce) can wild salmon, drained
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup panko breadcrumbs (or use gluten free breadcrumbs)
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- Coconut oil or olive oil, for cooking
- Optional slaw for serving with the cakes:
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
Instructions
-
Place sweet potato cubes into the bowl of a food processor with the blade attached. Pulse in short intervals until the sweet potatoes look very grated.
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Next add in drained wild salmon, egg, panko, cumin, garlic powder and cayenne into the bowl of the food processor with the sweet potato. Generously season with salt and pepper. Pulse again until all of the ingredients are combined.
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Unplug the food processor and remove the blade. Use your hands to form four even patties about ½ inch thick. You’ll need to compact them with your hands so they stick together well. Place on a plate.
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Add coconut oil or olive oil to a nonstick skillet or griddle and place over medium heat. Add each patty to the skillet and cook about 2-4 minutes, until golden brown underneath, then carefully flip patty and cook another 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to buns, lettuce wraps, or on top of a salad.
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To make the optional slaw: In a medium bowl combine carrots, cabbage, cilantro, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, sesame oil and salt and pepper. Set aside to marinate until you are ready to serve. Once ready to serve, top cakes with slaw or just serve on the side!
Recipe Notes
If you can't find canned wild salmon, feel free to use drained canned tuna instead. Personally I love the salmon version more though!
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by Eat Love Eats
48 comments
These look great! I can think of all sorts of ways to serve these – in a bun, on top of a grain bowl, on a salad like your slaw… I love versatile recipes
Absolutely! So many delicious options. Let me know if you give them a try!
I have leftovers of your cashew crunch shredded Brussels sprouts salad in the fridge right now. I’ll be picking up some canned salmon on my way home from work tomorrow night to give these salmon cakes a try!
Perfect! Such a great combo. Let me know how you like them!
Love salmon burgers!! So intrigued this uses raw sweet potato…sounds easy enough! 🙂
https://audrasappetite.com/heart-healthy-salmon-burgers/
They’re so easy and so delicious!! 🙂
How long would these keep refrigerated?
About 3-4 days. The full post has all of the info on how to store them and for how long 🙂
Mine didn’t turn out at all! they crumbled as soon as I flipped them. Could it have been too much sweet potato?
Possibly over blended/too much moisture? That happened to my first test patty. I added more panko to the rest of the mixture and they rest turned out perfectly.
You really do have to be careful and it may be that your sweet potato was too big, or your salmon was potentially too dry. Next time you may need to add another egg, or just carefully flip them.
Can you use a fillet of salmon, just cut up into small pieces?
I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure it would work well! 🙂 Just might be more moist!
After a couple rounds of trial and error, I like how these turned out. My blender was being finicky and I totally over blended the mixture. Tested cooking one and I knew it was too wet, but tried it anyways. Nope, crumbled right when I tried to flip. Fixed the rest of the mixture with more panko. Perfect! I’d advise to not misread the “pulse” instruction and don’t be afraid to add more panko as needed for forming perfect patties! The flavor turned out great though, so that the most important part 🙂
Great tips, Amanda! So glad they ended up working well for you. Yum!
We aren’t huge salmon fans, but these were delicious, light, but filling and hearty at the same time. My husband made these while I prepped the coleslaw and your Vegan Curried Broccoli Chickpea salad (one of our favorites, go check it out if you are reading this). They crumbled a bit for him, but I’m not sure why. Will definitely have these again! They have just the perfect amount of spice to them!
So happy to hear that! These + the coleslaw and my broccoli chickpea salad – amazing combo. Some people are finding that their mixture is a bit too moist, so feel free to add a bit more panko next time!
Hi Monique … I’m back! Your recipe for Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes sounded so yummy and our local grocery store just got in some fresh wild salmon raised in Hawaii, so it was a natural. I had all the other ingredients on hand and made a shredded cabbage, carrot and pineapple cole slaw to go with it. We have an herb garden down behind our condo, so picked some fresh cilantro for garnish. Everything turned out great and was enjoyed by all. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!!
Hi Nancy! Great to hear from you 🙂 so glad you enjoyed these, and that pineapple slaw sounds amazing. Thanks for your note!
Amazing recipe! Absolutely delicious and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing and keep up the good work 🙂
So happy you enjoyed! Plenty more delicious recipes to come 🙂
I can’t get enough of these! I ate them 5 days in a row and honestly wanted to make them for meal prep again for the next week. I was worried about how well they would cook because they were pretty mushy, but they firmed right up while cooking.
So delicious! Glad you loved them!
Salted or unsalted salmon? Pink salmon or sockeye? Does it matter? Thanks!
I usually get unsalted pink salmon (then you can control the amount of salt flavor in the recipe) but sockeye should work just fine!
These were really tasty. I’m wondering if you have any advice for how to get them a little more firm on the inside. My husband’s only complaint was that the texture felt a little mushy.
Glad you enjoyed! Try adding a little more breadcrumbs. The recipe is likely to vary slightly based on how big your sweet potato is.
these are so perfect for a quick and healthy lunch! Love pairing w a salad or some roasted veggies.
Absolutely! Love that idea.
So good!! I cooked in butter & served as suggested w the brusssel sprout sesame ginger salad w tahini jalapeño sauce
Delicious!!
I am comfortable winging it with most recipes, but “medium sweet potato” is vague even for me. Please give us a ballpark clue of the size of this item in ounces or grams.
A hand sized sweet potato is about what I used! 🙂
I think the best salmon cakes I ever made. Don’t have a food processor so just grated sweet potatoes but a bit challenging mushing it in with salmon but 100% will make again
So happy to hear that! Such a great lunch or dinner 🙂
This is a fantastic recipe, I keep everything on hand, and it really does only take 15 minutes for the cakes! I usually just put them on the bagged Southwest chopped salad mix from the grocery store (the kind that comes with dressing and everything) for quick weekday lower-carb lunches. I have found that using regular vs. panko breadcrumbs makes the cakes less sticky and easy to flip in the pan, but that’s just my experience and they taste great either way.
Love that! And great tip 🙂
Hi Monique,
The recipe looks amazing! But where can I find the recipe for the green sauce as I didn’t see it in the recipe
Hi! You’ll find it in the post under “what to serve with salmon cakes” 🙂 There are a few options like this avocado lime sauce!
The sweet potato salmon cakes are absolutely delicious!!
So glad you liked them!
Has anyone tried wild salmon on the grill versus canned?
I haven’t but bet that would be amazing!!
Made this for the first time. It was amazing! I used fresh salmon and it worked great! I also made the green rice with to go with it! So good, will be making again!
The only recipe I’ve made from AK that we didn’t like. Lacked flavor IOP
So sorry to hear you didn’t love these, Kerri. Do you think they needed more salt? Or more of something else?
Do not fry these they will fall apart
I like the heat from the cayenne pepper, it’s just right. The mystery of this recipe is – Exaclty how big is a “medium” sweet potato? I made double the batch because it didn’t seem like there was enough fish/egg to make the sweet potato cake sticky.
Keeping the patty together when flipping was a nightmare. I weighed out each patty to 4 oz and it was too big – the sides broke off, so I had salmon patty crumbles. I made 2 oz patties, half the size, It helped somewhat, but still fell apart. I ended up cooking the rest of it just scrambling it up. It’ll still taste good over the salad in this recipe.