5-Ingredient Salmon Burger

Looking for a new way to squeeze some healthy omega-3 fats into your weekly lineup? This 5-ingredient salmon burger is the answer! 

I was 100% positive I had already posted this recipe to the ol’ blog, but it turned out I hadn’t! Crazy, considering this is one of my staple protein sources for work lunches – especially when I grow tired of chicken week after week. I’ve made countless batches, and they turn out great every time! They turn out looking like snickerdoodle cookies every time as well….I don’t hate it.

If you keep up with the health and wellness field at all, then you’ve heard how good salmon is for us. But…what exactly does salmon contain that makes it so great? Glad you asked! It’s a wonderful source of vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium, and omega 3 fatty acids…just to name a few.

Next question, what makes these specific nutrients so important to us? Keep reading:

• Vitamin B12: simply put, it lends us energy! When we don’t have adequate levels of B12, we often feel tired and fatigued. Depression and poor memory are other negative effects of not enough B12. 
• Vitamin D: it has been estimated that roughly 1/4 of Americans are deficient. We can get vitamin D from sunlight, but that can be pretty darn tough during this time of year when daylight hours are their shortest, and millions are stuck inside for the majority of a work day! We know it helps with bone health, but it also boosts immune system function, as well as serve as an antidepressant as it can help regulate mood. If you’re tired and achey all the time, it could be a sign you could be low – get it checked! Salmon is one of the best food sources for it.
• Selenium: plays a big role as an antioxidant, and helps support thyroid and reproductive health, as well as a happy, healthy metabolism. It protects our cells from the nasty mutations that can lead to disease. Thyroid health is having a major moment in the spotlight right now, and so selenium is also getting a little extra (much needed, in my opinion) attention.
• Omega 3 fatty acids: our body can’t make these on its own, so we must consume them through foods or supplements!! Omega 3s serve as an anti-inflammatory powerhouse in the body, which is just the BOMB.COM, since inflammation can contribute to almost every chronic disease we are plagued with. It’s wonderful for bone, heart, and brain health, but it’s also the stuff that helps your skin glow from the inside out as well! Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s omega 3’s. Aside from that, they’ve also been studied to have a profound effect on preventing cancer – take that!!!

There you have it, a mini nutrition and science lesson all in one. Free tuition! Now that we’ve got those prerequisite courses out of the way, on to the upper level course…I mean, recipe!! 5 simple ingredients (that I ALWAYS have in my kitchen), 30 short minutes. Canned wild alaskan salmon is legitimately always in my pantry because it’s such a cost-efficient, shelf-stable protein source, but I make sure to steer clear from farm-raised and instead reach for wild-caught alaskan salmon. Other than that, the recipe is pretty straight forward. Eat them plain, eat then on a bun, eat them on a salad – do whatever you want! I recently paired them with cranberry sauce and it was AMAZE. Make sure to check out the Notes section for other ways to jazz up the recipe!