Today I’m sharing a smoked salmon appetizer. Smoked salmon is one of the easiest and tastiest appetizer ingredients there is. You could be eating this today for a before meal treat!
Mary Jo and I are finally back in Florida. We came back down early this year to check out the hurricane damage. Luckily, only two window awnings were ripped off. Other people in our park got their carports ripped off and one place had a huge evergreen tree land on top of it destroying nearly half of it. I’m glad we were in Minnesota when it happened.
Speaking of Minnesota…the whole summer was filled with so many activities that cooking and blogging took a backseat to everything else. Now that we are back in Florida, I should be able to post recipes more frequently.
The origin of this easy smoked salmon appetizer is a little peculiar. I follow another blog, called Foodness Gracious, and Gerry just did a post on Hot Smoked Salmon. That got me thinking about how cool it would be to have a smoker so I could do my own meats and fish. So I’m looking on Google and check out the prices of smokers on the first page, and then immediately go to the images since I’m a more visual guy than a reading guy. I scroll down through all the photos and up pops this image of a salmon appetizer. I instinctively click on the photo to see where it is from, and it was a foreign smoker manufacturer. I was hoping for a recipe.
So this is my recipe…of a recreation…of a photo…from a foreign smoker manufacturer.
I start this with an untoasted whole grain baguette cut on the diagonal. You could lightly toast this if you want to, (and use right away…not for making before hand). Then mixed up cream cheese with Hidden Valley ranch seasoning mix, similar to what I did for Stuffed Cucumber Bites. Used cold smoked salmon just like I’ve used for other appetizers. I did a post on Lox Deviled Eggs that explains the difference in cold smoked and hot smoked salmon you can take a look at.
Next comes a layer of tangy, fresh arugula followed by the salmon, lemon zest, and finally some slivers of red onion. The whole combination is mouth wateringly good. You just have to open your mouth really wide to get on top of those onion slivers and then crunch down for your first bite. Two more similar bites should have one of these appetizers down.
Make up a smoked salmon appetizer the next time you have some buddies over. They’re easy to make and taste fantastic.
Here are some more tasty recipes to try:
- Mushroom Crostini
- Orzo Chicken Casserole
- Smoked Salmon Appetizer with Dill and Capers
- One Pan Salmon Meal
- 8 Minute Broiled Salmon
Smoked Salmon with Arugula and Lemon Zest
Ingredients
- 4 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 oz. Hidden Valley original ranch dressing and seasoning mix taste and add more if desired
- 8 oz. smoked salmon cold smoked
- 12 slices whole grain baguette diagonally sliced
- 2 oz. arugula
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced longitudinally
- zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Mix cream cheese and Hidden Valley seasoning mix in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning. (Add additional mix slowly as the cheese will taste very salty if too much is added).
- Spread the cream cheese fairly generously on the baguettes then top with arugula followed by salmon, lemon zest and finally the sliced onion.
- To prepare ahead of time, coat the baguette with the cream cheese, arugula and salmon. cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. The lemon zest will dry out if you zest the lemon before hand, so store tightly covered if you zest the lemon early. Same with the onion slices. Plastic wrap will work well for both. Add the zest and onion just before serving.
Nutrition
Oh, that fresh lemon zest is so delicious on this app, it really adds a great pop of flavor. And I’ve discovered that I really prefer the cold-smoked salmon (like you used for this recipe) because it’s not dry and hard like some hot-smoked salmon gets. Use the leftover cream cheese mixture to add great flavor to all kinds of things–hot vegetables, chicken, pork chops, etc.
Wow does that look good. I love salmon; hot, cold, seviche, or sushi. I also noticed Joe’s perfect placement of the red onions………….I think it reads “eat me I am tasty” in Japanese. This is on our immediate “To Try” list.