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This canned salmon salad is shockingly good! Inspired by the smoked salmon dip from J. Alexander’s, but without actually needing any smoked salmon, this recipe is easy to make, budget-friendly, and does NOT taste canned! You can serve it as a sandwich, on leafy greens, or as a dip with crackers or toasts.
🐟 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- Canned salmon salad is a ridiculously easy recipe to throw together in no time. Really! There’s zero cooking, and barely even any prep. Just mix up the salmon, make a quick dressing, then stir it all together. Voila! If you like tuna salad, you’ll love this.
- Don’t tell anyone it’s made with canned salmon and I guarantee, they’d never guess it on their own. It doesn’t taste canned at all! The liquid smoke, maple syrup, lemon juice, and salt help to mimic the flavors of cured and smoked salmon. It’s a great little hack to elevate the canned fish easily and cost-effectively.
- If you’ve ever eaten at J. Alexander’s, this canned salmon salad will definitely remind you of their smoked salmon dip! Of course, they use in-house-smoked salmon, not canned, but other than that. Their dip has more of a creamy, paste-like consistency than our salad version. If you want something more along those lines, make the salad as instructed below, then pulse everything in the food processor a few times.
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
- You can buy canned salmon two different ways – boneless & skinless, or “traditional style”, which includes bones and skin. The “traditional style” usually has more flavor and is much richer than the boneless alternative. If you’re not used to seeing those little bits, though, they can be kind of off-putting. You’re welcome to pick them out of the salmon if you want, but! They’re safe to eat and essentially disappear once the salmon’s mixed with everything else.
- The dressing for this particular canned salmon salad is similar to my creamy dill sauce that I use on air fryer salmon and salmon patties. Just like with tuna salad or ham salad, though, you can absolutely change or omit ingredients based on your tastes and needs. Capers, scallions, hot sauce, red pepper flakes, red onion, celery, avocado… SO many delicious flavors go with salmon!
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The ingredients/instruction are not showing.
Hi! Thanks for letting me know — I just loaded this one live and the ingredients and instructions are showing up fine, so I think you’re seeing a cached page or an ad blocker is hiding the recipe card. A hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) or pausing your ad blocker for the site should bring it right back. Hope you love the salmon salad!
The recipe is still not there. Bummer as I was looking forward to trying this! Hope your able to fix it soon!
Oh no, sorry Melissa! Good news: the recipe is definitely there — I just checked it live. When it disappears like that it’s usually an ad blocker or a cached version of the page. Try a hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) and pause any ad blocker for 40aprons.com, and the card should pop right up. It’s worth the extra 30 seconds, I promise — this one’s a favorite!
Unable to see the recipe. I hope you get it fixed.
Hi Diana! I just double-checked and the recipe card is loading fine on my end, so this is most likely an ad blocker or a cached page. A hard refresh (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R) or pausing your ad blocker for 40aprons.com should make it show up. Let me know if it’s still giving you trouble!
It looks like the recipe has disappeared from the page! May you please restore it?
Oh no! The recipe should definitely be there — I just double-checked and it’s showing up on my end. Sometimes ad blockers or slow connections can prevent the recipe card from loading. Try refreshing the page or opening it in a private/incognito window and let me know if that fixes it!
Would love to make this but the recipe cannot be found on the page. 🙁
Oh no, Karen, I’m so sorry about that! This is a known issue we’re actively working on — the recipe card isn’t displaying for some users right now. In the meantime, hang tight and I’ll get this fixed ASAP. Thank you for letting me know!
You are right – this is suprising awesome! I’m always looking for a way to make canned salmon taste good and this is it. Thanks!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Barb!
Can I eat this while pregnant?
We aren’t medically trained and aren’t able to make any medical recommendations. Definitely check with your medical professional as they’ll be familiar with your specific pregnancy and needs!
Delicious
Thanks so much for leaving a review, Virginia! So glad you loved the recipe!