Herbed Salmon Croquettes

My in-laws gave me a gift certificate for my birthday and so over the Holiday break, I took the kids to Barnes & Noble to look at books. I picked up a giant stack of cookbooks, novels, and magazines and parked it in the kids section. Luckily for me, my kids like to look at books as much as I do. We spent a few hours there, but I waited to use my gift certificate, so I could think about what I wanted to get.

Before we went to the bookstore I was thinking about dinner and what I could make. I really needed to go get groceries, but decided to use what I had on hand to make dinner instead. I was thinking about making some sort of salmon patty because I had 2 pouches of salmon in my pantry. While at the bookstore I saw this recipe for Herbed Salmon Croquettes. My past experiences with Ellie Krieger's recipes gave me confidence and I knew they would be fabulous. I have her 2 other books and love them. I had everything on hand and I felt confident that I would be able to find the recipe online. Thankfully, I was able to look inside this book on Amazon and get the recipe.

These Salmon Croquettes were fabulous. My kids loved them. I just served them over a big salad of mixed greens and we devoured them. I wanted to try one of the sauces that Ellie recommend in her book to go with them, but didn't have the ingredients on hand. To my satisfaction the croquettes were flavorful enough to not need any sauce. I was so happy with this recipe and how it turned out, that I went back to the bookstore and used my gift certificate to get this cookbook (and maybe a Lego StarWars book for my son, since we were on a date :D )

Herbed Salmon Croquettes adapted from Comfort Food Fix by Ellie Krieger
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 5-ounce pouches skinless, boneless salmon, drained of any excess water
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 celery stalk, very finely diced
2 large egg whites
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
olive oil cooking spray

Put the bread in a food processor and process until fine crumbs are formed. There should be about 1 3/4 cups of crumbs.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the bread crumbs, the onion mixture, salmon, mustard, celery, egg whites, parsley, dill, salt and pepper, mixing well to combine. Form into eight 2 1/2-inch patties and gently press each patty in the remaining 3/4 cup bread crumbs.

Heat the remaining 4 teaspoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the croquettes until browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Spray the tops with oil spray, flip.. and cook 3 minutes more, or until browned and warmed through.