Smoked salmon, chive-carrot cream cheese on Oatmeal bread with lemon-dill "salsa"

This is my new favorite brunch item. My own original recipe!

Ingredients:

4 oz Alaskan smoked salmon

A few table spoons of cream cheese

1 package of fresh chives

1 large, peeled carrot

1 diced tomato

1 diced red onion

4 chopped scallions

Minced fresh dill sprigs

1 lemon

A few tablespoons of olive oil

2 slice of Organic oatmeal bread (breakfasty!)

Serves 2 hungry brunchers.

Directions:

Chive-carrot cream cheese:

1. Scoop a few tablespoons of cream cheese into a bowl and let it soften for a few minutes

2. Meanwhile finely shred the carrot and dice the chives

3. Whip carrots shreds and chives into the cream cheese (the cream cheese will turn a fun orange color from the carrot juices!)

4. Refrigerate until ready to use

Lemon-dill "salsa":

This is a fun sort of pico de gallo texture salsa suited for salmon (lemon and dill, hello?!)

1. In a bowl whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice from 1/2 of the lemon.

2. Add diced tomato*, scallions, red onions, and finely chopped dill in a bowl.

*I recommend halving the tomato and scooping out the pulp (make sure to eat it!) and only chopping the outer part of the tomato. The salsa ends up being rather liquidy anyways and we don't want our toasted bread to get too too soggy.

How to arrange:

1. Toast 2 pieces of Organic oatmeal bread (healthy alternative to the traditional bagel!)

2. Spread cream cheese evenly and all the way to the edges of the bread

3. Arrange about 2 oz of salmon onto each toast

4. Use a fork or straining spoon to top each piece with a generous amount of the lemon-dill salsa (there will be leftovers to spoon onto each bite I hope!)

5. Toss any extra chive and carrot onto the plate to garnish

Serve each with a slice of the lemon (with the remaining lemon half)

Enjoy! I had this with a chilled glass of Boathouse passionfruit-carrot juice to play off the the carrot in the cream cheese. Happy Brunch!

So what's in it for you?

This is a healthier version of lox and bagel, one of my favorite breakfast items in the whole wide world. Mostly because for this I choose a nutty Organic oatmeal bread. In terms of volume, I made up for lost bread with an improved refreshing, tangy, and potent lemon-dill salsa. Kept it traditional by serving it open-faced.

So where to start? The salmon is the lead actress in this dish so we'll start there. As mentioned previously, smoked salmon is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids! To reiterate, n-3 fatty acids raise HDL in your blood stream (a good thing!). Salmon is a good source of protein and is not packed with saturated fat like it's other breakfast counterparts (bacon or sausage ah!). Omega 3's are heart happy as they help decrease risk of heart arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats), decrease triglyceride levels, slow the growth rate of plaque in your arteries, and slightly lower blood pressure. Go salmon!

Let's talk about dill, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Fresh dill weed, as featured in the avocado soup, is not only a delicious accent herb with a unique taste it has something health benefits to offer. Dill is another fibrous, antioxidant friend loaded with vitamins A and C, beta carotene, as well as minerals and folic acid. Dill houses eugenol, an essential oil known to reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics. Dill also is a good source of copper (an important bodily enzyme co-factor) and zinc (regulates growth and development, sperm generation, and digestion).

Consider washing this down with carrot juice! Carrot juice can help prevent bodily infections, is valuable for your adrenal glands, eye health, help menstrual flow, regulate blood sugar, and promotes colon health! The natural chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, and magnesium in carrot juice is a wonderful liver, digestive tract, and circulatory system.

Earth friendly tips:

Smoked salmon is a a touchy subject as salmon is a threatened. BE SURE TO BUY WILD SMOKED SALMON---NOT FARMED! Ensure your salmon is all natural, naturally smoked, antibiotic and hormone free because why would you want that in your body anyways? Your body is your temple.

Farmed salmon is no good for a plethora of reasons, both bad for your body and bad for the environment and even evolution: Fish farming facilities are ecologically destructive and further the protein loss in the farmed salmon. Salmon are carnivorous and our thus fed fishmeal (in which scientist have traced dioxin and PCB contamination). This doesn't make any sense to farm them like this because by feeding each pound of salmon 2-5 lbs of fish feed meal there is an overall net loss of wild marine life.

Farmed salmon are also tightly packed into close quarters in farming pens, making them more susceptible to disease and parasites that are, in turn, passed on to you! Antibiotics, hormones, and fishers nets used to farm these salmon also effect the surrounding wildlife. Hormones and antibiotics are screwing up the poor fish! Male fish are becoming more feminine (sterile) and female fish are becoming more masculine!

To recap, farmed salmon are fed contaminated fish feed, are pump them with antibiotics and hormones (to make up for protein loss), kept in crowded conditions making them more susceptible to disease and parasites, and nets from farms effect what's left of actual wild life we'd rather eat? No thank you!

So I recommend Alaska wild salmon. The Maine Stewardship Council certifies Alaska salmon as a "Best Environmental Choice".

What I'll try next time?

I enjoy the pico de gallo esque texture of the salsa but next time I might trying pureeing it so that the juices are equally distributed.

Links

http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/top_5_sustainable_fish

http://www.smoked-fish.com/