Salmon Ceviche

This easy 5-ingredient Salmon Ceviche makes a refreshing and light summer lunch, though it also works excellently as an appetizer or even breakfast. Enjoy this simple yet elegant dish yourself or serve as a stunning appetizer to a bigger crowd. It’s a perfect course for brunch, too.

This keto-friendly dish is quick and easy to make in one bowl. All you need is to combine the ingredients and let the fish marinate for a bit. Enjoy!

What is Ceviche

First, for those who are not familiar with the concept of ceviche, it might be useful to clarify what this delicacy is about. Ceviche is a dish that includes raw seafood or fish that is marinated in citrus juice, typically in lime juice. Also, lemon juice can be used. During marinating, the meat gets a cooked-like looks and texture. It’s the acid in the citrus juice that breaks the proteins in the raw fish and makes it look and feel cooked.

Is it safe to eat raw fish!?

It totally depends! There is raw fish, and then there is raw fish. Some fish varieties you shouldn’t eat raw and some you can eat raw — considering they are extra fresh and stored in very cold temperatures after catching. If you are unsure, your fishmonger certainly knows about fish varieties and which you can use raw, so just ask him. Salmon is always a good option, though. From seafood, for example, shrimp or tiger prawns are good. (See more fish and seafood options in the How to Vary the Recipe section further down in this post.)

Besides, millions of people eat daily raw fish in sushi without getting ill. It’s all about freshness and good quality, so that’s safe to eat raw fish!

However, if you are pregnant or if your immunity is compromised, you might want to play safe and use cooked fish in this recipe. It works well, too.

Moreover, after preparing the dish, it’s important to consume it immediately and keep at cold temperature before serving. Even the fish looks cooked, it’s still raw and can spoil quickly. Therefore, a short marinating time and quick consuming guarantees that the fish is safe to eat.

How to prepare this 5-Ingredient Salmon Ceviche

Preparing the ceviche is super easy: just mix, let marinate for 1 hour, and enjoy! Chopping the ingredients, i.e., the salmon, red onion, and arugula, is the most time-consuming part as well as squeezing the lime juice. If you don’t want to chop the onion and arugula with a knife, use a vegetable chopper that does the thing in seconds.

I recommend using freshly-squeezed lime juice rather than lime juice from the bottle. The taste is entirely different — naturally, in favor of the fresh juice. Only if you cannot get fresh, organic limes, use bottled lime juice. Actually, bottled juice might be better than freshly-squeezed juice from regularly grown (i.e., non-organic) limes as regular limes are handled with nasty and harmful chemicals after picking. To avoid those poisons, always use organic citrus fruits.

Often ceviche contains cilantro, but as it tastes like soap for me, I’ve swapped it to arugula here. With its piquant and mustardy note, arugula accompanies the other ingredients in this dish perfectly.

I’ve chosen Montreal Steak Spice (or Seasoning, depending on the brand) to season this ceviche. I admit it’s a bit unusual seasoning here – but try it, it’s a perfect match with this dish and perfectly accompanies all ingredients!

There are different brands of Montreal Steak Spice or Seasoning on the market. Try to get the most natural one without hydrogenated oils. For example, this brand contains partially hydrogenated soybean oil and is an absolute no-no. Yes, I admit, it’s just a small amount, but why would you torture your body with that – and support the industry that is producing this junk? This one, for example, is a much better and natural option.

But here’s how to prepare this naturally keto-friendly dish:

Add 1 pound (450 g) very fresh, cubed — preferably wild — salmon into a medium bowl.

Add 1/3 cup (80 ml) freshly-squeezed lime juice.

Add 1/3 cup (80 ml) finely chopped red onion.

Add 1/3 cup (80 ml) finely chopped arugula.

Finally, add 2 teaspoons Montreal Steak Spice or Seasoning (get more seasoning options in the How to Vary the Recipe section).

Mix…

…until well combined.

Cover with a plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.

Remove from the fridge and serve immediately.

Yum!

How to Serve Salmon Ceviche

The easiest — and most probably the most popular — way to serve ceviche is simply in a serving glass, as I’ve shown in the photos above. However, ceviche also makes an excellent filling for keto tortillas. Actually, that recipe I have in my upcoming Finnish keto book. Here’s the photo:

You can also get fancy and serve the ceviche on lettuce leaves as a stunning appetizer.

This salmon ceviche also makes a tasty filling for an omelet. (Sorry, didn’t manage to take a photo of that…)

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:
 

 

 


 

Nutrition Information	Whole pie	Per serving if 4 servings in total	Per serving if 6 servings in total
Protein	89.8 g	22.4 g	15.0 g
Fat	32.3 g	8.1 g	5.4 g
Net carbs	4.1 g	1.0 g	0.7 g
kcal	683 kcal	171 kcal	114 kcal

 

How to Vary the Recipe

Instead of salmon, you can use other fish varieties, like tuna, seabass, snapper, mackerel (careful with the numerous bones!), swordfish, trout, eel, flatfish, halibut, or some species of whitefish like Coregonus that we have here in Finland (‘siika’ for my Finnish readers).

Oh yes, mackerel, seabass, swordfish, and tuna are considered high in mercury, so you might want to limit their consumption – at least not eat them every day.

If you are a fan of seafood, swap the fish to shrimp or to tiger prawn. Octopus, scallops, and clams go well, too.

To give even more richness to the meal, add some cubed avocado. You can also add chopped cherry tomatoes or finely chopped radishes — or if you prefer hot flavors, add chopped jalapeno or another fresh chili. By the way, the acid in the lime juice helps to keep the color of the avocado perfectly green!

In case you cannot access Montreal Steak Spice, you can make a copycat seasoning yourself. For example, Montreal Steak Spice is practically impossible to get here in Finland, but thanks to my loyal reader, Gladys, I now have some. If you want to prepare your own Montreal Steak Spice, there are some great recipes on the web, like this one or this one.

As an alternative to the Montreal Steak Spice, you can naturally use just salt and pepper, or another seasoning mix. Cayenne pepper lends a nice kick, so does chipotle. Cajun seasoning is another fantastic seasoning for this dish, so is Old Bay, harissa, taco seasoning, or any herb blend.

You can also add a clove or two of good old garlic. Mince it well before adding. Oh, and don’t forget ginger! Finely-grated ginger balances the greasiness perfectly.

In case your seasoning doesn’t contain salt, add some unrefined sea salt or Himalayan salt – or a dash of tamari.

If you like the taste of cilantro, by all means, switch the arugula to cilantro. Another fresh and flavorful herb works well, too. Try dill, oregano, rosemary, or even mint.

Instead of red onion, you can use spring onion, chives, or shallot. In my opinion, this dish cries for onion, so using some onion variety is a must! Red onion is my favorite, though, as its taste suits perfectly ceviche, and it has a beautiful color as well.

Some people like olive oil in their ceviche. Salmon is so fatty fish that I don’t consider it necessary, however, feel free to pour in some good-quality extra-virgin olive oil – especially if you use non-fatty fish or seafood.

General prattling

No surprise, this has been a super-busy week once again. However, this week was even busier than ever, mainly because we had to get our Ketokamu soup packages designed. The soups are coming to the market in the fall, but the packages have to be printed next week. The printing house schedule is jam-packed, and we had to reserve our slot already in February. If we didn’t get the packages printed now, we would have to wait another month or two — and the soup launch would be most likely postponed.

Getting the packages done wasn’t child’s play, though, at least for us because we are novices in this area. First of all, we had to plan carefully what we can say and claim in the package texts, what information we have to provide, and what we are not allowed to say. As we are new in this area and nobody from our team has done package design before, the task was really challenging. Luckily we got great help from the company, Kasvis Galleria, that is going to manufacture our soups. I was also busy applying for a trademark, organic certification, and Avainlippu (“Key Flag“), which tells that the products are made in Finland.

To lighten up, here’s our Frieda cat lying on the floor. For me, she looks like a mop rather than a cute cat! (Believe me, she is a very cute cat, as you can see from my previous blog posts!)