Salmon Ball Dip Recipe - Easy & Special

Recipe: Salmon Ball Dip Recipe »

This easy salmon ball dip is a retro style party appetiser. I share my secret for making this the best salmon dip ball. It is mixed by hand in one bowl, shaped into a ball and rolled in chives and is perfect for entertaining or a simple lunch or dinner.

About This Salmon Ball Dip Recipe

This salmon ball is welcome at any party. It is so utterly delicious and best of all it is made using simple ingredients without using a mixer-all you need is a bowl and a spoon. You can even used tinned salmon! I'll show you how to make it using cold smoked salmon, hot smoked salmon and canned salmon.

I bring this salmon dip to a lot of parties and I always get asked for the recipe. This time I decided to shape it into a salmon ball covered in chives and honestly it was even better than just having it as a dip because adding chives adds so much flavour to it.

The secret to my salmon ball dip is....to use both hot and cold smoked salmon in the ball! The hot smoked salmon gives it flavour and smoothness and blends well with the cream cheese. But we use finely chopped cold smoked salmon to give it that luscious texture because there's nothing quite like the beautiful texture of cold smoked salmon.

Video How To Make Salmon Ball Dip Recipe

Video: How to Make a Salmon Ball

Ingredients For Salmon Ball Dip

Cream cheese - Use a full fat block of cream cheese-tubs are softer as they're designed to be spreadable.

Smoked salmon - We are using both hot and cold salmon. I like using the pepper hot smoked salmon. Remove skin before using.

Red onion - Red or Spanish onion is your friend here as it's a sweeter onion. You can also sub with sweet white onion or golden eschallots.

Capers - Baby capers or regular sized also works.

Dill fronds - Use fresh dill and finely chop the dill fronds so that the dill is dispersed in the dip.

Lemon zest - We use the zest to add a lemony aroma to the dip. Make sure to wash the lemon well first as we are eating the ring :)

Hot sauce - We used Frank's hot sauce but go for your favourite one!

Chives - This is for rolling the salmon ball in. Some others like rolling it in crushed walnuts and parsley but I find the chives stay fresher than nuts that go soft and I prefer the flavour of chives.

Tips For Making Salmon Ball Dip

1 - If you use tinned salmon, make sure to drain it very well. Drain it over a sieve and press down on the salmon to remove the excess brine.

2 - Likewise don't add too much liquid to the mixture like lemon juice or it will become too hard to shape and it will be sloppy textured (we use lemon zest instead). The only liquid we use in this is a bit of hot sauce and that's it!

3 - Use full fat block cream cheese for this as low fat doesn't have the firmness of full fat.

4 - We serve this with Melba toast for that retro classic touch but use your favourite crackers or chips and spread using a knife. Lavosh crackers are great with this!

5 - You can make this with just cold smoked salmon or just hot smoked salmon or just canned salmon too! I did a lot of experimentation (it was a delicious time, not complaining!) and the ball with just cold smoked salmon didn't need much refrigeration time while the one with hot smoked salmon and canned salmon needed 2 hours.

6 - This recipe makes a 550g/1.2lb salmon ball! This is a big boy but you can definitely halve the size for a smaller crowd.

Other delicious salmon appetisers to try next are: hot salmon rillettes, 5 minute smoked salmon salad or try my favourite tuna dip using tinned tuna!

Salmon Ball Dip Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 2 hours refrigeration time

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Serves: 6-8 as dip to start

Ingredients Needed

• 230g/8.1ozs cream cheese, softened
• 100g/3.5ozs hot smoked salmon
• 50g/1.7ozs red onion, finely diced
• 20g/0.7ozs capers, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons dill fronds
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2-1 teaspoon Frank's hot sauce (to taste)
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 100g/3.5ozs cold smoked salmon, chopped into small pieces
• 20g/0.7ozs Chives, finely chopped

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 MIX - Place the cream cheese, hot smoked salmon, red onion, capers, dill, hot sauce, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well with a wooden or large metal spoon to disperse all ingredients. Then once combined, add in the cold smoked salmon. Place in a square of cling film and shape into a ball. Refrigerate for 2 hours. OR you can place in a bowl and top with chives and serve straight away.

Step 2 ROLL - Finely dice the chives and carefully remove the cling film from the dip. Roll the ball in the chives and place on a plate. Serve with melba toast or crackers.

Personal Note

I've been making this a lot and sometimes we have this for lunch or dinner as it's so hot and we just want something tasty but that doesn't require a lot of cooking. The salmon ball, crackers or bread and a green salad is all we need some nights.

I love summer weather but with summer comes one of my enemies: mosquitoes! These little buggers love biting me and I become obsessed with chasing them down and killing them otherwise I can't sleep properly.

I have noticed one thing though: sometimes they come in on our laundry. I noticed it when I grabbed something out of the clean laundry basket after Mr NQN took it in. A mozzie flew up and out of the pile. "They're hitching a ride on our laundry!" I exclaimed to Mr NQN. I know I sounded crazy but I had seen it with my own two eyes.

"That's it! We are quarantining the laundry!" I told him. I explained the new process would be that once the laundry was taken in, it would go into the second bathroom for a day or until I got around to shaking it about and checking if there were any hiding in the clothes.

Mr NQN always does the laundry and he agreed to do it although he refused to take it directly into the bathroom via the outside door which would have ensured complete quarantining. And even though I know he thinks I am crazy he does it every time and I haven't been bitten by a mozzie in over a month whereas it was every third day whenever the laundry was done!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever noticed mozzies in your laundry? Would you serve this in a bowl or a ball? What crackers would you serve with this?