Once upon a time, I ate a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. That wasn’t a dish I would have even thought of, much less prepared or ordered. But I had just arrived at a friend’s house after traveling for many long, long hours. I was tired. I was hungry. And that’s what she served me, so I ate it.
I’m not a huge fan of the taste of salmon, so I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked it. Fast-forward 20 years; I’m trying to add more superfoods, including salmon, to my diet. This recipe features avocado, which is also a superfood and which just so happens to be one of my favorite foods. And I must confess that I’m not at all opposed to ingesting a smidgen of cream cheese. But if you are, plain yogurt tastes great with smoked salmon and is a good substitute for the cream cheese.
Salmon and avocado are both high in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce the risk of heart disease, depression, dementia and arthritis. Our bodies can’t make these fats, so it’s important to eat foods that contain them.
Smoked salmon pinwheels with avocado and cream cheese
- 2 ripe avocados, peeled and chopped
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 8 ounces smoked salmon slices
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- Sea salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- 1 seedless cucumber with peel, sliced into cracker-sized rounds
- Put the chopped avocado in a bowl, pour lemon juice over it and mash with a fork to combine.
- On a piece of waxed paper, arrange the smoked salmon slices in a rectangle about 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. Slightly overlap each piece.
- In a bowl, mix cream cheese, sea salt and pepper.
- Spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on the salmon, top with a layer of mashed avocado and roll up like a jellyroll.
- Refrigerate for one hour to firm, then cut into ½-inch slices. Place each pinwheel on top of a cucumber slice and serve.
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