Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Avocado Tortilla Bowl Recipe
September 16, 2025
Cucumber Canapés with Smoked Salmon Mousse Recipe
Cucumber Canapés with Smoked Salmon Mousse – don’t let the title idiot you, that is cinch to make in huge portions, making it my concept of the right finger meals! These cucumber bites are an appetiser that’s by chance wholesome, with a mere 26 energy per piece.
Great to move round at events, this was a success over the Christmas social gathering season!
Cucumber Canapés
These canapés are a terrific combo – the cool, juicy cucumber with the wealthy creamy salmon mousse. However the actually wonderful thing about these Cucumber Canapés is that it’s speedy to make a great deal of it. I’m actually not one for fiddly meeting and am all the time in awe of caterers who put collectively huge platters of delicately constructed hors d’oeuvres and finger meals that folks inhale in a single chew!
So one of many causes these fee extremely in my world is that they look like cute little finger meals that took ages to make – however with the assistance of a piping bag, it’s tremendous fast to assemble!
What you want for this Cucumber Canapés
Right here’s what you want. This makes round 40 – 45 items.
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Cucumbers – Use 3 lengthy cucumbers (Telegraph / English cucumbers) or 6 customary cucumbers (alley Lebanese cucumbers in Australia). I choose Telegraph cucumbers as a result of they’re much less watery so whenever you chew into them, the salmon mousse is diluted much less when munching away;
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Smoked salmon or smoked trout;
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Cream cheese – Use the agency block cream cheese. If you happen to can solely get the softer spreadable cream cheese offered in tubs (resembling within the UK and a few components of Europe), then you definately’ll must skip the bitter cream as a result of in any other case the mousse might not be agency sufficient to carry its form as soon as piped;
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Bitter cream is to loosen up the richness of cream cheese a bit and the mayonnaise provides flavour and a contact of richness. These may be omitted / substituted; and
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Dill is a basic pairing with smoked salmon nevertheless it’s additionally beautiful with chives and even simply parsley.
Variations
The filling makes a terrific “system” to make your individual variations of Cucumber Canapes. Change the salmon and dill with issues like solar dried tomato and chives, or olives and shallots, artichoke and spinach. I’ve popped some concepts within the recipe notes.
How you can make it Cucumber Canapés
And right here’s learn how to make them:
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Scooping out the cucumber serves 2 functions: removes the watery centre (so it doesn’t dilute the salmon mousse as a lot when consuming it) and makes a properly so that you get a greater ration of cucumber to mousse;
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I take advantage of a small melon baller however a teaspoon will work simply effective, the sting simply isn’t (often) as sharp;
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If you don’t scoop out the watery centre then simply reduce thinner cucumber slices and pipe the mousse on high;
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Blitz the salmon mousse till clean;
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Refrigerate till agency – takes round 5 hours;
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Pipe onto the cucumbers. If you happen to don’t have a piping bag, you possibly can even simply dollop it on – as soon as garnished with a sprig of dill, it’s going to fairly it up!
The wealthy, creamy smoked salmon mousse and recent crunchy cucumber go collectively so properly!
Sensational make forward appetiser
That is good transportable finger meals that’s straightforward to place collectively simply previous to serving and doesn’t require reheating. Piping it onto the cucumber is de facto quick!
Once I served this at a Christmas Celebration final month, I took the cucumbers already ready and the mousse already in a piping bag. Unfold the cucumber on serving platters, pipe away then high with dill, then stroll the platter round and absorb the praises!
Pre dinner cocktails
Go round trays of those Cucumber Canapés with pre dinner drinks. You can simply follow the same old wine and champagne…. or step it up a bit with one in all these cocktails!
By the way in which, simply between you and me – the Smoked Salmon “Mousse” is solely my smoked salmon dip blitzed till fully clean and barely aerated.
However nobody else must know that. I imply, eating places embellish the names of dishes on a regular basis – why can’t we?
“Coulis of seasonal berries with single origin gradual roasted legume pate served with do-it-yourself snow bread” = peanut butter and jam sandwich.
So simply inform everybody it’s a “mousse”. They received’t know any higher! 😉 – Johnsat x
Watch learn how to make it
Ingredients
- 150g / 5 oz smoked salmon (Note 1)
- 150g / 5 oz Cream Cheese , softened (I use Philadelphia, Note 2)
- 2 tbsp/ 30g sour cream
- 2 tbsp/ 40g mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup fresh dill , roughly chopped (sub chives)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 2 tsp lemon zest (1 lemon)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt and pepper , each (Note 3)
- 3 long cucumbers (Telegraph / English) OR 6 standard cucumbers (Note 4)
- Extra dill sprigs
- Lemon slices , for serving
Instructions
- Place Salmon Mousse ingredients in a food processor. Blitz until completely smooth, scraping down sides as needed.
- Fit piping bag with wide star tip nozzle (1.5-2cm / 0.6 – 0.75″ wide), then transfer Mousse into piping bag. Refrigerate for 5 hours until firmed.
- Cut into 1.5cm thick / 0.6″ slices.
- Use a small melon baller or teaspoon to scoop a well out.
- Pipe mousse into cucumbers. Top with dill and serve immediately.
Notes
1. Salmon can be substituted with smoked trout or other smoked fish (even if not thin slices like smoked salmon)
2. Cream cheese – in the UK and some parts of Europe, you can only get spreadable cream cheese in tubs which is softer than block cream cheese. In this case, skip the sour cream.
3. Salt – the smoked salmon is very salty and it releases it into the mixture, so go easy on the salt.
4. Cucumbers – the long ones are better because they are less watery, so they don’t dilute the mousse as much when eating. But the short ones work just as well!Scooping – better ratio of cucumber to mousse, and also removes watery centre.If you can’t be bothered to scoop out the centre, make the cucumber slices slightly thinner so you end up with a similar ratio of cucumber to mousse.
5. Making ahead – place mousse in piping bag, ready to pipe. Keep up to 3 days in fridge. Cut and prepare cucumber. Assemble just before serving.Once assembled, the cucumber starts sweating at around 30 – 45 minutes (still super tasty though!).
6. Variations – these are variations I served at a gathering last month using the same base “mousse” recipe:
Sun-dried tomato – switch salmon and chives with 225g/7oz sun dried tomato strips in oil (including oil) and chives. Blitz until smooth, use per recipe (makes slightly more in quantity)
Olive – switch salmon with 200g/6.5oz green or black olives, and parsley or chives for dill. Blitz until ALMOST fully smooth – little bits of olive is nice.
7. Nutrition per piece.
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