Rightly or wrongly, men are expected to be meat lovers. So it tracks that on Father's Day, steak or burgers often end up the protein of choice on a celebratory menu.

It doesn't have to be so.

My dad always favored a good piece of fish, especially salmon, which is both low-calorie and full of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. My husband is a huge fan of the pink-fleshed fish, too. I don't cook it as much he'd like because to me, well, salmon is the cilantro of the fish world — you either love it or hate it and I'm a flaky, white, doesn't-taste-like-fish kind of girl.

But if you grind it up and mix salmon with other ingredients and mold it into a patty? That's a win for the plus-ones among us who are trying to be good sports on Father's Day.

These burgers are crafted with ground Coho salmon from The Alaska Wild Salmon Co., which has a milder and more delicate flavor than a sockeye salmon steak due to a lower fat content. Brightened with a little Dijon mustard, sweet onion and salty capers, the burgers are fried in butter, which makes then super tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.

I served them on a bed of greens with a fresh, farmers' market summer salad of chopped zucchini, cucumber, tomato and bell pepper tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.

Salmon burgers

For burgers

1 pound ground coho salmon

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

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