Smoked Salmon Bagel With A Secret Ingredient

For some reason I used to steer away from smoked salmon bagels. Why?  Maybe the notion of eating uncooked fish, I don’t know.  But boy, once you try a smoked salmon bagel you’ll be hooked.

The classic toppings for smoked salmon bagels is cream cheese, otherwise known in the Jewish community as a schmear, red onion, capers and dill.  My recipe is inspired by a local restaurant, The General Muir, which is a take on a classic New York Jewish deli.  But I’ve taken the recipe and reswizzled it to my liking.

What’s The Secret Ingredient?

Grapefruit. Sounds strange but it’s an unexpectedly refreshing taste to a smoked salmon bagel.

The General Muir Avenue A open-faced bagel has nova (smoked salmon), schmear (cream cheese), avocado, grapefruit, cucumber, onion and dill served on their homemade everything bagel.  Or at least I order the “everything” bagel, you can get any bagel that you want.

I replaced the cream cheese with mascarpone cheese.  Mascarpone is an easily spreadable, richer and creamier cheese and I also replaced the dill with chives.  Really just because I grow chives and always have them on hand.

How To Make A Smoked Salmon Bagel

Toast your favorite bagel, an Everything bagel goes really well here.  Spread with the mascarpone cheese and top with the smoked salmon, avocado, grapefruit, cucumber, red onion and chives.

Dicing the red onion and mashing the avocado makes it easier to eat on-the-go.  That way you don’t need to gnaw through anything.  Even cutting the smoked salmon into bite size pieces helps.

Substitute Ingredients

Smoked Salmon – You can easily use prosciutto or deli ham

Mascarpone cheese – Sub with cream cheese

Chives – Fresh dill or parsley

Grapefruit – Skip all together or sub in your favorite citrus.  Grapefruit is an unexpectedly good fit with the smoked salmon.

Make Ahead Tips For Smoked Salmon Bagel

It’s so fast and easy there’s really no need for make ahead tips other than prepping the vegetables and fruit.  You can slice and dice a few days prior, store in a container in the refrigerator. 

That way you can assemble a bagel each morning and be out the door in under 5 minutes.

If you don’t want a warm bagel, then you can even preassemble the whole shebang, keep refrigerated and just grab the smoked salmon bagel as you run out the door.

What To Serve With A Smoked Salmon Topped Bagel

For breakfast a quick fried egg is a great choice.

For lunch you can always add a side of fruit or chips. 

For dinner a salad of arugula sprinkled with fresh lemon juice, a little olive oil and salt and pepper is a refreshing side.

How To Make A Smoked Salmon Bagel On-The-Go

As I stated earlier, dicing the red onion, mashing the avocado and cutting the salmon into bite size pieces makes it easier to eat on-the-go. 

When I used to order a similar sandwich to this at Einstein bagels, the avocado wasn’t cut small and would slide out.  It was also hard to bite through the large pieces of smoked salmon.  Not an easy task while you are driving.  Alright, I know, I shouldn’t have been driving and eating at the same time to begin with.  But come on, who hasn’t done that before?

Place the smoked salmon bagel in a parchment paper bag if eating right away.  The bag will keep your hands clean while allowing you to eat out of the open end.  If not eating right away, then see our post on How To Wrap A Sandwich without a plastic baggie.  Good for the environment, your conscience, and keeps the sandwich together better.

How To Segment A Grapefruit

Cut the grapefruit through the core stem end, opposite of how you would cut it to eat with a spoon. 

Place the halves cut side down on a cutting board and cut away the skin.  With a sharp knife, slice into segments as close to the membrane as possible.  The membrane on grapefruit is a lot tougher than on oranges and clementines so it’s worth removing.

A Little About The General Muir

My husband and I love The General Muir.  You’ll see that I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from their menu including The General Muir Burger.

The General Muir is rated by Atlanta Magazine as one of the city’s top 50 restaurants.  Not because it’s fancy, because it’s not.  But because it takes simple ingredients and makes them shine.

Dave, my husband, and I will walk through Lullwater Park from our house.  Lullwater park is a 154 acre preserve with a lake, acres of woods and miles of walking and jogging trails owned by Emory University.  We live near downtown and this park sounds and makes you feel like you are in the mountains.  It’s gorgeous. 

Why all this about Lullwater Park?  Because on weekends we will often take the 5 mile round trip walk from our house, through beautiful Lullwater and onto The General Muir for breakfast.  That way I don’t have any guilt about eating my Avenue A open-faced bagel and it’s a great, refreshing way to start off a Saturday morning!

I’ll keep using The General Muir menu for inspiration because they take simple deli-inspired items and give them new life.  Like adding the grapefruit to the Avenue A bagel, our version of the smoked salmon bagel.  Many of their items I need to reinvent to make them easy to eat on the go, while The General Muir gives more thought to how the food looks on the plate.

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