“Potato” Cakes

We low-carbers know you can’t eat white potatoes on a low-carb plan.  However you can get creative with jicama and other vegetables and get that potato taste craving satisfied when they are fried nice and brown.  These “potato” cakes stay crunchy as jicama is quite crunchy even after cooking.  The flavor is VERY close to real potatoes when cooked this way.  This recipe is OK for Induction Phase, too!  You can also make these with grated, peeled turnip or rutabaga, but recalculate carbs if you change the base veggie.  When you get to the OWL starchy vegetable rung, using rutabaga is the best choice for these, in my opinion. 🙂 

I have, since original publishing, added the flax meal and resistant wheat starch.  These are optional, but really improve these in flavor and texture for me and I intend to include them always, so I have included in the nutritional info numbers below.  Those 2 added ingredients only increase net carbs by 0.17 g.

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz jicama, grated (or daikon radish, or turnip, or rutabaga)

1/4 c. onion, grated

1 whole egg + 1 small egg white (I used 2 T. carton egg whites)

1/8 tsp. sea salt

Dash black pepper

2 T. bacon grease, or oil of your choice

1 T. flax meal (optional)

1 T. resistant wheat starch (optional, and discontinued product now)

DIRECTIONS:  Skin/peel back the brown outer coating of your jicama. Weigh out 12 oz. and grate. Pat out any moisture with paper towels and place grated jicama into a medium bowl.  Add all other ingredients and stir well. Put unused jicama in a ziploc plastic bag in your fridge for some other use.   Melt grease/oil in non-stick skillet over high heat.   Using fork or spoon, dip half the mixture into 5 portions onto the hot skillet, spreading it out fairly thin into 2½” patties patties.  Brown nicely on both sides.  I serve with my morning eggs and bacon/sausage or as a dinner side.  Enjoy with a clean conscience!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: Makes 10 potato cakes, each has:

53 cals, 3.55 g fat, 4.19 g. carbs, 2.27 g. fiber, 1.92 g NET CARBS, 1.39 g protein, 30 mg. sodium