Crispy and cheesy, these keto cauliflower fritters make for a tasty side dish or a light meal when you’re on a low carb diet.
Why Cauliflower Pancakes?
For those who don’t know, I come from a small country called Lithuania. Like in most European countries, potatoes have been the most accessible food for the last 400 years or so.
No wonder people use them in whatever way they could to make new meals. When you don’t have a lot to choose from, you tend to get creative!
Thus, traditional Lithuanian cuisine consists of mostly potato dishes. One of these dishes is potato pancakes, which I love with my whole heart!
I grew up eating these on the weekends, so no wonder it’s one of my favorite Lithuanian dishes. However, going on a low carb diet meant I could not consume anything that contains potatoes!
This is where these cheesy cauliflower pancakes come in. Cauliflower is a low carb vegetable that, unlike potato, contains a small number of carbs.
For instance, one cup of boiled cauliflower contains only 5.4 g of carbs. Compare that to one cup of boiled potatoes, which contains a whopping 31.2 grams of carbs.
Of the carbs that cauliflower does contain, more than half is fiber. Aside from the fiber not counting towards your net carbs, it is also good for you.
Fiber is essential for digestion. Fibre also helps you feel full, so you eat less and lose weight.
Cauliflower can also help you lose weight because more than 90% of it is made of water. So, it is very low in calories.
Cauliflower also contains antioxidants such as vitamin C, which helps boost your immune system and helps you fight colds.
Cauliflower is also an excellent source of choline. You need choline to make the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is important for your memory and mood. So eat up your cauliflower.
How to Use Cauliflower in Low Carb Cooking
So how can you use cauliflower in low carb cooking? Well, apart from using it to make my cheesy cauliflower pancakes, you can use it to make cauliflower rice.
Now, you can buy pre-packaged cauliflower rice, but making cauliflower rice yourself ensures that it is nice and fresh. It is also much cheaper than pre-packaged cauliflower rice.
Making cauliflower rice is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is place your cauliflower florets in a food processor, and process until it is rice-like. This low budget food processor here will do the trick. Afterward, just steam it with a metal steaming basket like this. It’s cheap and does the job as long as you have a pot to put it in.
Other ways you can use cauliflower in your low carb cooking are to make hummus, cauliflower mash, and even cauliflower pizza crust.
Do Cheesy Cauliflower Pancakes Taste Like the Real Thing?
So, let’s talk about the cheesy cauliflower pancakes. On their own, they don’t resemble the taste of potatoes, because they’re mainly made out of cauliflower. However, I’ve learned that adding more black pepper and salt as well as other spices that you might like helps with tricking your taste buds.
Whenever I have these with sour cream and some green onion, they taste just like the potato pancakes I remember. However, I haven’t eaten those in a while, so I’m sure someone who’s just switching wouldn’t agree.
Either way, even with a slightly different taste palette, these pancakes are to kill for!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Aside from cauliflower florets, you’ll need cheddar cheese. If you can, shred your own cheese instead of getting pre-shredded cheddar cheese.
That’s because pre-shredded cheese often contains potato starch to keep the cheese from sticking together. So, it contains more carbs.
And these carbs can add up pretty quickly, particularly if you are using the cheese to make pizza or fathead dough.
You’ll also need eggs to bind your dry ingredients together. Now in the past, eggs got a bad rap because they’re high in cholesterol.However, eating eggs doesn’t raise cholesterol for most people. So don’t be afraid of having an egg or two every day as part of your low carb diet.
Now, instead of regular flour, you’ll be using coconut flour. Coconut flour is a great low carb alternative to regular flour.
Aside from having way fewer net carbs, it is high in fiber, which helps keep you full. And since coconut flour is pretty absorbent, a little goes a long way. This is why you don’t need much of it to make these cheesy cauliflower pancakes. If you need to stock up on some coconut flour, you can get some here.
Check out more keto coconut flour recipes here.
You’ll also need some salt and pepper to season your pancake batter. I haven’t given specific amounts, just season to taste.
Pancakes With No Flour
Now you can make pancakes with no flour. You can do this using just eggs and cream cheese. But, they may have an eggy taste.
If coconut flour is not an option for you, you can also use almond flour instead. Almond flour is another great low carb flour alternative. As a bonus, it is an excellent source of vitamin E, which you need for healthy skin.
Since almond flour is not as absorbent as coconut flour, you would need more almond flour. As a general rule, for every ¼ cup of coconut flour, you need about 1 cup of almond flour or more. If you need to stock up on some almond flour, you can get some here.
Can You Meal Prep the Leftovers?
Yes, you definitely can! Leftovers can last 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Be sure to store them in an airtight container to keep them nice and fresh. I like to use BPA-free storage containers like these because they don’t leak toxic chemicals into food.
More Recipes Like This:
- Keto Sweet Chilli Pork Lettuce Wraps
- Almond Crusted Chicken Tenders
- 20 Quick Keto Dinners in Under 30 Minutes
- 20 Keto Almond Flour Recipes
Watch Full Instructions
Keto Cheesy Cauliflower Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 lb cauliflower florets 450g
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- sour cream for garnish
- green onion chopped
Instructions
- Shred cauliflower in a food processor or grate it yourself. Steam it for 8-10 minutes.
- While it’s warm, mix it up with cheese. Then, add eggs, coconut flour, salt, and pepper.
- Mix until combined and form the pancakes. Add olive oil to a nonstick skillet and cook them for a few minutes until each side is brown and crispy. Depending on the temperature and the skillet, it might take longer to get each side cooked. Make sure the side is well-cooked before you flip the pancake.
- Use green onion and sour cream as garnish.
Isobel Matheson
Friday 22nd of October 2021
These were delicious! I would, however, say that I needed more than the recommended ground almond quantity. I can't get coconut flour as I live in a village in Andalucia (I know there's Amazon but, I try not to use them) but am surrounded by almond groves, and ground almonds are plentiful, cheap, and fresh. Maybe TOO fresh for this! Anyhow, adding half as much again made it firmer. Also, I stress the importance of making sure the pancake is really, properly cooked before flipping, which takes longer than you think. Once I cracked those two issues, I made perfect latke-like cakes, which I had with avocado (also abundant here yay!). I shall be making these very often, I'm sure. Thank you! x
Karo @ AllNutritious
Thursday 28th of October 2021
Hi Isobel,
coconut flour is drier than almond flour, so you usually need 3x more almond flour to make the recipe work. With these pancakes you also want to make sure that they stay together when you're frying them up, so using somewhere between 2-3 times the coconut flour will work. Thank you for your great tips! I am glad you have made it work and I'm sure more people will find this small adjustment useful!