These low carb cauliflower fritters are a great way to use up a little of your leftover holiday ham! Cheesy, grain-free goodness. This post is sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm.
I’ve never understood people who don’t like leftovers. In our house, leftovers are a precious commodity and treated with the great respect they deserve. I often make extras of whatever we are having for dinner in the hopes that there will be some leftovers in the days to come. Mind you, I sometimes underestimate the appetites of my young growing family and can sit in astonishment watching all of my hoped-for extras go down their gullets in one fell swoop. This family likes to eat, that’s for sure. But when there are leftovers, I love the idea that I will get an extra meal out of one night’s cooking. Sometimes it’s lunch, sometimes it’s another whole dinner. And sometimes those leftovers get repurposed into a whole new recipe.
There always seem to be leftovers of holiday ham. Everybody loves it and digs right in, but unless you have a serious crowd to feed, those hams can seem endless. The whole boneless family ham from Jones Dairy Farm is no exception to this. I received one for recipe development and created a delicious Rosemary Garlic Crusted Ham when my sister-in-law and her family came to stay for a few days. The 9 of us put a noticeable dent in it, but there was still plenty for another full meal, some lunches and these low carb fritters. I am not complaining, as we enjoyed it in all of its iterations!
These fritters did prove a bit of a challenge. Cauli has so much moisture, you really need to press on it in a fine-mesh sieve to get as much of it out as possible or your fritters will be soggy puddles. And the lack of gluten makes them a bit prone to falling apart until that first side is fully cooked. I found that it was best to form the patties by hand, really pressing them together, before putting them into the hot pan. And be sure to cook the first side completely before flipping over, as that will help hold them together better. They are worth all the effort though! They are delicious and a great low carb side dish for any occasion. You might just want to buy yourself a holiday ham, if only for the leftovers!
Jones Dairy Farm is offering 20% off any online ham purchase between December 1 and 31st. Just enter JONES20 at check out. You can shop their online store here: http://www.jonesdairyfarm.com/
This post is sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm. As always, all recipes, photographs, thoughts, opinions, random tangents and incoherent ramblings are my own.
Ham & Cheese Cauliflower Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 medium head cauliflower
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 1 1/4 cups finely diced ham
- 3 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- Plenty of oil or butter for the pan
Instructions
- Chop cauliflower into 1/2 inch pieces and steam about 10 to 15 minutes, until quite soft. Drain well in a fine-mesh sieve. Mash up with a fork or potato masher, pressing to release as much liquid as possible. You don't want it perfectly smooth, it should be a little chunky.
- Transfer cauliflower to a large bowl and add eggs, cheese, ham, coconut flour, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and add oil or butter to the pan. Using 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, form cauliflower mixture into flat patties, pressing together firmly. Don't make them more than about 3 inches in diameter.
- When pan is hot, add a few of the cauliflower patties, being careful not to crowd them. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, until browned on the bottom, then flip carefully and cook another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and repeat with remaining patties.
- Serve hot.
Recipe Notes
Serves 8. Each serving has 4.55 g of carbs and 1.86 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 2.69 g.
Food energy: 223kcal Saturated fatty acids: 10.10g Total fat: 16.17g Calories from fat: 145 Cholesterol: 118mg Carbohydrate: 4.55g Total dietary fiber: 1.86g Protein: 12.92g Sodium: 585mg
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What delicious looking and sounding fritters. Catherine
I love this idea!
Leftovers rule!
I made a large batch of Coq au Vin yesterday so we could have lots of leftovers for the week. I tend to do that a lot, not sure how others get things done without leftovers to fall back on. : )
I know a few people who don’t like leftovers and throw everything away after the first meal. Can you believe that???
I LOVE leftovers too! This is such a great idea!
Oh my gosh, I totally agree! I do not understand no leftover people at all. I purposely make more to have leftovers, make more, cook less. I actually wrote those words in my last post! Love this!
These look terrific! I need to cook a ham just to have leftovers for these fritters!
These look so wonderful- I could eat the whole stack!
What perfect little fritters! So hungry now!
You make cauliflower look soon good!
I’m a huge, huge cauliflower fan. These look amazing. Pinned.
I’m with you on leftovers – I always get upset when there aren’t any. I don’t usually repurpose them, but with things like ham that make SO much you kind of have to at some point. These cauliflower fritters look awesome!
Love this idea! What a PERFECT breakfast idea….!
My husband and I have completely opposite opinions on leftovers. Me? Awesome. Him? Feels the need to eat every serving of the meal (even if it’s a 4 serving meal and just the 2 of us eating it) when it’s served to not allow for leftovers. It kills me! These fritters look awesome. Ham is the perfect addition to cauli to add some salt and flavor.
I love making veggie fritters but never have tried making them with cauliflower before. What a great and delicious idea.. definitely something I need to try!
Leftovers rule! We love cauliflower, so these fritters would be a big hit in our house!
Thanks, Priscilla.
Love the idea of using cauliflower in these fritters! Yum!
We love leftovers at my house too! Cauliflower has become one of my low carb favorite dishes because it is SOOO versatile. I tried these last week and they were AMAZING! Mine tried to stick to the pan making them hard to flip so I ended up just scrambling them and making a hash. We ate on this dish for several meals and enjoyed it more each time. Thanks Carolyn for another amazing recipe. I always check your recipes first when looking for a low carb edition.
I just made these and they’re delicious!!
So glad you liked them!
I have some bags of frozen cauliflower. Could I use that instead?
Yes, I think that should work.
This looks so good!.
Loved the crunchy outside.
Hmm. I have ham. I have a bag of microwaveable garlic cauliflower. I have cheese. Off to try.. (putting cauliflower in a nonstick searing hot pan removes a lot of moisture very quickly, FYI)
They look great and I’d love to try them but I never never have any kind of flour or sugar in my house. No carbs of any kind. So I need recipes like this which cater to my dietary needs,
OMG! Just made these and they are fabulous, just like potatoe pancakes. Who would think it is cauliflower
I make something similar but I use spaghetti squash. Will have to try it with the cauliflower. I make a dill and onion sour cream dip for mine. Yumm
Would riced cauliflower (fresh not frozen, comes in a bag, already chopped up, each piece is about the size of rice) work?
Yup, just make sure to cook it until it’s pretty soft.
These were delicious, thank you very much. I used lunch meat ham. I just need to work on getting more water squeezed out of the cauliflower – the last couple patties turned into hash browns in the pan!
Yummy. I topped worth an over easy egg & low carb yums Avocado ranch dressing. Filling fabulous meal.
This was a delicious low carb keeper!! Will continue to make and know you can put almost anything you want in it. Delicious!!!
These are delicious! Used asiago cheese and ricotta (had some I had to use up) and green onion. Added a 4th egg because they were not holding together (made them too big – should have listened to your advice). Second pan full much better. Smaller and fried well over 5 min per side. Patties that fall apart fry up really well as a hash. Delicious!