Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Carrot-Cauli Fritters with Bacon

Some savory hot and crispy fritter love!

This month marks my 2 year anniversary on Paleo, and my goodness have a learned a lot! Not just about cooking, but about food science and health.

Those of you who are familiar with my story know that I stumbled into the Paleo/Primal lifestyle completely by accident in an effort to take charge of my mental and physical health with clean, unprocessed foods. Needless to say, being unaware that the Paleo community existed, my first few months of meals were pretty bland!

Not only am I thankful for the support and information I gain from the Paleo community, but I'm thankful for the cooking advice and recipes! Prior to Paleo, I relied on wheat and cheese heavily, so I felt at a complete loss when I cut those foods out of my diet. The information I gained from blogs and cookbooks was invaluable in developing my clean cooking skills.

None of that has anything to do with today's recipe. So, anyway...

I have been craving fritters, potato cakes, & latkes lately-- anything in that vein of food. Since I cannot stand to throw away food, but also HATE eating the same thing 3 days in a row, I have a great passion for reinvention. I had some leftover cauli mash, and wanted to do something a little different with them. This was the result! You bite into that crispy outer crust and the flavor just explodes in your mouth!

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Carrot-Cauli Fritters with Bacon 

(yields approx. 8 fritters)

Ingredients:

1 cup cauli mash chilled (recipe)
4-5 slices crispy fried bacon (sugar free if you're doing the 21 Day Sugar Detox)
3 eggs
2/3 cup almond flour
1 heaping Tbs fresh chopped rosemary
5-6 cloves roasted garlic
2 cups shredded carrot
1tsp bacon grease for cooking
1 tsp ghee for cooking (I prefer OMghee's brand)
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

First, I recommend using a tea towel or paper towels to squeeze excess juice from the shredded carrot. This will help prevent the fritters from having too much moisture which can cause them to fall apart.

After you have all the ingredients prepped, place everything accept the carrots into a food processor. Process until everything is well blended. You can also crumble the bacon and mix by hand. Mix the shredded carrot into the batter.

Melt bacon grease and ghee in a pan over medium-ish heat. Yes, I just made that up. Medium-ish: Not quite medium, but closer to medium than medium low. Grab about 3 Tbs worth of batter, flatten a bit between hands, and drop into the pan. The batter is pretty messy, so be prepared! I used a pan large enough to cook 4 at a time. Cook until both sides have a deep golden brown color. Be patient. I find cooking these a bit slower at this heat is best to ensure they cooked through and stay together. Make sure not to flip too soon, or they can fall apart. This may just take some trial and error if you've never flipped fritters or latkes before. Once done, remove from pan and place in a single layer on a paper towel. Repeat until all the batter has been used. If you need to add more fat after the first batch, feel free to do so. But follow the tip below!

Tip: 

If you fill the pan with too much fat, the fritters will absorb it and fall apart (I learned this the hard way). If you are using a smaller pan, adjust the amount of fat you cook with. You need just enough to lightly coat the pan.

Serve them up warm and hot with your favorite meal and ENJOY!