Paleo Diet Vegetable Latkes

Posted on January 10, 2012 By Lila Solnick Traditions

I was going to call this recipe kohlrabi latkes, but then I started to use other vegetables like zucchini, turnips and carrots. Basically you can use any firm root vegetable. Of course the idea was to make low carbohydrate Paleo diet latkes for Hanukkah, instead of the standard potato latkes. Naturally, if you are eating more carbs you could make them from sweet potatoes. That would be perfectly paleo. I know that over the last month or so many recipes like this have been floating around the web since Hanukkah was last month. Once source of inspiration was Mark’s Daily Apple post. But I have discovered that these are a grate (great!) way to get your veggies and some extra good fat, in the winter. I’ve been making them every week with a different vegetable.

Paleo Diet Vegetable Latkes

Ingredients for zucchini

• 4 medium/large green zucchini squash
• 4 medium onions (I like onions!)
• 3 or 4 eggs (I’ll get to that in a minute)
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• Oil for frying

Grate the zucchini using the finer holes on your grater or food processor. Take a clean cotton dish towel or cheese cloth and squeeze out as much juice as you can. I would suggest drinking the juice. it is delicious! Do the same thing with the onions (but I wouldn’t drink the juice this time).

In a large bowl break up the clumped zucchini and onion. Mix in the garlic too. Beat up 3 eggs and add salt and pepper.  Add the eggs to the grated vegetables and mix in. If the batter looks dry or doesn’t stay together when you start to fry these up, add one more egg.

Heat up a skillet then add the oil - I used chicken schmaltz the first time when I made kohlrabi latkes. I’ve also used bacon fat (really kosher, eh?), butter and coconut oil. All are good. Place dollops of the batter in the oil and gently flatten down to where you have about a 3 or 4″ pancake. Fry the first side until the egg has set and you can flip it without breaking the latke.  Cook the second side until golden brown. Add new fat eat time you add new batter. It the fat starts to burn, let the skillet cool a bit, wipe out the fat and start again.

Remove to a dish lined with a paper towel to absorb the extra fat. Or not. I neglected that step with the zucchini and they tasted fine. Not greasy at all.

Serve with sour cream (Primal) or apple sauce (this is the traditional Jewish way) or add any other topping you think would work!

I have found that the Paleo diet vegetable latkes are an easy delicious way to get vegetables at this time of year. Everyone enjoys them and they disappear quickly. They are easy to make and store well in the freezer for several months. One vegetable I have not tried is rutabaga, so that is next on my hit list for vegetable latkes.

Please let us know what you think of these in the comments section. And let us know what toppings you’ve tried. We’d love to know!

coconut oil, Hanukkah, kohlrabi, latkes, livivot, parsnip, rutabaga, schmaltz, turnip, vegetable pancakes, zucchini