Faux-tato Pancakes

I recently changed my eating habits over the past several months and am focusing on low-carb (or no carb) and gluten free options. For me, it was a decision to lose weight and get healthier and I've been having great success at it. One of the foods I have reluctantly chosen to give up has been potatoes. I've never been over-the-moon about potatoes but, you know, when you can't have something you start craving it--and boy, have I been craving potatoes!

As I now have focused my eating to just meat, vegetables, and dairy, I have discovered how versatile spaghetti squash can be. It has a wonderful sweet taste and can serve as a foundation for a variety of different foods and yes, even replacing potatoes! So it occurred to me one day, what if you could replicate a potato pancake using spaghetti squash? Well, it turns out you can and they are just absolutely fabulous! This low carb, gluten-free substitute to potatoes works quite well. So after several nearly successful attempts, I have settled on the following combinations and recipe to provide a tasty substitute to the potato pancake.

I recommend serving these with a soft-poached egg, sprinkled with black sea salt, and a dollop of sour cream. Yum!

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 small spaghetti squash (about 2 1/2 cups cooked)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup chopped cooked bacon
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or bacon fat
• 3 tablespoons almond flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sour cream for topping

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF convection or 400ºF non-convection.
2. To cook the spaghetti squash, use a two-pronged meat fork or something similar to poke several holes in the squash. Cook the squash in a 375ºF oven for one hour. Let cool for 20 minutes. Using an oven mitt, hold the squash and cut off the stem end. Slice in half, stem to end. Clean out the seeds using a spoon. Use a fork and scrape out the insides of the squash onto paper towel. Dry the squash as best as possible and measure out your amount.
3. In a medium mixing bowl combine the egg, squash, green onions, bacon, cheese, almond flour, and butter and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
4. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the squash mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten to make 4-inch pancakes. Although the picture, see below, only shows four pancakes, you should be able to get six pancakes per cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Immediately serve one or two pancakes per serving topped with sour cream and/or a soft poached egg.

Makes six pancakes