Cinnamon Garlic Lamb Cakes (AIP-Compliant)

Yes, yes, I know. They don't look great. None of these meat/veggie/root patty-type foods look very pretty. But ya know what?? They are fast, easy, AIP-compliant, and taste good. So there. And if you like shish kofta (spiced lamb kebabs) you'll probably like these, even though the cumin is missing (because seeds. Dammit.)

Ok, the recipe:


Approx. 2 lbs. sweet potatoes
2 large zucchini
1 tsp. salt
1 lb. ground lamb
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 T. ground cinnamon

Peel, cut up, and boil the sweet potatoes - about 15 minutes does it.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, grate the zucchini and onion into a bowl. Combine with the salt and load the soggy grated mass into a strainer (I line mine with cloth) and let it drain over a bowl or something.

Dump the lamb into a large bowl. Press garlic cloves through a press into the bowl, and add the cinnamon and smash it around to combine.

Drain the sweet potatoes and set them aside to steam off a bit.

Press all the water you can out of your grated zucchini/onion, and add the drained veggies to the bowl with the lamb.

Smash up the sweet potatoes with a smasher and add them to the bowl with the lamb. Smash everything all up together until it looks all evenly distributed. Add salt to taste (a tiny bit of raw lamb isn't going to hurt you any.)

Heat oven to 375° F. Line two half-sheet baking pans with parchment and scoop out well-packed balls of mixture with a 4 oz. scoop. (I got mine at Gordon's Food Service. The pans, too, for that matter.) Flatten the balls slightly into patties, about 1/2"-5/8" thick.

Bake for an hour. I rotate my pans in the oven about halfway through.

Once they're done, you can either serve them immediately, or cool and freeze them for ready meals.

Basically, I decided to explore this concept because I hate coming up with complete meals. Especially when on my Paleo Autoimmune Protocol diet. So I thought - if I could make a patty, kind of like a burger or a crab cake, that was AIP compliant and contained root veggies, green veggies, and meat all in one, that would be the ultimate convenience!

This recipe is #1 in the AIP Ready Meals series. More to come!


- Stell