Tuna Cakes with Green Olives

Tuna Cakes with Green Olives from http://meatified.com #paleo #glutenfree #autoimmunepaleo

This is one of those recipes that is really a throw together of leftovers… that turned out to be a happy accident! I haven’t made tuna cakes in a long time, mostly because eggs are out while following the Autoimmune Protocol and I’d never wanted to spend the time to figure out how to get them to hold together without the binding-ness of the eggs.

It turns out, we didn’t really need those eggs in the first place. Surprise!

I started off with some sad looking fridge-bound pieces of baked white sweet potato. I mashed them up with a fork to make the base for the tuna cakes. A rough mash like this works much better to hold things together. I really don’t recommend using a food processor or a puree because the sweet potato won’t be solid enough to work. I had some tasty large green Castelvetrano olives that I chopped up and added along with some wild caught albacore tuna. The tuna cakes would probably have held up just fine if I had cooked them at this point, but I had some leftover cauliflower rice that I wanted to use, too. What the heck! I added that, too, to up the vegetable content.

{Both good quality tuna and those fancy Castelvetrano olives can be super pricy. I am fortunate to be able to buy them much more cheaply than those Amazon prices because of my Costco membership. You can also watch out for sales and stock up then, too!}

The cauliflower rice added a nice bit of substance to the cakes, but if you don’t happen to have any spare lying around, don’t worry. You could probably just add a little extra tuna instead. I haven’t given an amount of salt to add to this recipe because that’s going to depend on the tuna you use and how salty the olives are – season to taste and enjoy!

This recipe is suitable for the Autoimmune Protocol and the Whole30.

See more of my AIP recipes here and more of my Whole30 recipes here.

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Tuna Cakes with Green Olives

Leftovers don’t have to be dull! These tuna cakes are livened up with some tasty green olives and hold together without needing to use eggs.

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Yield: 4 tuna cakes 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

MIX: Use a fork to mash the baked sweet potato in a bowl until it doesn’t have any lumps. Add all the other ingredients to the bowl, combining evenly, and season to taste.

FORM: Divide the mixture into 4 and shape into patties.

FRY: Heat a skillet over medium heat with the oil. Fry until golden brown, then flip and repeat for the second side, about 10 minutes total.

Notes

This recipe is suitable for Autoimmune Paleo and the Whole30.

22 comments

  1. could you use canned salmon instead?
    and is there anything you could sub the sweet potato with?

    thanks so much!

    1. You could definitely swap in canned salmon! Are you trying to keep the recipe Paleo? Because if so you could try plantain or yucca. You might be able to get away with butternut squash, but I suspect that will be too soft and fall apart. Hope that helps!

    1. You need to flip them carefully as they’re without eggs to bind them. Don’t move the tuna cakes until a crust has formed on the first side: that’s what will hold them together as you flip 🙂

  2. This sounds yummy and I will make it today. I don’t have any green olives in the pantry, but I have a variety of veggie pickles that I have put up and will mince some to substitute for the olives. I think some marinated artichoke hearts would also be super. Thanks again for this recipe.

  3. I had some leftover roasted sweet potatoes in my fridge that needed to be used so it seemed like a good time to try this recipe. Holy smokes was it delish!! Super easy and flavorful, this is going into regular rotation. Thanks so much for a great recipe!

    1. Yay, I’m so glad! I don’t post a lot of leftover recipes, but maybe I should include a few more on the site, since they seem to be quite popular 🙂

  4. I cant have sweet potato…….not sure what to use in place of that. Sounds delicious …can’t wait to try it!!! Thanks for all your help, when I am so clueless………..

    1. You could try an alternative root vegetable, like parsnips. They’ll be a bit more delicate to handle, but should work. Hope that helps!

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