Gluten Free Ginger-Turmeric Snapper Cakes with Carrot
These golden fish cakes are everything a great weeknight dinner should be — bold, fragrant, and genuinely satisfying without a single grain of wheat in sight. Fresh red snapper gets hand-chopped for real texture, then folded with grated carrot, bright ginger, and earthy turmeric before being pan-fried in coconut oil until deeply golden on both sides. Rice flour does all the binding work here, keeping the cakes tender and crisp-edged without any of the gummy or dense results you sometimes get from gluten-free swaps. The step of squeezing moisture from the carrot and chilling the mixture before shaping is what makes these hold together so beautifully in the pan. A cool, herb-flecked ricotta dipping sauce pulls everything together and takes about two minutes to stir up while the cakes rest in the fridge. This is the kind of recipe that feels impressive enough for guests but is genuinely approachable on a regular evening — no specialty flours, no complicated techniques, just clean ingredients doing exactly what they're supposed to do.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the cakes
- 1 lb fresh red snapper fillets, skin removed, pin bones removed
- 1 cup finely grated carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp rice flour
- ¾ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, for frying
For the dipping sauce
- ½ cup fresh ricotta
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
For serving
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley sprigs (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Make the dipping sauce: stir together the ricotta, parsley, apple cider vinegar, and 1/4 tsp salt in a small bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the cakes.
- 2
Pat the snapper fillets completely dry with paper towels, then finely chop them by hand into pieces no larger than 1/4 inch — do not use a food processor, as the fish should have some texture, not become a paste. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
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