I’ve been on a kick of trying to make keto versions of regional food, especially now that the chaffle craze has made it so I can make a decent sandwich now. I’ve made Hot Browns, Nashville Hot Chicken, Biscuits and Gravy, and Beef on Weck so far, among other things. What’s your favorite food from where you live? Let me know and I’ll try to make it.
I used to do a lot of tailgating for college football, and we’d try to do a theme around the food from our opponents. Wings from when we played Buffalo, West Virginia dogs, that sort of thing. For the Nebraska game, we made Runzas, which are sandwiches made of bread stuffed with a beef and cabbage or sauerkraut mixture. Fairly simple, but it won’t work with chaffles because it’s a stuffed sandwich. That’s where the fathead dough comes in. Fathead dough is made with melted mozzarella and cream cheese combined with almond flour and egg. The cheese gives it a stretchy texture almost like actual dough. I’ve seen people use it for almost everything, even sweetened and turned into pastry! It works really well for stuffing things, so you could easily make things like empanadas with it. Or, in this case, recreating an old tailgate food.
This recipe makes a dozen sandwiches. Fathead dough freezes pretty well, so if you’re not making these for a crowd, feel free to pop your extras in the freezer and save them for a week where you don’t have time to make lunches for yourself. Just make sure you thaw them out before you reheat them.
Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. You’ll need a couple of cookie sheets, which you’ll be rotating in and out of the oven one at a time. You can only really fit three of these per sheet unless you want to risk tearing them as you transfer them onto the sheet. So prepare those by lining them with parchment paper, and setting them aside for now.
In a large, deep skillet (like this one) over medium heat, saute one medium chopped onion (about 3/4 cup total) in a bit of avocado oil spray until it starts to turn golden brown. Turn up the heat to medium high and add a pound and a half of ground beef, two teaspoons of salt, a half teaspoon of garlic powder, and way more black pepper than you think you’ll need. Break the beef up into pieces as small as you can. When it’s fully browned, drain off the fat. You want it to eventually be as dry as possible, otherwise it’ll be soggy once it’s cooked. Once it’s drained, return it to the pan and add a bag of angel hair slaw. Mine was ten ounces. If you can’t find it in bagged form, just thinly shred a head of cabbage with a food processor or chop it as thin as you can get it. Put it in the pan, add at least another teaspoon of salt and even more black pepper, and cook it, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is cooked and all of the liquid from it has evaporated. If it’s just starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, you’re in a good place. Remove it from the heat and let it sit to cool while you make your dough.
For the fathead dough, you’ll want to make it in two batches, because the dough will lose its elasticity as it melts and you won’t be able to get everything done before that. Start with 12 ounces of mozzarella cheese and 2 ounces of cream cheese. Put it in the microwave for 30 seconds on high, take the bowl out, and stir. Put it back in and repeat in 30 second increments until the cheese is melted into a ball. Be careful not to burn it! In my microwave it usually only takes a minute. When the cheese is nice and melty and stretchy, add 6 ounces of almond flour, two beaten eggs, and two teaspoons of baking powder. Stir with a spoon at first, but eventually you’ll probably need to get your hands dirty. Spray them with oil to avoid sticking. Once everything is well-mixed, divide it into two equally-sized balls, and then divide each one of those into three equal parts. This will end up making six sandwiches.
Go back to your parchment-lined cookie sheets and put three of your small balls on it. Flatten each one out until it’s thin and about 6 inches in diameter. You’ll want to spray your hands with oil to do this, otherwise your hands will stick. Once you have the three circles ready, work on the filling. Using a slotted spoon, put about 1/2 cup of filling on one side of the circle. Make sure any liquid is drained before you put it on your dough. Once you’ve added the filling, fold the other half of the circle on top and line up the edges. Using the back of a fork that you’ve sprayed with cooking spray, press the tines against the edges of the dough to seal it up, then prick holes in the top of the dough four times so that steam can let out when they cook. If the fork starts to stick, just keep spraying it. I found that one spray would work to complete one sandwich.
Put the three stuffed and sealed runzas in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until they’re golden brown. While they’re cooking, repeat with the remaining three balls on your second prepared cookie sheet. You should finish with plenty of time. Once the first batch is out, put the second batch in, and move the first runzas to a cooling rack or to a warmer if you want to serve them all immediately. Let the cookie sheet cool while you make another batch of fathead dough. This time, form the runzas on a piece of parchment paper on your counter, and move the parchment paper to the cookie sheet, so it has time to finish cooling and won’t melt the dough while you’re working with it. Keep doing this until you’ve made all 12. Enjoy your keto Nebraska tailgate, or just do what I did and make them for lunches!
Keto Runzas
Equipment
- 2 cookie sheets
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1.5 pounds ground beef
- 3 tsp salt divided, plus more to taste if necessary
- black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 10 ounces bagged angel hair slaw or very thinly sliced cabbage
For the Fathead Dough
- 24 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 12 ounces almond flour
- 4 eggs beaten
- 4 tsp baking powder
- cooking spray as needed
Instructions
For the Filling
- Spray a deep nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Saute the chopped onion over medium heat until they begin to turn golden brown on the edges.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the ground beef, two teaspoons of salt, a heavy amount of black pepper, and garlic powder. Brown the beef, making sure to break it up into the smallest possible crumbles. Once the beef is browned, drain it and return it to the pan.
- Add the angel hair slaw and another teaspoon of salt to the beef mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is fully cooked and the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste, then remove from the heat to cool while you make the dough.
For the Fathead Dough
- Preheat oven to 400 before beginning.
- Once the beef is cooling, begin to make the dough. In a large microwave-safe bowl, add 12 ounces of the cheese and 2 ounces of the cream cheese. Microwave on high at 30 second intervals, stirring between each one, until the cheese is melted. Make sure the cheese doesn't burn.
- Add 6 ounces of almond flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, and two of the beaten eggs to the bowl. Mix with a spoon or oiled hands until the dough is uniform in color and consistency.
Filling and Baking Instructions
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Take the fathead dough and divide it in half, then divide each half into thirds.
- Press out three balls of dough into 6-7" circles on one of the cookie sheets. Using a slotted spoon to drain any remaining liquid, put approximately 1/2 cup of the beef filling on one half of the circles, then fold the other half over the top to make a half-circle shape.
- Spray the back of the tines of a fork with cooking spray, and press it around the rounded edge of the circle to crimp and seal it shut. Repeat with the remaining two circles, adding more cooking spray if the fork sticks. Prick the top of each sandwich four times with the fork, then bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
- While the first three bake, repeat with the remaining three balls of dough on the second cookie sheet. Remove the first sheet from the oven and put the cooked runzas on a cooling rack or in a warmer if you plan to serve them immediately. Let the first cookie sheet cool while the second one cooks.
- Use the rest of the ingredients to make the remaining fathead dough while the second cookie sheet is in the oven. Using the above instructions, assemble the next three sandwiches on a sheet of parchment paper on the counter, then carefully move it to the cooled cookie sheet. Repeat again for the remaining 3 sandwiches.
- Macros per serving: 504 calories, 6 grams net carbs, 37 grams protein, 35 grams fat.
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