Sweet Potato Cakes

Inspired by Ottolenghi - London, UK

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Since starting this website, I’ve come to realize that many of my friends are vegetarian. While I do have a number of vegetarian recipes on here, I recently decided that for both the benefit of my friends and my cooking range, I needed to step up my game. After much research I zeroed in on the works of World famous Yotam Ottolenghi as the perfect source of inspiration. His recipes are absolutely beautiful and some of the most exciting vegetarian dishes I’ve ever seen. I’m starting with a very tasty snack of sweet potato cakes and look forward to exploring a bit more in this realm.

This recipe is inspired by sweet potato cakes recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Plenty. Yotam Ottolenghi has several cookbooks and runs a number of restaurants in London, England under the name Ottolenghi.

INGREDIENTS

SWEET POTATO CAKES:

  • 2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled

  • 2 TBS soy sauce

  • 1 cup flour

  • 1 tsp salt

  • ½ tsp sugar

  • ¼ cup chopped green onions

  • 1 tsp hot red chili, finely chopped

  • ½ stick of butter (more if needed)

  • 2 TBS olive oil (more if needed)

YOGURT SAUCE:

  • 3 TBS Greek yogurt

  • 3 TBS sour cream

  • 2 TBS olive oil

  • 2 TBS lemon juice (half a lemon)

  • 2 TBS cilantro, chopped

  • Salt and pepper to taste

GO FOR IT

SWEET POTATO CAKES:

  1. Cut sweet potatoes into large chunks and steam until cooked through (about 20 to 30 minutes - check with a pairing knife after 15 minutes)

  2. Drain potatoes and allow to cool in colander for 1 hour

  3. Once cool, place potatoes in a bowl with soy sauce, flour, salt, sugar, green onions, and red chili, then mix together using your hands or a rubber spatula

  4. Heat half a stick of butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat

  5. Once butter and oil are heated, take a spoon and grab a couple table spoons of your sweet potato mix at a time and drop into pan, using back of spoon to flatted the mix into small discs about 2 to 3 inches in diameter (add more butter and oil if pan goes dry)

  6. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side until crispy on the outside, then let drain on paper towel before serving with yogurt sauce

YOGURT SAUCE:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients together

NOTES:

These are pretty easy to whip up. Just be sure to make sure you don’t burn them in the skillet. The recipe from Ottolenghi actually called for 2 tsp of soy sauce and I misread it and did to 2 TBS as you see here. If anything, I think they could use more soy sauce. I like having a bit more flavor in these and suggest you keep it at 2 TBS. I also added slightly more green onion and slightly more red chili. I have no regrets.