Sweet Potato Latkes
This recipe makes a big batch of sweet potato latkes that serves 8 people for dinner and can serve from 8 to a much bigger crowd on a party buffet table — about 40 small- to medium- latkes. You can halve the recipe if you're cooking for a smaller group, but truth be told I've never seen them go to waste.
Servings: 8
Calories: 451kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 pounds 2(268 grams) sweet potatoes
- 1 large yellow onion
- 4 large eggs beaten
- 1 cup sliced scallions
- 1 cup (120 grams) flour
- ½ cup (60 grams) matzo meal
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) good salted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Safflower oil or other high-heat vegetable oil for frying
To serve
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut lengthwise into quarters. Peel and quarter the onion.
- Set up a food processor with the grating blade. Grate the sweet potatoes in two batches and add them to a very large mixing bowl. (Alternatively, grate on a box grater.)
- Grate the onion and place on paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Then add to mixing bowl.
- Mix in beaten eggs, scallions, flour, matzo meal, melted butter, salt, pepper, and baking powder.
- Pour safflower oil into a large frying pan to a depth of about ⅛ inch. Heat oil over medium-high until it thins and becomes shimmery. Use a soup spoon to scoop little mounds of the sweet potato mixture into the skillet (3 tablespoons at a time makes nice, diminutive latkes). Gently flatten the pancakes. Don't crowd the skillet — leave an inch or so between latkes.
- Fry until the underside is crispy and golden brown, then flip and fry until the second side is crispy and golden brown, about 5 minutes total. Remove cooked latkes to paper towels to drain. Continue cooking, adding more oil as necessary and adjusting the heat to keep oil hot but not smoking, until you've used all of the sweet potato mixture.
- Sprinkle with additional sliced scallions and some flaky sea salt and serve with sour cream.
Video
Notes
- Any variety of orange or red sweet potato or "yam" that you would normally bake whole and eat should work fine in this recipe.
- You can make your own matzo meal by grinding matzo in a food processor, or buy it premade. I almost always do the latter. You can leave out the matzoh meal if you don't have it, but don't leave out the flour. It's necessary to bind the latkes together.
- Besides safflower oil, other good neutral-tasting, high-smoke-point oils for pan frying include peanut, canola, and vegetable oil blends.
- You can fry the potato pancakes several hours ahead of time and crisp them back up in a 250° oven before serving if you like. They are also great at room temperature.
- Keep leftovers tightly sealed in the fridge for up to a week. Reheat and re-crisp leftovers in a a warm oven or toaster oven before serving.
- This recipe is adapted from the Nikki Russ Federman's potato latke recipe via the December 2014 issue of Food & Wine Magazine.
Nutrition
Calories: 451kcal | Carbohydrates: 50.1g | Protein: 8.6g | Fat: 25g | Fiber: 7.3g | Sugar: 4.2g