Tag Archives: Sweet potatoes

Recipe Testing: Maple Sweet Potato Cakes with Curried Greek Yogurt

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Sweet potato cakes sweetened with maple syrup. Recipe from Food52 and FoxesLoveLemons.

A few weeks ago I volunteered to test some recipes from the Food52 site that were part of the Your Most Impressive Dinner Party Side Dish contest, including these sweet potato cakes by FoxesLoveLemons. I thought they might make a nice Thanksgiving side dish, or a possible alternative latke for Hanukkah. I think they work for either of those holidays, or both if you’re doing Thanksgivukkah this year.

While this recipe didn’t win the overall title as most impressive, it was chosen on Food52 as a community favorite, and my headnote (which is a shorter version of this blog post) is published with it. All three people eating Sunday dinner called them a win, and asked me to make them again. I think my sister might have sneaked out with the leftovers.

When I made this recipe as written I had trouble with the cakes scorching and not cooking all the way through. My solution was to make more cakes so that they were thinner and would cook through without burning.

The curried Greek yogurt is an excellent sauce, one that I can see repurposing for many different dishes. The balance of spice with the creamy tang of the yogurt hits all the right notes. I think it would make an excellent base for a curried carrot salad.
My tips for making this recipe are:
  • a bit more salt added to the sweet potato mixture before cooking
  • divide the recipe into 12 cakes
  • add a bit of cooking oil to the pan–cooking spray isn’t sufficient to achieve even browning

Maple Sweet Potato Cakes with Curried Greek Yogurt

Makes 12 cakes

 
Curried Greek Yogurt

7 ounces 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Maple Sweet Potato Cakes

1 large sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of cinnamon
1/3 cup minced yellow onion
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
Nonstick cooking spray
Cooking oil to coat the skillet

In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients for Curried Greek Yogurt. Set aside.

Place shredded sweet potato in a large bowl and toss with salt. Let stand 5 minutes.

In a second large bowl, whisk together egg, maple syrup, white pepper, paprika, salt and cinnamon. Using your hands, squeeze all excess liquid out of sweet potato; discard liquid. Add sweet potato, onion and breadcrumbs to egg mixture; toss to combine well.

Form sweet potato mixture into 12 cakes. Heat a griddle or large nonstick pan over medium high-heat. Spray griddle with nonstick spray or coat with a thin sheen of cooking oil; place potato cakes on griddle. Cook 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on the outside, flattening with spatula as they cook and flipping occasionally. Serve immediately with Curried Greek Yogurt.

Weekend Home Cooking

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a lolivierI had hoped to share a gluten-free version of my favorite oatmeal cookies today as part of the Cookie Bites series, but time got away from me and I wasn’t able to test out the recipe with a gluten-free flour blend. I promise a recipe for these in the near future, no matter how experimental it might be.

In the meantime, over the last few days we’ve had some nice home-cooked meals, a welcome change from all the eating out we did last week. Every two weeks we get a large veggie box through our CSA Johnson’s Backyard Garden, and all the vegetable dishes mentioned in this post are full of their produce.

Friday night, before a late evening trip to the new Austin Trader Joe’s (which technically isn’t in the city of Austin, but that’s beside the point) we had:

  • Roasted golden beets with toasted pecans and Provencal vinaigrette over red lettuce
  • Creamy polenta with Grana Padano
  • Rainbow chard sauteed with garlic

I don’t have a recipe for any of those–I just make them by taste and feel. A big pile of chard? Two cloves of chopped garlic. A pot of polenta for two? A small handful of grated cheese. But my vinaigrette is a pretty traditional combination of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a drop of dijon mustard, salt and pepper. To make it extra special I substitute a bit of plain olive oil with A L’Olivier’s herbes de provence infused olive oil. It gives an extra lift to the standard vinaigrette recipe.

Saturday we celebrated my sister’s move to Austin with:

  • Roasted chicken with crispy skin
  • Bok choy sauteed with ginger and garlic
  • Soy-glazed sweet potatoes

Both the bok choy and sweet potatoes required soy sauce, and many brands are made with wheat. I use San-J’s gluten-free tamari. This is the brand I’ve used for years, so I was pleased to see that it’s gluten-free, too.

And for a quick Sunday night dinner Paul made black bean tacos with sauteed peppers and onions.

And by the way, if your kohlrabi freezes in the back depth of your refrigerator and then thaws, it will smell horrible. Word to the wise.