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Comfort Food

These Quick Sweet Potato Latkes Are a Delicious Twist on a Holiday Classic

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Hanukkah might be over, but we don’t blame you if you’re still dreaming about latkes. The classic potato dish is a staple in the Jewish community and beloved by all for its crisp exterior and pillowy middle. Paired with sour cream and applesauce, nothing beats the traditional recipe. But if you’re looking for a tasty twist, look no further than Caroline Fausel’s recipe for sweet potato latkes.

The founder of food and wellness blog Olive You Whole and author of Prep, Cook, Freeze: A Paleo Meal Planning Cookbook (Buy from Amazon, $21.99), Fausel is known for tasty recipes that come together quickly. Her sweet potato latkes don’t disappoint: After a simple prep, they cook in about five minutes.  

Note: Fausel’s latkes are paleo-friendly, meaning they don’t contain gluten or dairy. If you prefer making your latkes the traditional way, feel free to sub all-purpose flour for the cassava flour!

Caroline Fausel’s Sweet Potato Latke Recipe 

Ingredients:  

  • 1 pound (about 2 large or 3 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated  
  • 2 scallions, finely chopped  
  • 1/3 cup cassava flour
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten  
  • 1 teaspoon salt  
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper  
  • 3/4 cup light olive oil or avocado oil, plus more to coat the pan  

Directions:  

  1. Heat the 3/4 cup of oil in a deep 12-inch nonstick skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot.  
  1. Working in batches of four, spoon 1⁄4 cup of the potato mixture per latke into the oil and flatten it to 3-inch diameter with a slotted spatula.  
  1. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until golden, about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.  
  1. Transfer the latkes with a spatula to paper towels to drain.  

Making Sweet Potato Latkes Into a Meal 

Want to make these latkes into a full meal? Fausel pairs them with a mustard pork tenderloin and a zingy horseradish sauce. While this might seem an unusual combination if you’re Jewish (pork is not kosher), Fausel loves the two together because one brings out the flavor in the other. “When I first made this, [my husband] said it was the best recipe I’ve made for him ever,” she writes in her new cookbook.  

Caroline Fausel

One of the best things about Fausel’s recipes is that they’re designed to save you time. For each, she includes instructions for a “prep day” that takes the stress out of cooking on weeknights. Her mustard pork tenderloin, for example, can be made several days in advance and then stored in the fridge. On the night you want to have it for dinner, reheat the tenderloin in a pan and whip up the sweet potato latkes for an easy side.  

Prep, Cook, Freeze was born out of how I cook for my own family,” Fausel says. “When I started to write it, I had never really found a method that worked for us.” Fausel wanted to incorporate batch cooking – where you make a lot of food at once – into her book, but struggled to make it appealing. That’s when she designed a new prep method.

“With Prep, Cook, Freeze, you’re prepping in an afternoon, and you’re freezing an element of every meal,” she explains. “But what I really changed about freezer meals was that you’re freezing an element — not the entire meal — and then bringing in fresh ingredients on cook night … None of the meals feel like your grandmama’s freezer meals. We’ve really freshened it up, which I love.”  

Prep, Cook, Freeze is available on December 21 (buy on Amazon, $21.99). In the meantime, check out these other tips on keeping your latkes from burning, and cooking with olive oil versus vegetable oil.

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