The sweet potato, aka the paleo-friendly carborific root, is a nutritional powerhouse. Most people probably associate sweet potatoes with the strange orange “vegetable” dish covered in marshmallows on the Thanksgiving table.
There are MANY other ways you can use the sweet potato that doesn’t require the help of strange fluffy sugar pillows. A few of my favorites include: sweet potato fries, sweet potato salad, scalloped sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes for breakfast, and sweet potato fritters.
I dreamt up these sweet potato fritters when I found myself in another sweet potato rut. I wanted a non-boring, craveable, sweet potato dish. BOY did I find one. I made my first batch, enjoyed a few too many, and then counted down the hours until I could make more.
The trick to these fritters is to get a head start. You need to work with cold mashed sweet potatoes the day you make the fritters. Simply bake and mash the night before so that when it’s time for dinner the next day, all you have to worry about is forming, dusting, and frying. For tips on simple mashed sweet potatoes, see below.
Although completely optional, a non-paleo but worthwhile addition to these fritters is a big dollop of fat free Greek yogurt. The creamy cold yogurt topped with some fresh green onions will make one fritter feel like a heavenly meal.
Enjoy!
Paleo Sweet Potato Fritters
Ingredients
- 3 cups Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- ½ cup Almond Meal
- ¾ cup Virgin Coconut Oil
- 2 teaspoons Cracked Pepper
- 2 teaspoons Sea Salt
- 2 teaspoons Light Chili Powder
Optional:
- ½ cup Chopped Green Onion
- 1 tablespoon dairy free yogurt for each fritter
Instructions
- In a large frying pan, melt/heat the coconut oil.
- Note: if you do not have enough coconut oil to cover the bottom of your frying pan, add more until it does.
- Divide your mashed sweet potatoes into even-sized balls. This is really where you can determine how many you want to make and how large.
- Mold each sweet potato ball into a flat circle that is approximately ½” thick.
- With a fork, stir the pepper, sea salt, and chili powder in with the almond meal.
- Pour the almond meal onto a large plate.
- Press each sweet potato cake into the almond meal and, with your hand, insure the seasoned almond meal sticks evenly to all sides.
- When all cakes have been dusted, carefully lay them in the hot coconut oil.
- If they do not start sizzling, turn up the heat until they do.
- Set aside a large plate covered in paper towels.
- Cook for approximately 7 minutes on one side.
- Carefully flip and cook for another 7 minutes on the other side.
- When they’re finished, carefully move them to the paper towel-lined plate and let cool for a few minutes.
- Serve with a large dollop of non-fat Greek yogurt and a sprinkling of fresh green onions.
- Enjoy!
- Time: 10 minutes prep; 15 minutes cook
Simple Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Take two large sweet potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork.
- Bake for approximately 1 hour (or until the skin peels back easily).
- Let cool then peel.
- Place in a large Ziploc bag, seal, and mash.
- Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
What can be substituted for the Almond meal? My husband is allergic to all nut foods. Thank you.
You can substitute with either arrowroot or ground-up sunflower (or even pumpkin) seeds. Hope that helps!
I tried them tonight! I had a little issue with the consistency, they were a bit watery after being in the fridge over night, but I’ll just need to play with them. Paired them with some lemon garlic tilapia and it was amazing! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you liked them! Lemon garlic tilapia sounds tasty. Thanks for your feedback!
These look fantastic! Now that it’s October, I’m completely in the mood for potato-related recipes – especially sweet potatoes!
Awesome! Thank you! Hope you enjoy.
Wow! This looks and sounds incredible. Your photography is remarkable – I can almost taste them.
Thank you!