When you don’t feel like spending hours cooking, these Vegan Potato Pancakes are just the answer. Crisp and golden, these easy savory pancakes are made from mashed potatoes and a few delicious additions. They're good for a vegan breakfast, side dish, or even dinner.
If you’re looking for a delicious breakfast or brunch item and a break from sweet pancakes, then these easy vegan potato pancakes are the answer.
Made from leftover mashed potatoes, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes, these crispy and savory pancakes are bound to become your favorite. They're the best.
It's one of the best vegan potato recipes. You probably already have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now.
And even if you don't have leftovers of mashed potatoes, follow my favorite Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe to serve you as a base for these savory fritters.
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Here's Why This Recipe Works
- reduces food waste. This topic is hot, because no one wants their food to go to a waste. That's why I love these vegan potato pancakes without eggs. Use the leftover mash as a base for the recipe and then add all the delicious condiments like capers, sun-dried tomatoes, maybe olives, maybe some fresh herbs. Yes, please.
- easy. Made with just 6 ingredients, these savory vegan potato pancakes from mashed potatoes make a fantastic 30-minute meal. They're perfect for a last minute dinner idea or appetizer. In addition, kids love these stuffed fritters too.
- hearty. Potatoes are considered a healthy carb. They give the body energy yet supplying with the vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, Potassium and Fiber.
Ingredients
Here's an overview of the specific ingredients for this recipe. For the exact ingredients and measurements, please scroll to the recipe card below.
Ingredient Notes
- leftover mashed potatoes. It doesn't matter if your mashed potatoes are plain or have any additional ingredients in it.
- capers. Can be replace with olives or omitted altogether.
- sun-dried tomatoes. They add a nice chewy texture to the vegan potato pancakes. If you don't like sun-dried tomatoes, feel free to omit them.
- avocado oil. I love using this oil for cooking because it doesn't have any smell and works great for cooking. If you don't have it, olive oil can be used instead.
Instructions
These stuffed vegan mashed potato pancakes come together quickly and easily. Follow the simple steps below.
- To a large bowl add mashed potatoes, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh chives and flour.
- Mix with a spoon until all ingredients are combined. Taste the mixture to see if needs more salt or black pepper.
- Take a spoon-full of potato mixture and with damp hands form into a patty.
- Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add 4 or 5 potato pancakes and fry until the bottom of a pancake starts to get golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.
- Using a spatula, flip the pancakes and cook for another 2-3 minutes. These vegan potato pancakes will absorb oil, so make sure to add more oil along the way to prevent the patties from sticking.
- Transfer savory vegan potato pancakes to a plate lined with a paper towel.
- Serve with a dollop of vegan sour cream or other sauces and a sprinkling of chopped chives.
Hint: Don't add salt to the potato mixture right away. The mashed potatoes might already be salty. In addition, capers are also quite salty, so vegan potato pancake mixture might not need salt at all.
Substitutions
You will love this easy Vegan Potato Pancake recipe because it's versatile. If you don't have certain ingredients, here's how you can substitute them.
- Capers. Kalamata olives are also briny and salty so they can be used instead of capers. make sure the olives are pitted and I recommend chopping them in smaller pieces
- Flour - use gluten-free flour instead of all-purpose flour to make these vegan potato pancakes gluten-free
- Sun-dried tomatoes - you can use thinly sliced roasted bell peppers instead
- Chives - fresh parsley can be used instead
Variations
You can also make these easy vegan potato cakes with grated potatoes.
Just boil a few russet potatoes with the skin on (about 1 lb/450 g) in salted water until the potatoes are tender when poked with a knife.
Drain the water, and let the potatoes cool until no longer hot to handle. Peel the potato skin and then grate the potatoes using large holes in a box grater.
Continue making the recipe according to the instructions.
In addition, here are some more stuffing ideas for the vegan potato latkes.
- Add more veggies
- Zucchini. Dice the zucchini and sauté it in some avocado oil prior to mixing it into the potato mixture. Another option is to grate the zucchini on a box grater and squeeze all liquid to drain as much moisture out of them as possible. Then stir the zucchini into the vegan potato pancakes mixture. If you do add grated zucchini, you might also need to add a vegan binder to hold it all together. A Flax egg made from 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds and 2 tablespoon water should do the trick.
- Olives. Chop the olives into smaller pieces and stir them into the eggless mashed potato mixture.
- Play with the seasoning.
If you're leftover mashed potatoes are rather bland, you can spruce them up by adding the following seasoning/spices:
- garlic powder - ½ teaspoon
- onion powder - ½ tsp
- nutritional yeast - 1 tbsp
- Add some cheese. If you want to take these easy vegan potato pancakes from mashed potatoes to another level, you can also add vegan cheese. Just stir some vegan Mozzarella or Parmesan into the potato mixture and continue cooking according to the instructions.
Storage
Refrigerator. Generally, it's recommended to consume these potato pancakes on the same day. However, if you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge and finish within a day or two. Reheat in a microwave for 20-30 seconds.
Freezing. Please be advised that potato products might change their texture upon defrosting. However, if you really want to freeze these easy vegan latkes, cool them completely. Then, freeze by laying the pancakes in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet for 1-2 hours.
Transfer the savory mashed potato pancakes to a freezer-friendly container or bag and freeze for up to 3 month.
Defrosting. Place the frozen vegan fritters on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated to 400F oven for 10-15 minutes or until hot flipping halfway through.
Serving Ideas
These easy vegan potato pancakes are delicious when served with sour cream. However, if you're making these for Hanukkah, apple sauce will be a great accompaniment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your potato pancakes need to have as little moisture as possible. Too much moisture and the pancake won't hold its shape and start to fall apart. To fix this, add more flour to the potato mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time.
They're all very similar and made with potatoes. However, potato latkes are made with shredded potatoes versus mashed.
The best thing to do is make the mashed potatoes and store it in the refrigerator for 1-2 days until you ready to fry the pancakes.
Similar Recipes
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If you want a quick overview of the recipe, please check out Vegan Mashed Potato Pancakes web-story.
Recipe
Easy Vegan Potato Pancakes From Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 c mashed potatoes from about 1 lb raw potatoes
- ¼ c all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon fresh chives finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon capers
- 2 tablespoon sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped
For serving (optional)
- 4 tablespoon vegan sour cream
- 2 tablespoon chives finely chopped
Instructions
- To a large bowl add mashed potatoes, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh chives and flour.
- Mix with a spoon until all ingredients are combined. Taste the mixture to see if needs more salt or black pepper.
- Take a spoon-full of potato mixture and with damp hands form into a patty.
- Heat the oil in a medium frying pan and over medium heat. Add 4 or 5 potato pancakes and fry until the bottom of a pancakes starts to get golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.
- Using a spatula, flip the pancakes and cook for another 2-3 minutes. These vegan potato pancakes will absorb oil, so make sure to add more oil along the way to prevent the patties from sticking.
- Transfer savory vegan potato pancakes on a plate lined with paper towel.
- Serve with a dollop of vegan sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped chives.
Notes
Nutrition
Iryna Bychkiv is the founder and writer of the culinary website Lavender & Macarons, where she shares clean, European-inspired recipes that are delicious, easy to prepare, and made with wholesome ingredients. Iryna loves creating meals that are simple yet healthy and unique, including vegan and vegetarian recipes.
Iryna is also a freelance writer for MSN and Associated Press Wire.
Kulia says
That's exactly what I need now. Thanks!