Sweet potato fritters

The recipe for today is a favourite of ours and has been since Thanksgiving a couple of years ago.  I wanted to spice up the veggies that particular year, so I figured that instead of serving just simple roasted sweet potatoes I would try to turn them into a crispy patty and serve it with a dipping sauce. I actually paired it with a creamy cashew curry sauce (oh my yum!) which I'll share with you in a later post. I served it as an appetizer and it as an absolute hit.  At the time, I roasted the sweet potatoes in the oven, cooked the quinoa separately and browned the onions and later mixed it all together. But honestly these days I look for the simplest and quickest method possible.  One-pot cooking is the way to go for me and most of the rest of the world given the pace of life these days. But I changed my method of cooking not only as a time saver but also to change the properties of the food.

Cooking methods change the energetic and nutritional properties of our food based on studies conducted from both a Western and an Eastern perspective. Recent studies have shown that boiling sweet potatoes rather than roasting have shown better blood sugar effects, including the achievement of a lower glycemic index, or GI value. From an Eastern perspective, baking will lead to a more drying substance for the body while boiling is a good way to extract yin nourishing substances, making food easier to digest and absorb. So both methods have their place and I'm not suggesting eating a baked sweet potato is in any shape harmful, but I find it so interesting how different cooking methods will change the way our body assimilates nutrients.

I call these fritters but they're not really frittering as they contain no egg and they're not fried. However, they share two things in common with fritters: they're crispy (yum! - love that) and they're small. So fritters it is :). I love this recipe because it's simple, makes quite a big batch and you can keep it in the fridge or freeze it for later.  I generally make a batch and have it throughout the week as a way to get in some orange veggies into my diet.  Sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamin A. Several studies have shown the superior ability of sweet potatoes to raise our blood levels of vitamin A. Pairing them with a fat as I do with the cashew-based dipping sauce, will actually enhance your body's ability to convert the beta-carotene into a usable form vitamin A. Vitamin A isn't the only nutrient found in sweet potatoes of-course. It's also a great source of vitamin C, manganese, copper, various B vitamins, potassium and phosphorus. So add these yummy goodies to your diet and your body will thank you for it!

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Sweet potato fritters

Yield: 20

Author: Lara

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 1 H & 15 MTotal time: 1 H & 35 M

It’s a simple dish to make at home. Sweet potato fritters make an ideal appetizer or side-dish.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of raw quinoa
• 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes cubed (approx 6 cups)
• 1 large onion diced
• 3 cups of water
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 chia egg replacer
• 1 tbsp avocado oil (to grease the baking sheet)

Instructions

1. Place quinoa into a mesh strainer and rinse under cool water, strain and place into a medium-sized cooking pot.
2. Chop onion and sweet potato into cubes approx 1/2 inch in size and place into the pot with quinoa.
3. Stir in 3 cups of clean water and salt.
4. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover and allow to simmer for 30 minutes until all of the water has been fully absorbed.
5. Remove from heat, uncover and allow to cool. Once cooled enough to handle comfortably, add to it the chia egg replacer, oregano and paprika and mash with a potato masher to break down some of the larger pieces of sweet potato.
6. Heat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet lined with parchment paper lightly with avocado oil (approx. 1 Tbsp.).
7. Measure approx. 1/4 cup of cooled mixture and roll into a ball. Flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet.
8. Bake for 30-40 min until the bottom is golden in colour and flip over - bake another 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately or place on a cooling rack.
9. Can keep refrigerated for up to a week or freeze for up to a month - but they won't last that long ;)

Notes:

To make chia egg replacer, add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to 3 tablespoons of water and allow to thicken for at least 5 minutes.

 

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