{"id":1104,"date":"2013-11-30T16:19:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T00:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2013-11-30T16:19:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-01T00:19:32","slug":"sweet-potato-latkes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/2013\/11\/30\/sweet-potato-latkes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Potato Latkes (Vegan)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanksgivukah, Thanksgivukah<\/em>
\nCome light the cranorah…<\/em><\/p>\n

Friends, family, and a once in a lifetime holiday. \u00a0And how else to celebrate the first, and probably only, mashup of Thanksgiving and Chanukah but with sweet potato latkes and cranberry applesauce?<\/p>\n

I’m no stranger to vegan latkes<\/a> (due to my dairy allergy and my daughter’s egg allergy) and I usually make them lowcarb too. \u00a0They’re yummy, but I wanted something different. \u00a0So I searched the web and came up with a recipe from\u00a0Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats<\/a> vegan bakery in Washington DC. \u00a0Healthy Hanukkah Recipe: Vegan Sweet Potato Latkes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The “gosh it’s healthy” angle is a bit annoying (and not the fault of the chefs) but then all my food is healthy by default. \u00a0And the recipe itself is a bit weird…cooked rice, really? \u00a0Since they’re served by a restaurant, I figured they’d be well tested, but the clincher for me was the mouthwatering photos.<\/p>\n

Bottom line? \u00a0These latkes are fan-freaking-tastic. \u00a0I made a double recipe (61 latkes) and they were inhaled by the 17 people at 2013’s Environmental Health Network’s Thanksgiving dinner. \u00a0Only a few people there cared about what they were missing (gluten, dairy, egg) but everyone raved about them. \u00a0They held together amazingly well and were good even when not piping hot.<\/p>\n

I mostly followed the recipe. \u00a0My changes, in addition to doubling it, were I used all sweet potatoes (no white) (3 lbs garnet and 1 lb purple), used 1 cup dry arborio rice (one of the options), cooked. \u00a0I used brown rice flour for the flour and tapioca starch instead of cornstarch, left out the pepper, and oven fried in sunflower oil at 450*F.<\/p>\n

Here’s my version of how the recipe went down. \u00a0Giving the doubled one (feel free to halve it for smaller groups, or just freeze any leftovers…there won’t be leftovers).<\/p>\n

Ingredients:
\n<\/b>4 pounds sweet potatoes
\n2 pounds yellow onion
\n1\/2 cup scallions, finely chopped
\n1 cup dry sticky or arborio rice, cooked in 1 1\/2 cups water
\n6 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
\n1 1\/2 cups brown rice flour
\n2 tablespoons starch (I used tapioca)
\n2 teaspoons baking powder
\n2 teaspoons salt
\nOil for frying (I used sunflower; traditional would be olive)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notes: I wanted to make a low-amine\/low-histamine version. \u00a0The only ingredient I’d need to change to make that 100% so is the flax. \u00a0Chia seed works and I didn’t do it only because the flax was already ground and the chia wasn’t. \u00a0If this isn’t your food issue, go ahead and add back the black pepper (1 tsp for this recipe) and use the oil of your choice.<\/p>\n

The original recipe calls for “flour” and doesn’t specify. \u00a0I think most any flour would have worked. \u00a0It also calls for cornstarch, which is pretty much interchangeable with tapioca here. \u00a0If you need to avoid corn entirely, just swap out the baking powder for a corn-free, or homemade, one.<\/p>\n

\"Grated<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scrub the sweet potatoes, cut off ends and any bad spots, and run through the grater attachment on a food processor (or grate by hand if you prefer). \u00a0No need to peel them. \u00a0I used 3\/4 garnet sweet potatoes and 1\/4 purple ones that the Whole Foods clerk told me is popular in Guam. \u00a0Salt liberally (several tablespoons), mix, and let sit for several hours or overnight.<\/p>\n

Before you wash the processor, run your peeled and chunked onions through it as well. \u00a0If you’re doing this the day before, put the grated onions in the fridge. \u00a0After they’ve sat a while, give the sweet potatoes a good rinse to remove excess salt then grab a handful, squeeze very well, and set in a really large bowl. \u00a0Repeat. \u00a0Discard the water.<\/p>\n

Rinse your dry rice under the tap then drain and put in a pot with fresh water. \u00a0Bring to a boil, stir, then simmer on low until the rice is soft. \u00a0The amount of time this takes will vary with the size of the rice grains. \u00a020-40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Now add the rice, scallions, and onions to the sweet potato bowl. \u00a0Measure your flour into a container twice the needed size, add in the other dry ingredients, mix well. \u00a0Spread the flour mix over the vegetables and blend. \u00a0It looks very dry at this point and we wondered if it was going to work. \u00a0Then I saw the original recipe says to mix with your hands. \u00a0This was the magic step that brought it all together. \u00a0It “activates” the flax and sticky rice to make dough.<\/p>\n

\"Latke<\/a><\/p>\n

Because I knew I was going to have to reheat the latkes later, I decided to oven fry them instead of pan frying. \u00a0And I’m so glad I did. \u00a0Yes, it uses less oil but mostly it is a heck of a lot easier and less messy. \u00a0The recipe made 5 sheets worth, though I only own 4 (2 cookie sheets and 2 enameled broiling pans).<\/p>\n

Knead the dough as you work and roll endless balls, each about the size of a ping pong ball. \u00a0I placed them on well-oiled pans (enough oil to move around when you tilt the pan) with plenty of space in-between. \u00a0Then smush them down to an inch or less thick.<\/p>\n

\"Latke<\/a><\/p>\n

Bake at 450*F (yep, that’s hot) until golden brown on the bottom, flip, and keep cooking until both sides are golden. \u00a0The insides should still be soft.<\/p>\n

\"Latkes<\/a><\/p>\n

Remove to a paper towel on a pan or plate. \u00a0Serve immediately if you can. \u00a0Since I was taking them elsewhere, I put them all in a large baking pan, with paper towels between each layer. \u00a0I wiped clean the two broiling pans and brought them along. \u00a0To reheat, place in a single layer (touching is fine) in a 300*F oven until they are hot.<\/p>\n

Delicious with cranberry sauce (mine was tart with plenty of lime zest) or applesauce or both.<\/p>\n

\"Latkes<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanksgivukah, Thanksgivukah Come light the cranorah… Friends, family, and a once in a lifetime holiday. \u00a0And how else to celebrate the first, and probably only, mashup of Thanksgiving and Chanukah but with sweet potato latkes and cranberry applesauce? I’m no stranger to vegan latkes (due to my dairy allergy and my daughter’s egg allergy) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,26,3,4,64,22],"tags":[7,6,8,83,77,5,12],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanukah","category-food","category-recipes","category-holidays","category-thanksgiving","category-vegetables","tag-dairy-free","tag-egg-free","tag-gluten-free","tag-jewish-food","tag-photos-food","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}