Staff Recipes: Ele’s Favorite Vegan Latkes!

Ele Watts is the Manager of the Capitol Hill Farmers Market. This is their buddy, Buckwheat!

I LOVE latkes, which American Jews traditionally eat during Chanukah, (this year, December 10th – 18th), ostensibly to celebrate the miraculous oil at the center of the Chanukah story. (Fun fact: In Israel, they typically don’t eat latkes, but rather doughnuts, as their oily celebratory food. I can attest that 9th and Hennepin doughnuts fill this need quite well, in addition to latkes.) The secret is that I HATE making latkes, so every year, I go to a party or try to get myself invited over for dinner so that someone else will make them for me. I don’t actually have my own recipe, I use this one from The Spruce Eats.

LATKES

• 3 pounds Russet-style potatoes

• 1 onion, finely minced

• 2 eggs or egg substitute, prepared according to package instructions

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 3 tablespoons flour

• 1 teaspoons baking powder

• Oil for frying

• Optional: Sweet potatoes, parsnip, carrot, apples

• Optional: Homemade applesauce, sour cream

 Latkes are traditionally simple fried potato pancakes, but you can get really creative with the ingredients, swapping in grated sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, even apples for some of the potatoes. Just adjust the other ingredients as needed to get the desired consistency of the batter.

Grate potatoes into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Drop potato mixture into the pan – about 2-3 tablespoons per latke – and gently flatten into a pancake shape. Cook latkes for about 3 to 4 minutes on one side, until golden brown, then flip and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes on the other side until cooked through and crispy on the edges, adding more oil as needed. Top with homemade applesauce or sour cream, and enjoy. Chanukah sameach!