Zucchini & Sweet Potato Latkes
Try this Zucchini & Sweet Potato Latkes recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Zucchini & Sweet Potato Latkes recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 3.04042172987616 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 8.03799509196118 g
- Fiber 1.55741893380622 g
- Protein 0.952005880417957 g
- Saturated Fat 4.53516375173453 g
- Serving Size 1 1 ) 5" latke (42g)
- Sodium 45.0848316562897 mg
- Sugar 1.48300279606994 g
- Trans Fat 0.386840795201377 g
- Calories 83 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine the zucchini, sweet potato and egg in a medium bowl.
- In a small bowl, mix the coconut flour and spices together. Add the dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture and stir until fully combined.
- Heat the ghee and olive oil in a medium nonstick pan. Divide the mixture into four equal portions and drop into the pan, pressing down with a fork until a 1/2 inch thick cake is formed. Cook on medium heat until golden and crisp, then flip carefully and cook the other side. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
- Season with an additional sprinkle of kosher salt. Serve hot.
The Moisture Paradox of Root and Vine Vegetables
Extracting liquid from shredded zucchini and sweet potatoes dictates the structural integrity of the final cake. Raw vegetables carry high water content that converts to steam during frying, sabotaging crispness if left unaddressed. Salting the grated produce draws out excess moisture through osmotic pressure before it ever touches the pan. Pressing the mixture firmly inside a clean linen towel removes residual water far more effectively than hand-squeezing alone. Coconut flour acts as an efficient binder here due to its high absorbency, requiring only a tablespoon to anchor the vegetable starches without rendering the interior dense. Maintaining medium heat on the nonstick skillet prevents the exterior spices from burning before the starchy sweet potato cooks through to the center.
Fat Selection and Thermal Dynamics
Frying requires precise fat selection to achieve a golden crust without smoking or scorching. Combining ghee and extra virgin olive oil raises the smoke point while retaining the rich, buttery flavor profile necessary for root vegetable fritters. Clarified butter lacks milk solids that burn quickly at high temperatures, making it superior to standard butter for stovetop frying. Flattening each portion to precisely one-half inch thickness ensures rapid, even heat penetration from the pan bottom to the upper surface. Doubling or tripling the batch size requires frying in multiple rounds rather than crowding the skillet, which drops oil temperature and causes steaming instead of frying. Transferring cooked latkes to wire racks rather than paper towels maintains bottom-crust airflow, preventing condensation from softening the crisp exterior.
