I feel like a horrible secular Jew and a horrible non-secular vegan. It’s the middle of Hannukah and I haven’t posted a latkes recipes yet. Well, better late than never. These are in Veganomicon and are the most irresistible fried potato concoction there is. Serve with apple sauce, if you’ve got VwaV the roasted applesauce in there is great with these. But any apple sauce will do, really.
Potato Latkes
Makes about 18
2 1/2 pounds starchy white potatoes, peeled (russets, idaho, et al)
1 small yellow onion, peeled
1/4 cup potato or corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups matzoh meal
Lots of vegetable oil
If using a food processor:
Use the grating blade to shredd the potatoes and the onion.
If shredding by hand, use a grater to shred all the potatoes. Dice the onion as finely as possible.
Have ready brown paper shopping bags or paper towels for draining the oil from the latkes. You may also want to have the oven on at 200 F to keep the latkes warm until you’re ready to serve. If serving immediately then just have a baking pan covered with tin foil ready to keep the finished ones warm after they’ve been drained.
In a large mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon or your hands (I use my hands, it’s faster) mix the potatoes and onions with the potato starch until the potatoes have released some moisture and the sornstarch is dissolved, about 2 minutes.
Add the salt and pepper to combine. Add the matzoh meal and mix well. Set aside for about 10 minutes. The mixture should get liquid-y but sticky.
In the meantime, preheat a large preferable cast iron but definitely non-stick skillet over medium heat, a little bit on the high side. Add about 1/4 inch layer of vegetable oil to the pan. The oil is hot enough when you throw a bit of batter in and bubbles rapidly form around it. If it immediately smokes then the heat is too high and you should lower it a bit. If the bubbles are really lazy then give it a few more minutes or turn the heat up a bit.
With wet hands (so that the mixture doesn’t stick) roll into small golf ball sized balls. Flatten into thin round patties. I do about 4 to six at a time. Fry on one side for about 4 minutes, until golden brown. Flip over and fry for another 3 minutes.
Transfer to the paper towels and proceed with the remaining latkes. Once latkes have drained on both sides, place in a baking pan to keep warm.
To those who asked about baking, no, because if they are baked they are not latkes. They may be edible or even good, but they are not latkes. The point of Hanukkah foods (i.e., latkes and sufiganyot) is that they are fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil to relight the Temple menorah. Baking latkes is in the same category as the idiot who fried his latkes in bacon grease. Just no–that’s a potato pancake, not a latke.
These were perfect! They tasted exactly like the non-vegan latkes my parents always made. I used matzo ball mix instead of plain matzo meal, and omitted the salt and pepper (since they were already in the matzo ball mix) and they were delicious and tasted exactly as latkes should. Yum
Another year, another awesome vegan Chanukah party with these latkes! Thank you Isa! You really do do it and you did it! 🙂
Would gluten-free flour mix work as a substitute for matzoh meal? Gluten-free matzoh meal has egg in it.
One of the parents at my daughter’s nursery school is bringing latkes tomorrow, but she’s allergic to egg (and I’m vegan), so I just made these. Going to have to fight urges to eat them all tonight. They are outstanding. Thanks for another great recipe, Isa!
I think I had too much potato so I grated half a zucchini and it was perfect. I will add more onion to the next batch though. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
These are AMAZING! I made them for an early Hanukkah party last night and everyone said they were my best ever. I can’t believe that you don’t have to wring out any of the moisture! I was pretty concerned about that, but Isa’s recipes are always awesome so I followed the instructions despite my skepticism. I hand grated the potatoes but used a food processor for the onions because I hate that part. Really recommend using a cast iron pan for that extra crisp.
Well these were totally on point. I doubled it, which was about right for 10 people. I wanted to suggest upping the salt a bit, but I was using some unfamiliar sea salt product (not my kitchen) so maybe it was just a less dense salt than I guessed.
I had never actually made latkes before, and I haven’t had them since going vegan around 4 years ago. So there was a bit of a learning curve for frying technique, how thin they should be and how much they needed to be fried, which just took a bit of testing.
A couple family members who have made latkes in past years were concerned that the recipe didn’t mention pressing water out of the shredded potatoes, and were fairly sure I should take the time to do that (and judging by other comments here a lot of people had this concern), but I pushed for following the recipe just as written on the basis that the eggless approach (with starch) is a little different and ICM knows what she’s doing.
And it worked! So in addition to being vegan, this recipe has the benefit of being easier.
Highly recommend!
I absolutely loved these! Only thing is that next time I would definitely add more salt. But still delicious!
If I have to make these the night before for my kids school event , how can I store and make sure they’re crispy the next day? Reheat in pan or oven in the morning?? Thanks!
I branched out from my mother’s traditional latkes long ago. I make mine hot pink using Yukon gold, carrot and red beets, with leeks in place of onions. And I’m vegetarian so I can use egg as the binder, plus whole wheat or unbleached flour and baking powder, sea salt. I don’t keep sour cream or applesauce in the house, and usually doctor up plain nonfat Greek yogurt with different additions, it’s healthier than sour cream anyway. 🙂