Potato cakes that are made with leftover mashed potatoes. These lovely Cheesy Mashed Potato Cakes that are soft from the inside, but golden and crispy from the outside!
Make sure to check out my Vegan potato cakes with rice and carrot, they’re to die for!
The long-awaited summer is finally here! And so is the long summer school vacation. There are lots of activities and outings planned for this season, be it: swimming, sunbathing, playing in the park, hiking, travelling, planning picnics and BBQs, meeting friends outside and discovering new places. But when it’s raining outside, there’s not much to do. Or is there? Well, we still need to keep our kids busy while staying indoors, knowing how the British summers are!
And we miss the luxury of just getting them out and let them occupy themselves with less guidance and supervision needed by adults. So when it’s raining, we stay indoors. Would that mean we get more free time to do things we plan to do? With kids around, it’s never the case! On the contrary, when we stay indoors we need to plan things more carefully. We organise playdates, we paint, we play board games, we do pretend play. And yes, when I say “we” I do mean it.
Parents and children do more things together while staying inside, simply to avoid any “catastrophic” situations which we could end up with if kids are left to spend time alone. So I just sit with them on the floor and we do different things together. But what about food?
After spending hours playing with kids, I end up having little time to prepare something to eat. Or shall I just order a take out? Would it be a healthy option to feed those little growing bodies with takeaway meals? Instead of ordering some pizzas I’d rather just cook something quick, healthy, nutritious and delicious and enjoy it all together. An excellent example of that is this recipe!
Mashed Potato Cakes
These potato cakes are sort of like veggie fritters, but they’re made from leftover mashed potatoes. With a crunchy exterior and creamy interior, your kids will love these potato cakes! You should also try these corn fritters, this recipe is 100% family approved.
How to Make Potato Cakes
These warm, crispy cheesy mashed potato cakes can be prepared in no time, actually, they’re ready in under 20 minutes!
Step 1.
Simply boil a few potatoes and mash them with a small piece of butter (I use this potato ricer) adding a pinch of salt and ground black pepper, or use leftover mashed potato if you have any. If using boiled potatoes, make sure that you chill them after mashing so they’re no longer warm.
If you’re using leftover mashed potatoes, then make sure that you didn’t add too much milk and butter to make the mashed potatoes extra smooth. Ideally, mashed potatoes need to be quite thick to hold shape otherwise you will end up adding too much flour and that will result in bland potato cakes.
I also noticed that store-bought mashed potatoes don’t work very well to make potato cakes, so make sure that you’re using homemade mashed potatoes.
Step 2.
Add an egg, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped herbs, and some garlic. I used chopped scallions and it tasted great. You could also add curry powder or any other seasoning that you like.
Mix all ingredients together then divide into 100 gm portions to create little cakes.
Step 3.
Roll each portion into a ball then gently flatten into a cake about a 1.5-inch-thick.
Step 4.
Lightly dredge each cake in cornstarch and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown and crispy on both sides. Finally, transfer the cakes to a towel-lined plate and serve them warm.
What I love about this recipe, is that it requires shallow frying rather than deep frying and that’s always a win!
I would recommend serving these potato cakes while they’re still warm, but I’m always happy to eat them even if they’re already cold.
Recommended Tools
- Potato Masher; this potato masher is perfect for making smooth mashed potatoes and it’s safe to use in nonstick pots. Or a potato ricer (I really like this one).
- Large mixing bowl
- Garlic press; This is the only garlic press that I ever use! It’s the best model that I’ve used so far as all of the garlic gets squeezed out, and none gets stick inside the press. My Mum and sister use the same one as well so it’s highly recommended. Plus I don’t think that it can ever break, so if you need a new garlic press then this is a great choice.
- Large frying pan; to shallow fry the potato cakes you will need a large nonstick pan. Frying the cakes in a small one will take you ages, and if they start sticking to the bottom of the pan then they can get ruined.
These potato cakes can also be served with a teaspoon of sour cream and dill on each, which I find very refreshing.
The Scottish version of these potato cakes is called Tattie Scones, however, they don’t use an egg and just add butter and salt to the boiled and mashed potatoes. They’re also thinner than these potato cakes, and use dry and light potatoes in the recipe.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Cheesy Mashed Potato Cakes
Ingredients
- 3 large potatoes
- 1 egg
- ½ cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons green onion chopped
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Boil the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher adding a pinch of salt and a bit of butter. Chill in the fridge until no longer warm.
- Add one egg, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped herbs like scallions, one clove of garlic (crushed).
- Mix all ingredients together and then divide into mixture into 100 gm portions each.
- Roll each portion into a ball then flatten it into a cake of about a 1.5-inch-thick.
- Lightly dredge each cake in cornstarch and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown and crispy on both sides.
- Transfer the cakes to a towel-lined plate and serve hot.
Notes:
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Nuffy says
Now to reconstruct to make these Vegan? Just wondering why you’ve added eggs and cheese when the site states you are a Vegan Chef…could you give a Vegan option please. I’m allergic to Dairy and Eggs, whoops sorry!
Thanks,
Nuffy….
Diana says
Hi Nuffy, I’m a vegan trained chef but not all of my recipes are vegan. You can leave out the egg and the cheese if you want to veganise this recipe (you might want to add a little bit of flour though if the potato cakes are too soft, and you can use vegan cheese). I also have another potato cakes recipe that is vegan, it’s really good https://littlesunnykitchen.com/potato-cakes/
Olga says
Diana, it’s really awesome! This will quickly become a favorite in our house!
Diana says
Glad you liked the recipe!
Shaddz says
My problem with this recipe was that there wasn’t a quantity given for salt so I improvised by putting half teaspoon of salt to the egg along with the black pepper, pimento pepper and chives. Beat the egg with the seasoning then add it to the mashed potatoes. Baked in the oven at 400F for about 30 minutes. It was a hit at lunch today. Can’t wait to try it again
Bianca says
Will it work if I put them in the oven? I’d like to avoid deep fry..
Diana says
I haven’t tested baking these potato cakes, but I would recommend shallow frying them with a little bit of oil.
debbie says
i just wanted to know if u could make these and then freeze them and if so how long do they keep in the freezer and can theh be cooked from frozen or have they got to be thawed completely tia xx