Vegan potato cakes made with leftover mashed potatoes, rice, carrots, onions, and parsley! These potato cakes are crispy and lovely from the outside, but super soft from the inside.
They are so easy to make, and the kids love them. Naturally gluten-free, and suitable for toddlers. Also great for freezing and make ahead meals.
Vegan Potato Cakes
I grew up eating potato cakes. My Mum always made different variations of potato cakes (maybe that’s a Russian thing?), and our whole family really loved them.
I shared my Mum’s cheesy potato cakes recipe on the blog a couple of years ago, and as so many of my readers loved the recipe I thought that it’s time to share a different variation that I really love.
This recipe is dairy-free, vegan, gluten-free, uses more vegetables and will also save the leftover mashed potatoes that you don’t know what to do with from being thrown out.
The cheesy potato cakes recipe uses an egg to help bind the mashed potatoes to create dense cakes (can be subbed with flax egg), it also calls for some starch or flour. However, this recipe is totally vegan and gluten-free! We add rice and some veggies for that extra flavour.
We don’t normally use any spices to make these vegan potato cakes but feel free to do so especially if you’re not cooking for really young children.
The Ingredients
The ingredients used to make these potato cakes are quite simple. You will need:
- Leftover mashed potatoes, or just boiled potatoes
- Cooked white rice
- Sauteed diced onion with shredded carrot
- Chopped parsley
- Salt
- You could also add some spices if you like
The Directions
After you mix the ingredients together in a mixing bowl, shape the mixture into small patties.
If you’re finding it difficult to shape patties because the mixture is too soft, pop in the fridge for 15-20 minutes and then work with it.
Shape the patties, and shallow fry them in a frying pan until they’re golden and crispy. Serve warm.
Expert Tips
- If you’re boiling potatoes to make these potato fritters or cakes, use a potato ricer or masher to mash them and make sure that there are no lumps left.
- Fully cook the rice before adding it to the mixture.
- Make patties that are not too big. Big patties start to break and won’t easily cook through.
- You could add different herbs to the patties, I’ve added parsley this time but I also add dill or chives sometimes.
- When shallow frying the potato cakes, fry on medium heat until the patties start to crisp as the crispy exterior is what’s so special about these potato fritters.
Whether you are making these for yourself or for your family including young children, I hope that you love them as much as we do!
Recommended Tools
- Non-stick pan. I like to shallow fry fritters and vegetable cakes on a good quality non-stick pan, it ensures that they never stick to the pan and they always cook evenly.
- Glass bowl. This is the set that I have and use for everything from baking to cooking.
- Stainless steel measuring spoons. I’ve had this set for so long now, honestly, the quality is amazing and they will last you for ages!
- Turner. Always make sure that the turner that you’re using is heat-resistant!
More Potato Recipes
- Smothered potatoes (my fav!)
- Cheesy scalloped potatoes
- Instant Pot buttered potatoes
- Smashed potatoes
- Cheesy mashed potato cakes
- Vegan potato soup
- Instant Pot potato salad
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I hope that you love every recipe that you make! – Diana x
Vegan Potato Cakes with Rice
Ingredients
- 1 pound (450 grams) potatoes russets
- ½ cup (100 grams) rice
- 2 small onions diced
- 2 carrots peeled and grated
- 5 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves chopped
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Boil peeled potatoes until soft, and mash them.
- Cook the rice.
- Saute onions and carrots until they’re soft.
- In a bowl combine the mashed potatoes with the cooked rice, sauteed carrots and onions, parsley and season with salt to taste. Divide the mixture into 14-16 portions and shape balls then flatten into cakes using your hands.
- Fry in vegetable oil on medium heat until the cakes are golden and crispy for 3-4 minutes (the mixture will be very soft so be careful not to break the cakes while frying), flip and cook for around 3 more minutes. Serve hot.
Notes
- If you’re boiling potatoes to make these potato fritters or cakes, use a potato ricer or masher to mash them and make sure that there are no lumps left.
- Fully cook the rice before adding it to the mixture.
- Make patties that are not too big. Big patties start to break and won’t easily cook through.
- You could add different herbs to the patties, I’ve added parsley this time but I also add dill or chives sometimes.
- When shallow frying the potato cakes, fry on medium heat until the patties start to crisp as the crispy exterior is what’s so special about these potato fritters.
Maroula
Hello
These look really yummy
I was wondering if you could use half potato and half sweet potato?
Looking forward to making them 😊
Diana
Hi Maroula,
I haven’t tried that but I’m sure that you can! Let me know how it goes. Enjoy!
Shauna
My husband and I made these last night. We changed it by using avocado oil, 21 season salute, and spinach. After we tried them we added Tabasco and vegan sour cream. Absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Diana
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Shauna! Thank you so much for sharing your tweaks and this wonderful review!
Alvi
Can you use wild rice instead of white?
Diana
I haven’t tested this recipe using wild rice, so I’m not sure if the potato cakes will fall apart when made with wild rice. You might need to add 1 egg or flax egg to help bind it though (1 tbsp of ground flax + 3 tbsp water). If you try it, please let me know how it turned out!
Amy
These are delicious but extremely hard to make! They just fall apart in the pan. What am I doing wrong!?
Amy
I figured it out. I didn’t have the eye hot enough. Makes a big difference! So yummy!
Diana
Thanks for reporting back, Amy! I’m glad you were able to figure it out and enjoy the recipe!
Sheri
I made this recipe and loved it!! I used a little almond milk when mashing the potatoes and had no problem with them falling apart. You have to have a hot pan before trying them and let them fry about 5 minutes on each side. I used only avocado oil spray when frying them. I also added a little dried chives. Yummy!!!
Diana
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it, Sheri! Thank you for sharing your tweaks!
Ms G
These were amazing! Thank you for sharing this! I will be making them often.
Meghan Smith
These look GREAT! I’m going to make NOW I just joined your group I’ve been WFPB since mid August so excited to see so much enthusiasm on this subject my cousin introduced me to Dr Greggor how not to die a few years ago but I really grabbed a hold of the whole concept only this summer
My little sister gave me an instapot for Christmas so I really don’t have mashed potatoes but I have whole I think I’m going to rice potatoes and put all ingredients together then do the cakes in the oven on a tray or better yet I might try the cup cake pan thank you for this great meal idea especially because I have all these ingredients I might even throw some sun dried tomatoes since I have a very large bulk package of them in the fridge I LOVE learning the instapot I think the tomatoes will give it a lovely kick.
Sally
I want to try these for my vegan relatives. Could you please tell me how much is 500 grams russet potatoes?
Diana
About 1 lbs. Enjoy!
Holly
Hi, I’ll be making these later today. The recipe says 2 onions, but I’m wondering if that is a typo or does it mean 2 green onions/scallions? It seems that 2 whole onions would be far too much for this recipe. Thank you!
Diana
2 medium yellow onions for 1/2 kg of potatoes is fine, but feel free to use just 1 onion if you prefer.
Tamara
Delicious😋 thank you
Diana
I’m glad that you enjoyed them!
Sunny
Can you please let me know if these can be frozen after shaped into ball and before frying.
Thanks
Diana
I’ve never tried freezing uncooked potato cakes. I normally cook them, then let them completely cool down then freeze on a baking tray for 2 hours. After that pop them in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. The potato cakes are best served warmed up, so I suggest that you pop them in the oven for a few minutes before serving.
Ashley
Turned out amazing!
Heather Evans
Can you bake these instead of frying them?
Diana
Hi Heather, I haven’t tried baking the potato cakes so I don’t really know how they will turn out. But if you decide to bake them, I would suggest drizzling the cakes with some oil as you want the potatoes to crisp up a little.
Cinthia
Which temperature would you recommend to bake them and for how long?
Diana
I’d bake them for probably 20 minutes at 180c, but you might need to bake them for a bit longer. Please let me know if you try it.
Wendy Tomlinson
I love this twist – I love potato cakes and looking forward to trying out this version.
amsale
looks so good I cant wait to have my child try this, hoping she would love it
Lynn Neal
These look delicious, I am going to try them out!
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I usually have leftover mashed potatoes thrown in the bin. Finally, a good way to take advantage of them!
Michelle
These look so tasty! I grew up eating potato cakes too, it’s such a great way to use up any leftover mash potato. I love this version, will definitely try this.
Veena Azmanov
These look yummy and delicious. The flavors are amazing. Love the Crispiness too. Potatoes are always so yummy in any form.
Tisha
The Potato cakes looks so flavorful and yummy!!
Valentina
I love potato cakes and most recipes seem to have breadcrumbs, so I’m happy to find this one. My son is GF and will gobble these up! And they’re so perfectly crisped! YUM!