I’ve been dying to post this all week because these Sweet Potato Corn Cakes are SOOO good and I just know that you’ll love them as much as I do… and if you don’t, I might be forced to ask myself what is wrong with you.
These are “every bite is better than the last one” good. They’re so good that they make you wonder why other food even exists when flavors this bright and vibrant are possible.
…and thats what I was thinking when eating the reheated leftovers a minute ago. So, can you imagine how good they were fresh? Probably not. It’s unimaginable. You have to experience it.
Anyway, enough gushing. Onto the important stuff.
First – This recipe makes a HUGE batch, so feel free to half it. I wouldn’t suggest trying to half a raw egg, instead just add more than half breadcrumbs (probably 3/4 cup) to make up for the extra moisture.
Second – These sweet potato corn cakes are fried. You’ll just have to accept that. I tried to bake some and they were horrid. Dry, poor texture, just not good. If you’re brave enough to try baking them yourself and actually have success, please share your technique… because I just couldn’t make it work.
Third – I demand that you to try these.
Sweet Potato Corn Cakes with Garlic Dipping Sauce
Sweet Potato Corn Cakes with Garlic Dipping Sauce
Servings 10 about 3 cakes eachIngredients
- 3 lbs sweet potatoes ($3.17)
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels ($0.30)
- 2 green onions ($0.19)
- 1/4 bunch cilantro, divided ($0.21)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1 tsp cumin ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 large egg ($0.25)
- 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal ($0.19)
- 1 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.50)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying ($0.43)
- 1 cup plain yogurt ($0.55)
- 1 clove garlic ($0.08)
Instructions
- Begin by cooking the sweet potatoes. The fastest way to do this is in the microwave. Prick the skin of each potato with a fork. Wrap one potato in a paper towel, place it on a plate, and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Carefully remove it from the microwave, squeeze it to make sure it’s soft in the center, and the allow it cool as you cook the next one. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them open and scoop the flesh into a large bowl.
- Slice the green onions and roughly chop a handful of cilantro (about 1/8th of a bunch). Add the green onions, cilantro, frozen corn kernels, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper to the bowl with the cooked sweet potatoes. Stir until well combined. You can taste it at this point and adjust the seasoning as desired.
- Add the breadcrumbs, cornmeal, and egg to the bowl. These ingredients will bind the mixture together and keep it from falling apart while cooking. Stir until evenly combined. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb moisture.
- While the sweet potato mixture is refrigerating, mix up the garlic sauce. In a small bowl combine the yogurt, one clove of well minced garlic, and a handful of cilantro leaves (roughly chopped). Stir until combined and then refrigerate until ready to serve.
- After the sweet potato mixture has refrigerated, it’s time to cook. Add enough vegetable oil to fully cover the bottom of a medium skillet. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until the surface appears wavy (if it begins to smoke, remove it from the burner immediately and turn down the heat). Shape the sweet potato mixture into small patties (about 2-3 Tbsp each) and cook about 4 at a time in the hot oil. Cook until golden brown on each side; about 2 minutes per side. After cooking, place on a paper towel covered plate to drain. Add more oil to the skillet as needed.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Serve warm with the garlic yogurt dipping sauce.
Step By Step Photos
Start by pricking the skin of each sweet potato to allow steam to escape as they cook. No one wants to clean exploded sweet potato out of their microwave.
Wrap one potato in a paper towel and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Carefully squeeze it to make sure it’s soft in the center and then cook the next one. I used one paper towel for all four sweet potatoes.
They’ll be super hot when they come out of the microwave, so let them cool just a bit before cutting into them. Slice it open and scoop out the cooked flesh.
Place the cooked sweet potato in a bowl and add the frozen corn kernels (they’ll help cool the sweet potato the rest of the way), sliced green onions, roughly chopped cilantro, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Stir it all together.
Now it’s time to add the binders. I used one egg, 1/3 cup of cornmeal (it helps bind and gives more texture than just breadcrumbs) and one cup of breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs are not in the picture (don’t ask). Stir it all together and then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
While the sweet potato mix is refrigerating, make the garlic yogurt sauce. Finely mince a clove of garlic and roughly chop another handful of cilantro. Stir those into a cup of plain yogurt. You can add a pinch of salt if you’d like. Refrigerate the sauce until you’re ready to serve.
After the mixture has chilled, it’s time to cook. Take about 2 Tbsp of sweet potato mix and shape it into a small patty. My mixture was still pretty wet/sticky, but it was shape-able.
Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. You want the oil to be quite hot before adding the cakes. It should look wavy on the surface. You can take a pinch of the sweet potato mixture and add it to the skillet to test it. It should sizzle heavily. Add about four patties to the skillet and cook until deep golden brown on one side, then flip.
Cook on the other side in the same manner. It should only take about two minutes per side. Try not to make your patties too thick otherwise the inside won’t heat through before the outside browns. About a half inch thick is good.
Place the cooked sweet potato cakes on a paper towel lined plate and cook the next batch. Add more oil as needed, always allowing it to heat up before adding more sweet potato cakes.
Why, hello there little warm, delicious sweet potato corn cakes…
I really hate reading food blogs with 100 comments about how great the food “looks” or how great the recipe “seems”.
I actually made these and they were incredibly delicious.
Someone suggested panko and I am horrified. I hate panko bread crumbs. The recipe is great just the way it is. Inevitably, one will see a great recipe and realize they don’t have something on hand, and improvisation must be necessary. It’s to be expected.
Thanks for a cheap and delicious recipe. Super quick to assemble. I will be trying to bake them, however, because frying is so many calories–yikes!
Beth,
Am a huge fan of this site. I’ve only known about it for four months but it has already changed the way I think about food. Am now planning all my meals for the week and re-using ingredients throughout. I needed a sweet potato recipe because I had used them already this week in a soup and for sweet potato fries with some black bean burgers. While all the recipes were good, this one was AMAZING. Served it with a side salad and it was so filling. Keep up the good work! By your example I’ve made all my own pizzas when I want them, used better than bouillon and have frozen so many meals for those nights when my boyfriend and I are too tired for cooking! Thanks for all the yums. Especially this one. :)
My three-year-old takes two corn cakes and sticks them together with the sauce to make a sandwich. He ate three “sandwiches” last night at dinner and asked for more for breakfast this morning. I call that a success.
Also: I only had 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, so I just used extra cornmeal. I refrigerated the dough overnight, and it worked just fine.
These were amazing! I served them over a bed of sauteed arugula with a side of roasted sunchokes.
LOVE them!!!!!! My husband suggested making them with canned salmon next time, so I will do that with the other 1/2 of the batter I froze for an awesome Sunday brunch. Failed miserably at the dip, but paired it with Trader Joe cilantro lime dip and it was perfect. Thanks!
So. Damn. Good!! Microwaving each potato one at a time was very time consuming compared to just putting them all in the oven and forgetting about them for an hour. Next time I’m going to plan ahead a bit and just do that. They may take a little longer to cool too. But I think it will be worth it, since it seems like the skin comes off easier when I bake it too.
We used a can of corn, and it ended up being too much corn. So I’ll go with the recipe and use the frozen corn next time!
Thanks for the recipe! I love this site!
Milosmommyzilla – They might be pretty good still. I think the only sticky points would be A) the texture won’t be crispy on the outside and B) sometimes reheated fried things have that strange old oil flavor… but I dunno, the ingredients are so strongly flavored them selves that it might not be bad? Those are my only thoughts having never done it :)
Beth, I really REALLY want to make a bunch of these and take them to a luncheon next month at work, but obviously I can’t just fry them up on the spot! Sad day! If I were to cook them the night before, keep them in the fridge, then foil line my crock pot and put in on WARM for a few hours before hand, do you think they’d still be okay? They were just SO GOOD I have to share!
These turned out great! My one year old ate two in no time at all! We had LOTS of the yummy sauce left… is there any good way to store this? I know that yogurt doesn’t always hold up well to freezing…
Love your idea, Nicole…that will be perfect for your Thanksgiving feast!! I’ll be making these this week for my book club gathering!! Can’t wait to try them!! And, then…try them again during the holidays using Nicole’s idea!!:)
I think I am going to try to make these for thanksgiving but with sage and nutmeg instead of cumin/cayenne/cilantro and use a maple cream sauce. Ill have to try the original recipe after the holidays, they look great!
I’ve featured this recipe on my blog: http://dontboilmybooks.weebly.com/1/post/2012/11/sweet-potato-madness.html
We made these last night and they were to. die. for. My husband picked up strawberry yogurt instead of plain (?) so we just used a little mayo and it worked great. And we just ate leftovers on buns as a veggie burger!
I would suggest baking the potatoes instead of boiling, because you don’t want a lot of excess moisture. I tried baking some of the cakes and they turned out rather dry. Perhaps if you cover them with a good bit of non-stick spray (or some spray oil) it will be similar to frying.
I don’t have a microwave, can I just boil the sweet potatoes? also my oven is not working right now so I can’t bake. any ideas?