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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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…
these would probably be delicious with a brown sugar glaze on top! i am going to have to make these tonight!
Made these for dinner. Loved them!! I am new to liking sweet potatoes- taken me awhile to come around to them. But this was delightful! My husband and I scarfed them down. You would never know really that these were mashed sweet potatoes. I didn’t have plain yogurt for sauce, so I subbed sour cream and added a pinch of salt, pepper, garlic powder and added the cilantro and green onions to it and mixed. Yum!!!
I would try this with leftover mashed sweet potatoes.
Loved this so much I”m curious on the calorie count, since it’s soooo good!
Sounds yummy but I really hate frying (no matter what it stinks up the house, which is probably operator error!) Beth do you suppose I could put patties on a greased cookie sheet to bake/flip instead? I’m sure the outer texture would be a little different – but maybe 450° for 10-15 mins on each side??? Wondering if anyone else has tried with success…
They’re quite soft, so I’m not really sure how that would work out. It might dry them up a bit, but I think you’ll just have to experiment with it to see. Let me know how it works if you give it a try!
These bear a similarity to potato latkes, so if you don’t want to fry them in a pan, you could “fry” them as one makes an oven-baked potato kugel: oven @ 350, heat a couple of TBs of oil in a baking dish; when hot, swirl it all around the dish; ladle in the mixture (don’t make it too deep, just about the same depth as a pan-fried cake); bake at 350 until golden, c. +/-25 minutes, depending on pan size and depth. Mixture will be crispy on the edges/top/bottom and soft in the middle. Means the house doesn’t smell like fried food, and this methods uses less grease.
Could I substitute butternut squash?
They’re kind of similar in texture and flavor, so it might work.
I dipped these in applesauce. So. Good.
Didn’t have yogurt, so I made a curry mayo sauce (curry, mayo, and turmeric) and it was delicious.
ooh, I like that idea! Thanks for sharing!
for Liba,
What about tadka-carmelizing some onions with the curry and tumeric and then adding it to the mayo?
http://www.ishafoundation.org/us/blog/tempering-spices/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJo7aITMdog even if you can’t use this suggestion, “TADKA” is a good technique to know. Thanks for the tips
vern
These taste very good, but they didn’t stay together. They all broke apart and turned into more of a “hash”. not sure what I did wrong….
Hmm, maybe a little bit more breadcrumbs would have helped keep them together. You do have to be careful when flipping, though, they are quite delicate.
I have the biggest craving for sweet corn and I know I have sweet potatoes at home. I’ll be making this for dinner tonight! Thanks for sharing.
So I made these a little different, I added some shredded zucchini and substituted flax egg (my son is allergic to eggs). I can’t fry anything to save my life, they just stuck to the pan and were a mess. So I decided to try them in my mini cupcake pan and bake them. Perfect! Not as much of a crispy crust, but still yummy. I baked them at 400 for about 30 minutes or so, I have no idea really, I just kept checking on them. Delicious, thank you!
Could you freeze these if you make too many? If not, how long would they be good for in the fridge?
Yes, I do think these would freeze well, either before or after cooking. They’re so small that you can reheat them in a warm (but not hot) skillet.
Ok thank you! Working on them tonight for dinner.
Green onion does not freeze well, leave it out if you’re gonna freeze them.
If you do not want to use the microwave to prepare the potatoes you can peel and slice the potatoes and cook them on the stovetop in water then mash them. I have made these a couple times now and they are absolutely delicious.
Don’t waste time peeling and slicing; boil the sweet potatoes whole in their skins! They still cook pretty quickly, definitely faster than individually microwaving 3lbs worth.
My daughter found this recipe, i am vegetarian, thought it sounded amazing…made these today, and we both loved them! They taste as good as they look.
Delicious! I served these with manchego and honey instead of the garlic sauce when some friends came over. Such a hit! Everyone devoured them.