Indian-Spiced Sweet Potato Fritters

In today’s post, I’m sharing a new plant-based recipe that my family has been loving lately… it’s the Indian-spiced Sweet Potato Fritter. These fritters are filled with simple ingredients – sweet potato, onion, chickpea flour and spinach – which also happen to be nutritional powerhouses, providing an array of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants ✨ The Indian spices used to flavour the fritters – cumin and garam masala – notch up their antioxidant potency even further.

Not only are they quick and easy to make, but they’re super cheap too! According to my calculations, it cost just £1.07 to make six fritters. That’s 18p per burger. Bargain!

The inspiration for the this recipe came from last month’s issue of Vegan Life magazine. On pages 78-79, a recipe for Sweet Potato Onion Bhajis caught my eye. I love onion bhajis but I’ve never made them with sweet potato before. I was excited to give them a try!

As often happens with me, I started out following the recipe then discovered that I didn’t have all the required ingredients. Then inspiration started flowing and, before I knew it, the thing I was intending to make morphed into something else. I guess that’s all part of the creative process!

On my first attempt at the bhajis, I pressed the batter down so that the middle cooked through evenly, but I pressed a bit too hard. As a result, they ended up looking more like fritters than bhajis! Going with the flow, I decided to serve them in buns topped with mango chutney.  The family enjoyed them, though we found the flavour of the chickpea flour quite dominant. In the second trial, I decided to stick with the Indian-spiced sweet potato fritter theme, but reduced the amount of chickpea flour by half and tweaked the Indian spice mix. The result? Big thumbs up from the family. Yay!

Since then, I’ve made the fritters at least a couple more times and I know I’ll be making them time and again in the future. This recipe is a keeper!

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These fritters are easy to make, budget-friendly and packed full of nutritional goodness. For an evening meal, we love to serve them in buns, topped with mango chutney and crisp lettuce leaves, with side servings of baked beans and potato wedges. They also make a delicious filling for sandwiches or pitta breads.

Hands on time: 22 minutes    Ready in: 30 minutes
Makes 5 large fritters

Ingredients
2 TBSP ground flaxseed (aka linseed)
4 TBSP warm water
1½ TBSP oil (divided) (I used organic rapeseed (canola) oil)
1 medium onion (130g), finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
250g / 2 packed cups sweet potato, grated
70g / ½ cup gram flour (aka chickpea flour) (or you can substitute with wholemeal flour or plain flour)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp salt
1 TBSP tomato puree (paste)
40g / 1 packed cup spinach, finely chopped

Method
1. First make a flaxseed ‘egg’. Place 2 TBSP ground flaxseed in a small bowl with 4 TBSP warm water and leave to ‘gel’ up.

2. Gently heat ½ TBSP oil in a large frying pan (skillet) and cook the onion, until it starts to soften.

2. Meanwhile, grate the sweet potato (no need to peel it).

3. Add the garlic and grated sweet potato to the frying pan and stir through. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes. Stir in the tomato puree, cumin, garam masala and salt, then remove from the heat.

3. Transfer the contents of the frying pan into a mixing bowl. Add the flaxseed ‘egg’ and stir through. Sprinkle on the flour and stir through until fully combined (N.B. if using chickpea flour, I would recommend sieving it to ensure there are no lumps). Stir in the chopped spinach.

4. If possible, use two frying pans (skillets) to save cooking time. Coat the bottom of the frying pan(s) in oil and heat on medium heat. Scoop about half a cup’s worth of mixture and drop it into the pan. Press down on the mixture using a slotted turner to flatten it into fritter shape. You should be able to fit another three into the pan, but make sure not to crowd them.

5. Cook the fritters until golden brown on the bottom (about 4 minutes), then use a slotted turner to carefully flip them over. Continue cooking until brown on the second side (another 4 minutes or so).

6. As an optional step (which I highly recommend) continue cooking the fritters for 10 minutes in the oven at 210C (190C fan) / 410F. This brings the flavour out even more and also crisps the edges.

7. The fritters can be eaten hot or cold. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to five days. I haven’t tried freezing them yet, but I’m pretty confident that they will be freezable.

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If you try these burgers, please come back and leave a review. It’s so helpful to me (and other readers) to hear your experiences and ideas for variations. Thank you! ❤️

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16 thoughts on “Indian-Spiced Sweet Potato Fritters

  1. Wow, I had no idea I needed these in my life until now. They look amazing, especially in those pitas! I love that you’ve also used spinach and sweet potato for an extra nutritional hit. These are definitely going on my to-make list! <3

  2. Thanks Dan! They’ve been a big hit with my family… and you’ve just reminded me that I should make some more! I’m going to add them to this week’s meal plan ☺️

  3. Hi, these do look good and will try them soon, out of interest have you tried freezing them yet if so do they defrost ok?

    1. Hey Christopher! I haven’t had a chance to try freezing them yet, as they go so fast in my house! I’ll make a double batch soon and report back. I’m pretty sure they’ll be fine (I’ll try cooking them straight from frozen rather than defrosting first).

  4. I’ve just made these burgers and I’m so happy with how they came out, unfortunately I didn’t have Garam Masala, chickpea flower or garlic powder, but they were still amazing, I found this recepie looking for somthing similar to a sweet potato burger I had years ago, and it definitely hit the spot! 😁
    Thankyou for this lovely recepie it will definitely be going in my recepie book!

    1. Hey Gracie! So pleased you enjoyed them and it’s brilliant to hear that the recipe is so flexible too! I’m looking forward to trying out some new variations of this recipe myself this week! 😄 xx

  5. These are so yummy and a nice easy meal for me and my partner (one batch is the perfect amount for dinner + lunch the next day)! I mostly follow a low fodmap diet so just used wholemeal flower instead of chickpea, omitted the garlic, and replaced the onion with the green part of a leek. You could also use garlic infused oil to add the garlic flavour but I’ve run out 😉 Definitely recommend!

    1. YAY!! I’m so happy to hear you and your partner have been enjoying the fritters and that you’ve successfully made them low FODMAP too! 🌟 I loved seeing your photos on Instagram. Your burgers looked so tasty! 😍

  6. Amazing thank you. I served them on homemade chapati’s with mango chutney and a homemade riata…. Delicious, I froze the rest….

  7. They are nice though I cannot see why you need the flaxseed egg.
    I have not tried them without it, but I have a feeling it might make them a bit more crispy.

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