These potato pancakes are nothing like your Grandma’s! They’re just as crispy, but with a blend of spices that take this holiday tradition to a whole new level. Take a bite and you’ll know what I’m talking about. The paprika, salt, pepper, and celery seed work together to create the most savory and flavorful potato pancakes ever.
INSPIRATION FOR MY POTATO PANCAKES
I remember as a kid we were assigned to complete a project in school where we had to recreate our family tree. The objective was to show where our families had immigrated from when they arrived in the USA.
Well, most of my classmate’s families kept detailed records of their family histories, mine was a little lackluster. It took about six hours of phone calls and another four hours on Ancestery.com to start to put together some semblance of a family tree beyond my great grandparents. Luckily, I finally did!
After hours of putting this together and bringing it to my parents, I was actually met with confusion!
Some people thought their family descended from Ireland, Sweden, Norway, and the list went on. In fact, our closest ancestors who immigrated to America were all from the same area in Germany!
My whole childhood we’d never done anything particularly German, other than listen to my Dad speak it because that was the language he’d chosen in high school. Anyway, after learning about my heritage I decided it was time to start incorporating German culture into more of our holidays! This is exactly why I created this incredible potato pancake recipe!
CREATING VEGAN POTATO PANCAKE RECIPE
I had eaten potato pancakes before, and they were good, but for our new holiday tradition, I wanted to make them my own. They needed to say, this is Alex Meyer’s flavorful potato pancake recipe.
They needed to be more than potatoes, salt, and pepper. So here’s what I added.
CELERY SEED
Celery seed, similar to salt, is one of those spices that brings out other flavors in a dish. In this case, it perfectly complements the potato and paprika to make a more well-rounded and flavorful potato pancake.
SMOKED PAPRIKA
The smoked paprika was a very conscious decision to add a little heat and smoke to these pancakes. As you may know, my family is obsessed with spices! Every dish we made when I was a kid was spicy and flavorful. So, it made perfect sense to add our family’s most used spice to our favorite holiday dish!
MAKE THE HEALTHY VERSION OF POTATO PANCAKES
So, normal potato pancakes typically use a bunch of ingredients and cooking methods that aren’t particularly healthy. Lucky for you, we’re giving you two options here: the decadent version and the everyday version!
For the healthier version of our potato pancakes, you’re going to bake the potato pancakes on a parchment lined baking sheet. All you have to do is preheat your oven to 425°F (218°C) and place those pancakes on your baking sheet. Once that’s done, pop those pancakes in the oven and bake for twelve minutes per side! Voila! You have healthy, oil-free, potato pancakes!
In addition to your new cooking option, we’ve also made this recipe gluten-free! Yes, we’re aware that just because something is gluten-free doesn’t make it healthier. However, using a more whole-foods flour rather than a bleached white flour seemed like the better option.
In this case, we chose to use almond flour. Not only does it add more flavor than white flour, it’s also a great source of vitamin E, magnesium, and has even been suggested to lower cholesterol and blood pressure!
HOW TO MAKE POTATO PANCAKES
STEP ONE
- To start, you’ll need to grate the onions on a box grater and set them aside. Fair warning, this definitely burned my eyes (granted, they’re pretty sensitive) so be warned and plan accordingly.
Hint: refrigerate the onions the night before and you won’t look like you’ve been watching the end of The Notebook. 😉
STEP TWO
2. In a food processor, use your grating attachment to grate your peeled potatoes.
STEP THREE
3. Submerge your potatoes in a bowl of ice water and let them sit for ten minutes. This will help remove the starch from the potatoes, so they become perfectly golden brown when frying! If you don’t remove the starch, the pancakes will brown very quickly, but will not crisp.
STEP FOUR
4. Wring the excess water out of the potatoes with a clean towel, preferably one that wasn’t washed in scented laundry detergent or fabric softener.
STEP FIVE
5. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl until well blended.
STEP SIX
6. Form the potato mixture into pancakes.
STEP SEVEN
7. Heat the oil on medium-high heat in a cast iron skillet. If using another pan, make sure the sides are high enough to prevent any oil from spilling over the side. If you’re nervous, use a pot with a wide base!
STEP EIGHT
8. Once the oil is heated, add the potatoes slowly and carefully, one by one, into the oil. Cook the pancakes for two minutes per side or until crispy and golden brown.
STEP NINE
9. Remove the potato pancakes from the oil and place on a paper towel lined wire rack. The paper towel will remove the excess oil from the pancakes.
HOW TO SERVE POTATO PANCAKES
We highly recommend serving potato pancakes hot! So, when you’re making these guys and want to make sure everyone is sitting down to eat together, heat your oven to 200°F (93°C) and place the potato pancakes on a baking sheet in the oven until they’re all fried.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH POTATO PANCAKES
Once all of the pancakes are cooked, we recommend serving them with a couple of traditional options and one less traditional option! Serve with apple sauce (perhaps our home made apple sauce!), sauerkraut, horseradish sauce, and dare I say… some of our ranch dressing? It’s pretty awesome with these potato pancakes!
Make our savory vegan potato pancakes and let us know what you think. Tag us on Instagram and show us your beautiful creations!
Let’s connect! Hop on over to our Facebook page and give it a like, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and follow us and share this and other Veganosity recipes on Pinterest. We’d be so grateful if you did. If you like this recipe and can’t wait to see what we’re going to share next, subscribe to Veganosity. Just fill in the subscription box above our picture in the top right corner of the page. And, Alex and I love hearing from you, please leave a comment and let us know what you think of our recipes.
These German Potato Pancakes pack some extra spice and an alternative method of cooking to create a healthy snack or a crispy fried potato pancake!
- 3 Russet Potatoes
- 1 Egg Replacer
- 1/3 Cup Almond Flour
- ¼ Tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 Tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ Tsp Black Pepper
- ¼ Tsp Celery Seed
- ¼ Tsp Corn Starch
- ½ Onion
- 2 Cups vegetable oil
- Grate the Onions on a box grater.
- Shred the potatoes in your food processor with the shredding attachment.
- Place the potatoes in a bowl of ice water and allow them to soak for ten minutes.
- Remove the potatoes and wring dry in a clean towel.
- Combine all the ingredients together and form the pancakes.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet (or comparable pan) on medium high heat.
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When the oil is hot, test it with a small piece of potato. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough, carefully add the pancakes one at a time to the pan.
- Fry the pancakes for two minutes per side.
- Set the pancakes aside on a paper towel lined plate.
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preheat your oven to 425°F (218°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Put the pancakes on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes per side, or until they're crispy and golden on the outside.
The Nutrition Facts are an estimate only.
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