Potato pancakes, or latkes, are one of my favorite real food meals to make.  They’ve got sweet, savory, salty, and crispy – all great flavors and textures for getting your taste buds excited about food!

I wanted to recreate these latkes a non-traditional way, without potato (high starch) and minus the heavy frying in the pan, as well as cut back on the time.  

I came up with these “rainbow” latkes as a combo of different color ingredients that I baked, rather than fried, to cut back on the total fat as well as time (you can only fry so many in a pan vs. baking all in the oven at once “set it and forget”-style).  I served with a homemade paleo-friendly cumin crema yogurt (recipe included) and apple sauce.   

These latkes are paleo & vegetarian-friendly, ReBoot-friendly (week 2+), gluten-free, dairy-free, and of course, processed junk-free.

Ingredients

Latkes

1 medium sweet potato (6-7 inches)

2 medium zucchini

2 medium carrots (I used purple carrots for color – see pic above)

1 medium onion

1/2 cup cilantro

1 cup almond flour

2 pastured eggs*

1 teaspoon pink salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoon baking powder*

Olive oil for brushing before adding to oven

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Kitchen Notes:

*Eggs:  If you’re vegan or have an egg allergy and bake with an egg substitute, give it a try. I haven’t with this dish, so if it turns out for you let me know in the comments below and for other readers to see!  Update: see Brooke Rosenfeld’s notes in the comments for egg substitution.

*Baking Powder:  Technically baking powder is not paleo, most contain corn starch. That said, technically paleo is hunter-gatherer food… our ancestors weren’t baking “paleo” foods in the oven or making paleo-friendly treats.  So if you’re strict paleo or have a corn allergen, using a baking powder that uses potato starch is generally more acceptable.  If you don’t want to do either, you can try this substitute: 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda for 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Sides

Apple sauce (for serving with latkes)

Cumin Crema

1 cup plain coconut yogurt (dairy yogurt fine if you tolerate dairy)

1 teaspoon cumin powder

Pinch of pink salt

1/2 lime, fresh squeezed

Crema Directions:  mix all together in a bowl.

Latkes Directions

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.

2.  Peel your sweet potato and shred with a grater and place on a plate or cutting board.  Shred the rest of your veggies the same way.  Note: if you have a food processor with shredding blade you can use that too.

3.  We want to get the excess liquid out of the veggies, so what I do is take a kitchen cloth towel and add for example, all the shredded sweet potato in the center of the towel and fold in the sides, twisting at the top.  Ring out all the excess liquid and place the sweet potato in a bowl (see picture above).  Do this for all your veggies and make sure to do well!  Excess liquid will yield soggy latkes.

4.  Next add all your other latkes ingredients except olive oil & cilantro and mix everything together with your hands (the fun part.. get in there with it!). See picture below of ingredients mixed.

5.  Mold and form “patties” with your hands.  This mixture I made yields 8 evenly sized ones (see pic below).

6.  Add your patties on a cookie sheet or other oven-friendly pan with parchment paper.  If you don’t have parchment paper, make sure to grease your pan with coconut oil or other oil of choice you use for greasing pans to prevent sticking.

7.  Brush the top of each latke with olive oil.  

8. Add to 425 degrees F oven for 20-22 minutes.

9. When they’re done, they should be firm and slightly brown and crispy on top (see below).  The bottom will have a nice crispy light brown color.    

Serve your latkes sprinkled with fresh cilantro.  I also included a few squash blossoms and cilantro flowers from the garden (the white blossoms in picture below – distinct sweet cilantro taste).  Include your homemade cumin crema and apple sauce on the side – I put a nice dollop of each on each latke.

Serve these as a platter, an appetizer, a family meal or meal prep and save extras in the fridge.  Two were satisfying so you can serve to 4 or meal prep for 4 meals.

ReBoot-friendly serving:  two latkes with 1 tablespoon of each sauce.  Week 2+ only.

See pricing breakdown below.

Est. total cost using organic ingredients:

1 big sweet potato – $0.50

2 zucchini – $0.75

2 carrots – $0.75

1 onion – $0.50

1/2 cup cilantro – $0, from garden

1 cup almond flour – $2

2 pastured eggs – $1

1 teaspoon pink salt – n/a

1 teaspoon pepper – n/a

1 teaspoon garlic powder – n/a

2 teaspoon baking powder – n/a

Olive oil for brushing – n/a

1 cup coconut yogurt – $2

1 teaspoon cumin – n/a

Pinch of pink salt – n/a

1/2 lime – $0.25

Apple Sauce – $0.50

Note: I don’t include spices/oils because such little amounts used 

Total Cost:  ~$8.25

Servings:  4

Est. Cost per meal/person:  about $2

Enjoy the latkes!