These simple and delicious 2-ingredient sweet potato fritters are a perfect choice when you want a bite of something crispy and savory but still need to get your veggies in!
These 2-ingredient sweet potato fritters are so easy to make and were inspired by my extremely bare fridge! Simply combine grated sweet potato and egg in a hot frying pan and you have a satisfying patty to add as a side dish or base to your next meal.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Simple and easy: you don’t need any special equipment or years of cooking experience to make these. All you need is a sweet potato, egg, box grater, and frying pan, and you’ll have delicious fritters in 20 minutes!
- Cost and time effective: with only two ingredients, this recipe couldn’t be cheaper or quicker. Next time you’re hosting people, try these topped with a little sour cream and potato chips instead of an expensive cheese platter or time-consuming appetizer. Making these is the definition of working smarter, not harder!
- Healthy: Made with just sweet potato and egg, these are simple and delicious–they almost taste like hash browns!
Ingredient Notes:
- Sweet potato: You can substitute a regular potato, but I think sweet potatoes provide the best flavor.
- Egg: I always use large eggs, but any size works. If your mixture doesn’t seem wet enough (the egg should be well-incorporated into the potato), try adding another egg.
- Spices: I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder, but you can use whichever you prefer!
- Oil for frying: Alternatively, you could can use a nonstick cooking spray.
How to make:
- Shred: using the largest hole side of a box grater or the shredding attachment of a food processor, shred the sweet potato
- Bind: add the egg to the shredded sweet potato, allowing it to bind the pieces together.
- Flavor: add your preferred seasonings to the mixture.
- Fry: using just a little oil or a spritz of cooking spray, coat the bottom of a frying pan to avoid sticking. Once your pan is hot, add in the potato-egg mixture in the shape of pancakes, flipping once so that both sides are crispy.
- Serve: serve with sour cream, salsa, ketchup, or whatever else your heart desires!
FAQs
No! You can try this same technique with other firm vegetables like regular potatoes, zucchini, carrots or turnips.
Yes, I recommend peeling them. If you like, you can scrub the skin well and keep the skin on before grating and making the fritters.
Try mixing up the vegetable base of the fritters–combining zucchini and sweet potato, for example. You can also add other spices as needed.
To avoid this, make sure your pan is pretty hot before adding your mixture in, and try to keep it in a tight patty once in the pan. Alternatively you can add an extra egg white or whole egg if your fritters seem a bit loose.
2-ingredient Sweet Potato Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled about 7-8 oz
- 1 large egg
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil for greasing the pan
- optional seasonings: garlic powder onion powder, smoked paprika, paprika, chili powder, basil, oregano, herbs de provence. I used ½ teaspoon garlic powder and dashes of smoked paprika and chili powder.
Instructions
- Shred 1 ¾ to 2 cups of sweet potato using a box grater or in a food processor with the shredding attachment. In a medium bowl, add the egg to the sweet potato and whisk until combined. Add seasonings to taste.
- Preheat your skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add 1/2 teaspoon or so of oil to the pan—you don’t need a lot. Using a spoon or a quarter cup measure, add about ¼ cup of the sweet potato mixture into the pan at a time. Mixture will be very loose and may fall apart in the pan—that’s okay. Use your spatula to nudge all the sweet potato scraps into a neat pile and press down on the top with the back of the spatula to flatten. Let cook about 2-3 minutes before flipping. If the patty starts to fall apart when you try to flip it, cook it longer. The bottom should be sturdy enough to slide the spatula underneath. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, but don’t overcrowd the pan—I only cooked three at a time in my largest frying pan.
Anne
Yummy! Thanks for this. I needed something for little veggie me to eat at a carnivorous Christmas lunch, and these are perfect!
Also taking broccoli, sprouts and red pepper with a tasty cheese sauce for everyone. 😀
erika
Yay, that sounds like a delicious side!! Merry Christmas Anne!
Melissa
Hi! Love your recipe! I know this is from a long time ago, but have you considered testing whether the soy needs to be fermented before you eat it? I know in the asian food culture fermenting is done often. Maybe this is a way you can still eat it, however, not sure what restaurants will be serving that up.
Thanks for your delicious recipes!
erika
Melissa, that’s a great thought–if I ever do another detox, I’ll definitely try re-introducing fermented soy into my diet and see if that helps. I actually started eating soy again regularly a few months ago and didn’t notice any side effects (probably because I was also junking up my body with gluten, dairy and who knows what else :)), so I think I’m good to go for now. But I so appreciate your thoughtful words! Thanks so much for reading!! <3
Potato Recipes Blog
Hi Erika,
Your delicious recipe has been nominated as one of the “Top 100 Best Potato Fritters Recipes on the Internet”. You can view it and vote for it here: http://potato-recipes.org/best-potato-recipes/best-potato-fritters-recipes-internet/ (position #1).
Lisa
do you cook the sweet potatoes at all before shredding them? thanks
erika
Hi Lisa–nope! I just peel and shred ’em raw, then fry them. Hope that helps!
Eva Kelemen
Looks delicious! As for tofu, I used to live on it but I realized that my stomach pains were being caused by eating it. I had to stop for that reason and also that soy is bad for my thyroid 🙁
Elise @ elisebakes
My husband LOVES sweet potatoes – I’m going to have to make these asap!
Brandi
Yum!! These look delicious!!! I bet they’d be really yummy with some cinnamon too! I love that crispiness of them. My favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is as baked crispy fries…I’m loving this way too. Btw, I hate tofu lol! I’m sorry you have an issue though since you love it 🙁
erika
Ooh yes cinnamon is such a good idea! I LOVE sweet potato fries as well..so good. I just have to switch it up once in awhile so I don’t get sick of them! And lol I know–I thought of you when I was writing that! Luckily, you won’t be seeing any more tofu posts on my blog 🙂
yummychunklet
Tasty idea!
Bam's Kitchen
Its the 2 ingredient little wonder! Take care, BAM
eatsweetbycarlasue
Yum! These look soooooo good!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
Erika, I love what you’re doing with your photography lately. You’re trying out different things and your photos are stunning. Love the styling! These fritters look fantastic. I’m a huge fan of sweet potatoes (my crazy husband won’t eat them unless they’re in french fry form – maybe he’ll eat these!). As for the tofu allergy – that sucks, girl! Usually the only food I’ll eat at straight-up Asian vegetarian restaurants is tofu since I can’t stand the fake meat. Poor you. And yes, I do think you’re a freak of nature now – since you’re Asian, a tofu allergy shouldn’t be physically possible! 😉
erika
Nancy! I so appreciate your noticing and commenting on my photography…learning curve, shall we call it 🙂 I definitely feel like I’m wandering blindly, but your kind words are definitely welcome 🙂 I am a HUGE sweet potato fan too and it’s funny you mention french fries…I have a secret. I made tempura last night. Aka I ate a COMPLETELY FRIED DINNER. And now with the leftover oil, I want nothing more than to fry all five of my sweet potatoes into oily, crispy fries. YUM. Hahaha you’ll have to eat extra tofu for me now!!
Francesca
Look great and easy to make! You are not weird at all! I have mixed feelings too.
Jordie
I love the look of these fritters… I’ve been craving sweet potatoes for ages and now I know how I should cook them next! As for the soy problems, soy beans have a lot of bad stuff in them, including phytic acid which makes them super hard to digest, making your tummy upset. 🙂
petit4chocolatier
Love sweet potatoes and this idea of fritters! They look delish 🙂
CCU
2 ingredients and make such a delicious result 😀
I love it!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Heather
Yummy! This is the first I’ve heard of this two-ingredient craze and I’m loving it! My mom is visiting this weekend and this is a recipe I actually have all the ingredients for, we may have to give it a try for breakfast!!
Leah
Your sweet potato fritters look awesome and I’m so jealous! I’ve tried these in the past (twice) but I baked them instead of pan frying them and they didn’t turn out well. The middles weren’t cooked all the way even though I tried adjusting heat/time. Your post has given me hope to try them one more time and this time I’m not going to bake them!
Side question: After you shredded them, did you squeeze the excess liquid out of the sweet potato? If not, do you think it would have helped if you did?
erika
Thanks!! Nope, after I shredded them, just tossed them with the egg and fried them in a hot pan. I actually poured some of the liquid that pooled at the bottom of the bowl on top of some of the fritters as they were cooking because it was mostly egg. Hope that helps! (There also wasn’t much liquid to squeeze out because I skinned the sweet potato, rinsed it, dried it, then shredded it. Not sure if you rinse the shreds or something.) Let me know how it goes!
Alysa
Those do sound great. I’m dreaming of these for dinner. I also have a problem with soy. It’s funny because most people say it’s such a healthy option, but in reality – it’s just not good for some people.
erika
Right??? Sad but true. I’ve been living a lie practically my whole life that tofu is super good for you! Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
Adri {Food-N-Thought}
Yum, love me some sweet potatoes!
Alex @ Brain, Body, Because
These sound so amazing! I want to eat them smeared peanut butter. I guess I want to eat everything smeared with PB, but these ESPECIALLY.