Are you a turnip lover? If so, try these delicious turnip and potato patties! They’re a cross between pancakes and fritters, but made with turnips and potatoes.
Turnips on their own can be on the bitter side. Great for those who love nothing more than the zing of strong turnip, but for the rest of us? Enter the potato.
When you cook and mash turnips together with potatoes, and then fry them up in savory patty, you transform this bitter root into something wonderful!
These patties are from a decades old issue of Gourmet magazine (1985) that my father has held onto for years. They’re terrific, not too turnipy, and sort of a cross between a pancake and a fritter. Yum!
Turnip and Potato Patties Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Makes 6 patties
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound turnips, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes (about 1 1/3 cups)
- 6 oz potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 1 cup)
- 2 1/2 Tbsp thinly sliced scallion greens
- 1 egg, beaten lightly
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- Extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, or peanut oil
- Salt and pepper
Method
1 Cook chopped turnip and potato in boiling water: In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the turnip and potato cubes for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they are tender, and drain them.
2 Mash turnips and potatoes: In a bowl, mash the cooked turnips and potatoes with a fork and stir in the scallions, the egg, flour, and salt and pepper to taste.
3 Fry the patties: Coat the bottom of a large, heavy bottomed skillet with about 1/4-inch of the oil. Heat the pan on medium high heat until the surface of the oil begins to shimmer, but not smoke.
Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of the turnip potato batter into the pan, flattening them into 1/2-inch thick patties with the back of a spatula.
Fry the patties until they are golden, turning them once, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the patties to paper towels to drain off excess oil.
Recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine, January 1985.
