LATKES (POTATO PANCAKES)

I took the quick and perhaps lazy path to making these latkes by using shredded hash brown potatoes from Trader Joe's. They were easy to make and so delicious. The mustard is listed as optional but I definitely recommend adding it. My husband and I happily ate the entire batch for supper.

You can find the recipe at “Lazy Cat Kitchen”: Vegan latkes with sour cream – two ways

What is aquafaba? The liquid you drain from a can of beans, typically a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans). In this recipe, it is acting as a binder to avoid using eggs.

FYI: "Aquafaba" has been added to the list of acceptable Scrabble game words!!

According to Tori Avey, a the food blogger, culinary anthropologist and convert to Judaism: "Potato latkes are a more recent Ashkenazi invention that gained popularity in Eastern Europe during the mid 1800′s. A series of crop failures in Poland and the Ukraine led to mass planting of potatoes, which were easy and cheap to grow. But before potatoes came on the scene, the latke of choice was cheese."

People worry that potatoes are fattening. Well, watch this 2 minute video about what happened to this man who ate nothing but potatoes for 2 months.

What I did differently:

-Used 20 oz bag of shredded potatoes instead of shredding my own. Defrosted them before using.

-Used 1/2 medium onion

-Used a dish cloth and squeezed excess moisture out of the potatoes and onions (needed 2 cloths for the potatoes and 1 for the onions)

-Reduced the other ingredients in half (mustard, salt, aquafaba, flour) though I was generous with the pepper since I like it

-Did not have potato starch so used ivory white wheat flour

-Placed the latkes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Baked 15-17 minutes each side at 390 degrees (I did not need to turn the oven up to get them brown.)

-Served with left over Garlic Cashew Mayo and apple sauce.