Vegetarian potato cakes from leftover mash with chive quark

Vegetarian potato cakes made with leftover mashed potato, egg, spelt flour and Alpine cheese, fried until golden brown, with chive quark and cucumber. A lunch that uses up leftovers, in 30 minutes.

At a glance

• Serves 4
• Prep time: 15 min
• Cooking time: 15 min
• Total time: 30 min
• Calories: 354 kcal per serving
• Protein: 18 g
• Fat: 15 g
• Carbs: 34 g

Ingredients

• 600g mashed potato from the day before
• 1 egg
• 60g spelt flour
• 40g Alpine cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 250g low-fat quark
• 100g yoghurt
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1 bunch of chives
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

You’ll need: frying pan · chopping board · knife · grater

1. Grate the Alpine cheese and knead it with the mashed potato, egg, spelt flour and nutmeg into a dough you can shape.
2. With floured hands, shape 12 flat cakes.
3. Fry the potato cakes in two batches in the olive oil over a medium heat for 4 min per side, until golden brown.
4. Finely snip the chives and stir them into the quark and yoghurt with the salt.
5. Slice the cucumber and serve the potato cakes with the chive quark and cucumber.

Good to know

There's almost always some mashed potato left over, and reheated it rarely tastes good. Fried as cakes, it turns crisp outside and soft inside. The chive quark takes two minutes to stir together.

Swaps

Spelt flour → potato starch (gluten-free). Alpine cheese → vegetarian hard cheese (Parmesan-style), or leave it out. Low-fat quark → skyr. Chives → dill or cress.

Cooking tips

If the mash is very soft, add a little more flour until you can shape the dough. Only turn the cakes once they're firm and brown underneath.

Storage

Fried potato cakes keep for 2 days in the fridge; reheat them in a frying pan.

Allergens

Contains gluten (spelt), egg and milk. Suitable for children. Suitable in pregnancy.