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Irish potato cakes, also known as boxty, made with a mixture of mashed and grated potatoes for a cake that is part pancake, part hash brown. These use flax for the egg and are dressed with vegan avocado basil ranch. Jump to Recipe
Spring is here! I know because the tree pollen is off the charts today and my eyes refuse to see single lines as single. If there are some extra i-s or l-s on the post, let me know.
St Patrick’s day is around the corner (March 17), so lets get started with some Irish and some green recipes! I whipped up these potato cakes yesterday and served them with a creamy avocado basil ranch dressing. Don’t like ranch? just omit the ranch seasoning from the avocado dressing. Traditional Irish potato pancakes, also known as boxty, are made with a mixture of mashed and grated potatoes for a cake that’s part pancake, part hash brown. The pancakes use egg and butter and can be flavored with scallions. I use flax as the egg substitute.
These cakes come together easily. Boil and mash half the potatoes, grate the rest. Mix in, add some flour, egg sub, salt, pepper, other flavors of choice, and cook on the pan until golden.
What are your plans for St Paddy’s day!
More green things from the blog
Serve the cakes with the avocado ranch dressing, plain vegan ranch or vegan butter or other dressing of choice.
Irish Potato Cakes with Avocado Basil Ranch
Ingredients
Irish Pancakes:
- 2 large russets
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more for seasoning the potatoes before cooking
- 1/4 teaspoon or more freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup non dairy milk
- 1 tbsp flax seed meal
- 1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast, optional
- a generous pinch of kala namak, Indian black salt optional
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4-1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour, or use a gluten-free flour which is neutral tasting
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- oil for cooking
Avocado Basil Ranch:
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 tbsp fresh basil
- 1/2 tsp garlic
- 1/2 tsp or more ranch seasoning, (see notes)
- generous dash of black pepper and salt
- 2 tsp lime juice
- water as needed
Instructions
- Chop 1 potato and add to a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil then continue to cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes until done. Drain, cool slightly, add salt, pepper, milk, flax, nutritional yeast, oil and kala namak and mash well. Taste and add salt if needed to keep the mixture saltier than regular mashed potatoes.
- Grate the other potato. Add a 1/2 tsp lemon juice and mix in. Squeeze the grated potato with paper towel to remove some of the excess moisture..
- Mix the grated potato with mashed potatoes.
- Mix the baking powder in 1/4 cup flour and add to the potato bowl and mix in. If the mixture is too stiff, add another tbsp of non dairy milk.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add a few drops of oil to grease. Drop dollops of the potato mixture on the greased pan. Shape and flatten and cook 4 to 5 minutes each side. (To bake: Bake at 425 degrees F / 220ºc for 15 to 20 minutes. Broil for a minute if needed).
- Garnish with scallions and vegan butter. Serve with avocado ranch.
- For the avocado ranch: Blend all the ingredients. Add water if needed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add some fresh dill, more onion powder if needed. Add nutritional yeast for cheesy flavor (optional)
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Your recipe called for 1/2 tsp of baking powder. But in the instructions, you mentioned mix in baking soda with flour. So it’s baking powder of baking soda? Thanks
baking powder. corrected it.
Oh sweet. Thanks! I guessed it correctly then. Discovered the error while I was getting flour bit ready. It’s tasty and we love it! =)
Thank you Richa for posting this lovely Irish potato cakes and avocado ranch dressing.
This is the one I like to cook next week. Love the ingredients as they look so simple.
Hi there. Love the intent here, but it’s not St. Patty’s day, it’s St. Paddy’s day. Patty is a woman’s name, Paddy is a common Irish nickname for Patrick, stemming from the original Gaelic spelling, therefore making the shortened version St. Paddy’s day. (It’s a common issue among North American native residents) Might want to correct the oversight there. 🙂 – your friendly Irish-American follower.
Thanks. updated 🙂
How much Aquafaba/ chick pea liquid would you use instead of the flax seed? These sound awesome! I really want to try them!
you can use 1/4 cup aquafaba instead of the flax and the 1/4 cup non dairy milk, or use 2 tbsp aquafaba and 2 tbsp non dairy milk.
St. Patty’s Day may be over, but I’ll still try these cakes! Yummy!
St. Patty’s Day is March 17th! 🙂 I will be making these for a St. Patty’s party on Saturday. They look great!
Great!
Can these be baked instead of fried? I am trying to avoid oil.
If you have a good non stick skillet, you can cook them without oil. You can bake then at 425 degrees F for 20 or more minutes until golden.
Thank you soooo much. Delicious.
I baked them for 30 minutes at 400 with no oil. They came out great.
These look so good! I’m going to have to give them go sometime!
Awesome!
Hi Risha,
How do I make them gluten free?
These sound like a much loved blast from my childhood and I look forward to trying them. I too need to make them GF. Since there is very little flour in the recipe, I’m going to try using a regular GF all-purpose blend. Alternatively, you could probably use GF oat flour.
Yes, any flour should work. The mashed potatoes are a great binder, so the flour doesnt matter.
Curious if anyone has tried this with sweet potato?
it should work
I would probably go for millet flour. It has certain, delicate taste but from my experience works well with potatoes. And it is rich in nutrients too!
use any neutral tasting gluten-free flour.