These sweet potato fritters with thyme are the perfect comfort food fall recipe. The sweet potato is flavoured with thyme and parsley, and makes for a cosy lunch or dinner.
Love fritters? Do have a peek at my grated potato fritters for another meal!
Feeling in the fritter mood? Then you may like to see my zucchini and mascarpone fritters for another savoury option, or the cardamom apple fritters and pear fritters for a sweet dessert.
My sweet potato fritters were inspired by the butternut squash fritters by With Spice, but with lots of swaps and substitutions to make them suitable for a low histamine diet.
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⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- Fun and decadent. They are kind of scruffy and messy and bits break off between your fingers while you eat them (yes, I totally use my fingers!), and that's all part of their charm.
- Healthy. Lots of sweet potato in these ones! It has a lovely sweetness, and the thyme and parsley enhances the flavour so well.
- Best texture. Personally I think the magic of fritters is the crispy bits around the edges with the more soft and sumptuous middle. And the colour of these fritters is pretty special too.
🍠 Ingredients
Fritters don't involve too many ingredients, and these use many pantry staples. The main ingredients you will need are:
- Sweet potato: the main ingredient of the fritters. Grate and then wring out the liquid to make your recipe!
- Spelt flour: used in place of regular plain flour to make it more suitable for a low histamine diet. I always use the Dove's Farm wholegrain spelt flour.
- Thyme and parsley: to provide lots of herby flavour. You can just use thyme alone if you prefer.
- Garlic: use fresh if you can. I use one clove, but increase if you like more of a flavour kick.
- White onion: for flavour. If not low histamine, then you could use regular yellow onion or green onion too.
- Egg yolk: acts as a binder to bring the fritters together.
- Baking powder: works to 'puff up' (as my mum says) the fritters a little.
Make sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list and quantities!
🔪 Step by step instructions
These sweet potato fitters are very easy to make, with the main time spent grating the sweet potato and then frying.
STEP 1
Grate the sweet potato. This is the most time-consuming aspect of the prep, but very worth it! Then place in the centre of a clean tea towel.
STEP 2
Draw the sides up of the tea towel and then wring as much liquid as you can out of the sweet potato. I am always surprised as to how much potato contains! Do over the sink of course . . .
STEP 3
Fry the onion for 4-5 minutes until softened, and then add to a bowl with the other ingredients (except the olive oil or coconut oil used for frying). Stir very (very, very) thoroughly until combined and sticky. If it's not sticky enough then add another egg yolk.
STEP 4
Heat olive oil or coconut oil in a pan and drop a shred of sweet potato into the oil. Once it starts to lightly sizzle you can start frying the fritters. Take a small handful of mixture and form into a ball or patty shape. Then place carefully in the pan and press down with a spatula. Fry for 4-5 minutes, then (carefully!) flip and fry the other side. Repeat for the rest of the mixture.
Once made, place each fritter on kitchen towel on a plate to absorb excess oil. I usually fry three fritters at a time.
💭 Recipe tips for perfect fritters
- My number one tip is to remember that fritters don't have to look perfect! So don't worry if they are different sizes and shapes, or even if they fall into two - I suspect we all get one that won't hold together.
- These are fritters use grated sweet potato, and have more liquid than you may expect. Wring out as much of the liquid as possible. Definitely don't skip this step!
- Stir the mixture very, very, very thoroughly. You want to ensure the flour and egg mixture is combined throughout the sweet potato.
- Add another egg yolk if the mixture isn't sticky enough.
- Don't make them too thick or they won't cook through in the middle.
- Make sure the oil is hot enough so there is a bit of a sizzle when frying.
📋 Frequently asked questions
Use the 'regular' grate size rather than the very fine one typically used for tasks such as grating for lemon zest.
Yes, this is an important step. The sweet potato fritters need to be more 'dry' and if the potato is still wet they won't hold together.
Yes, it's fine to use regular flour rather than spelt flour.
🍽 How to serve
I tend to be quite simple with my sides for sweet potato fritters. A green salad is always nice, or you may like to try out some of these more hearty ones for a more substantial dinner.
Turmeric cauliflower salad with quinoa
Asparagus salad with mozzarella
You could also add grilled chicken, or perhaps some baked cod on the side too.
🥣 More easy weeknight meals
We all have days when time is more limited. Perhaps some easy weeknight meals such as my ricotta pesto pasta or my creamy sweet paprika chicken will tempt you! Some recent recipes to enjoy:
I’m always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes. And please do leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐ if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 lb sweet potato grated
- ¼ cup spelt flour
- ¼ cup white onion diced
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ tablespoon thyme leaves diced, more to taste
- ½ tablespoon parsley diced
- 1 garlic clove minced or finely diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil + more for frying or use coconut oil
- salt and black pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Place the grated sweet potato in a clean towel. Pull up the corners and squeeze as much liquid out as you can. Set aside (I place kitchen towel on a plate and set on there to allow any further liquid to be absorbed).
- Fry the onion in olive oil until softened, about 5-6 minutes.
- Add the flour, baking powder, egg yolks, thyme leaves and salt and pepper (if using) in a bowl and stir to combine. Then add the grated sweet potato and onion. Stir very (very, very!) thoroughly. If it seems too dry and not sticky enough then add another egg yolk.
- Heat olive oil or coconut oil in a pan and drop a shred of sweet potato into the oil. Once it starts to lightly sizzle you can start frying the fritters. Take a small handful of mixture and form into a ball or patty shape. Then place carefully in the pan and press down with a spatula. Fry for 4-5 minutes, then (carefully!) flip and fry the other side. Repeat for the rest of the mixture.
Notes
- Wring as much liquid as you can out of the sweet potato.
- Add another egg yolk if the mixture isn't sticky enough.
- Ensure that you stir the mixture very throughly before frying.
- Don't make the fritters too thick or they won't cook in the middle.
- I haven't tried it, but if spelt flour isn't an option for you, then oat flour should work.
- Please note that nutritional information is offered as a courtesy. It is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
- spelt scores 0 but has a ? as a liberator and note stating 'Prefer old varieties. Modern ATI-varieties modified by cultivation are often not well tolerated'
- garlic, which scores 1.
- baking powder isn't on the SIGHI list.
Shruti says
This was yum!! And yes the amount of liquid that came out of the sweet potatoes surprised me - although it didn't surprise my mum! Clearly shows I'm not a cook. But yes, loved the fritters - it was such a nice combination of flavours.
Thank you for sharing this.
Claire says
I was surprised the first time too! You don't think of sweet potato as having that much liquid do you. So glad you liked the fritters!
Anon says
Great recipe, pretty tasty! You should consider using a spiralizer! I use one to shred my potatoes into hash browns all the time, so I tried it for this and it worked great.
Claire says
Sounds like a great idea! And happy to hear you liked the fritters!