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These soft, wholesome, gluten-free cheesy courgette and turmeric potato cakes are so easy and delicious to make.

You can prepare them in advance, boiling the potatoes first following this guide, make in bulks and freeze, pan fry, deep fry, oven bake or even air fry!

The possibilities are limitless.

Limitless possibilities also for the filling!
I decided to stuff these easy potato cakes with sautéed courgettes and an oozy-cheesy turmeric sauce: a combination that is a bomb!

Combination that works well with other spices as well. The spices that pair well with zucchini are smoked paprika (as seen in these Courgette and Smoked Paprika Pastry Rolls) and saffron (like in this Creamy Zucchini Saffron Pasta).

Jump to:

• 🔪 How to Make this Recipe - Ingredients, Tips and Stemps
• 👩🏻‍🍳Pro Tips
• 🍽️Cooking Suggestions
• 🥡Storage
• 📖Recipe

🔪 How to Make this Recipe - Ingredients, Tips and Stemps

To make these potato cakes you will only need 3 components:

1. A very firm mash potato
2. Delicious sautéed courgettes
3. My ultimate turmeric cheese sauce

Let's see how to make each component!

1. How to make a quick potato mash

A potato mash only requires 3 ingredients: salt, spices and, of course, potatoes!

For this recipe not all potatoes will do, I'm afraid.
The starchier, the better!
To make these cakes I used Russet potatoes, but a great substitute would also be Yukon Gold potatoes.

For the mash we will need to:

• wash the potatoes very well
• prick the skin all around with a fork
• microwave for 20 minutes @ 800W (+10 minutes resting time)
• peel the skin off and mash!

Easy peasy.

Please note that you must cook the potatoes in the microwave and not boil in water and allow the mashed potatoes to cool completely before shaping the cakes.
Microwaving the potatoes will avoid having too much moisture that will prevent the patties to stick and hold their shape.

During summer the microwave becomes my best ally in the kitchen: it doesn't release too much heat and it cuts cooking time by a lot!

Probably the thing I use it for the most are steamed potatoes, for both mash or potato salads.

If you haven't tried this method yet to cook your potatoes, I'm sure it will be a game changer for you!

Alternatively, you can cook the potatoes in the Instant Pot following this guide.

If you end up with a rather wet mixture because of the nature of your potatoes or because you are using boiled potatoes or a leftover mash potato make sure to add a bit of all purpose flour (or chickpea flour or a gluten free mix if GF) one tablespoon at a time, until you have a "workable" dough.

2. Sautéed Courgettes

Sautéed courgettes are an easy and refreshing side that I personally make at least once a week, but very often even two times a week.

To make it we will only require:

• 2-3 courgettes (the smaller, the better)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• fresh mint

We start by finely chopping the garlic. Then we slice the courgettes about 3 mm thick.
Then we heat up some oil in a pan, and add the garlic and the sliced courgette. Season with salt (and pepper if you like) it) and cook on medium-high heat until caramelized, making sure to stir and turn the courgettes every 3-4 minutes.
Overall sautéed courgettes will require around 20 minutes to cook.
We finish it with some fresh mint, and they're ready!

If I am to eat these courgettes as a side, I also like to season them with balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze.

3. Turmeric Cheesy Sauce

All you need to do in order to prepare it is to combine in a pan combine tapioca, nutritional yeast, turmeric, salt, onion and garlic powder. Then pour in the plant-based milk, a bit at the time, to avoid forming any lumps, and stir well with a whisk.

Heat the sauce on the stove until it thickens (3-4 minutes) stirring with a spatula all the time.

So versatile, I use this sauce for fillings, nachos, lasagne, mac&cheese, burgers and even on pizza!

4. Assembling the Potato Cakes

Now that we have all preps done, we can start assembling these delicious potato cakes!
This recipe yields 4-8 cakes, depending on the size.
I made only 4 big cakes with this mixture, as I was planning to have as a main course, but feel free to make them smaller if you'd like to serve as a starter or for a buffet.

Depending on the size or number of cakes you want to achieve, divide the mash potato accordingly.
Divide then each portion in two, roll into balls and flat the potato mixture with the palm of your hands onto a sheet of baking paper.

Place the filling onto half of the discs then, carefully, place the other disc on the top and seal well the edges.

👩🏻‍🍳Pro Tips

To keep this recipe very simple and straightforward I only used homemade mash potato for the crust. This hack gives the cakes a rosti-style texture, which I personally adore, although if you want to achieve a firmer and crunchier cake you can add 2-3 tablespoons of any of the following: corn starch, tapioca powder, rice flour or any gluten free flour mix if you want to keep it naturally gluten free, otherwise all purpose flour will do as well.

🍽️Cooking Suggestions

How to Cook the Courgette and Potato Cakes

As mentioned in the introduction of this post, we can pick several ways to cook these cakes:

• pan fry
• deep fry
• air fry
• oven bake

For the pictures of this post I pan fried the cakes in some vegetable oil for 8 minutes in total, and I carefully flipped the cakes half way.

You can also deep fry the cakes in abundant vegetable oil for 5 minutes, or until golden.

For a lighter version you can indeed use the air fryer. Make sure to preheat the air fryer to 200 degrees Celsius, then cook the cakes for 20 minutes.

If you, finally, prefer the oven, simply align the cakes on a baking sheet and spray them with some vegetable oil. 
Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes, flipping the cakes half way.

🥡Storage

• These potato cakes are both good freshly cooked or at room temperature.
• You can store the potato cakes in the fridge for up to two days.
• You can also freeze the potato cakes (before cooking) and consume within a few months.

📖Recipe

If you'd like me to veganize a recipe for you, simply write your request in the comment section below or contact me at avegtastefromatoz@gmail.com.