Happy (belated) Chanukah! This past weekend my family had what my mom dubbed “Latke Fest 2012.” In celebration of the last night of Chanukah we made three latke recipes that yielded about 100 latkes in total. Our kitchen was basically transformed into a latke factory. We made a traditional version from an old Jewish cookbook we’ve used for years. Then a sweet potato version that’s actually a Rachel Ray recipe that my mom has made before. And lastly we tried a new recipe that I saw in the Food Network magazine this month: Spinach Latkes. The recipe caught my eye because: 1. Jewish recipes are hard to come by among all the Christmas cookies recipes in magazines this month (no offense because you know I love cookies), and 2. whenever I see a spinach recipe I immediately think my mom will be interested (I was right).
I enjoyed all three recipes that we made, but this new one was particularly great. I enjoyed that it had more than just potato and seasonings. It includes a few different vegetables, plus feta cheese right in the latke. The cheese added a nice creaminess to the latkes. If you need some healthy fritters in your life, I would give these a try!
Spinach Latkes
Yeilds about 20 latkes depending on size, from Food Network
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
- 3 ounces spinach, stems removed, chopped (about 4 cups)
- 2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 pound russet potatoes
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- Freshly ground pepper
Method
- Saute the chopped spinach in a pan over medium heat with a little oil. After the spinach is wilted in a couple minutes, take the spinach off the heat and let it cool to room temp.
- Next, heat some more oil in the pan and saute the sliced leeks for 10 minutes until tender. Add the chopped scallions and cook for 3-4 more minutes. Make sure to season with some salt. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temp.
- Grate the potatoes. Put the grated potatoes in a clean towel and squeeze out the excess moisture. Combine the potatoes with the eggs, flour, spinach, leeks, scallions, feta, and seasonings. Once the mixture is uniform, it’s ready for frying.
- Heat up vegetable oil in a heavy skillet for frying. Once the oil gets hot enough (sizzles when water is flicked at it), form latkes the size of a heaping tablespoon or about a quarter cup. Make sure they are flat like pancakes so they will cook through. Fry them for a couple minutes on each side until golden brown. Try not to put too many latkes in the pan at once, or the oil will drop in temperature.
- While you’re frying the latkes, you can set your oven to about 200, and place the batches of cooked latkes in the oven to keep them warm.
Sadie Dishes 
yum- they look awesome!
yummy…we should make some for new year’s
They look so good 🙂