Easy & Delicious Sweet Potato Pancakes Two Ways {One Sweet, One Savoury}

We are absolutely loving these super delicious sweet potato pancakes at the moment. The batter is so quick and easy to whip up with just sweet potatoes, oats & eggs, which can then be made into sweet pancakes with cinnamon, or savoury pancakes with spices. Whatever you choose you will not be disappointed - they are both so good! And Slimming World friendly too - if you're into that! Keep reading for more info syn values if you're into Slimming World.

We are crazy about pancakes in this house and our Saturday morning pancakes is a sacred tradition. We usually have French-style crêpes but the sweet version of these sweet potato pancakes are our current favourite. The savoury version make a fantastic light lunch with a little salad (the Indian style tomato & onion salad goes a treat) and a yoghurt raita. So good and really healthy too.

The preparation for this recipe is minimal, but the sweet potatoes do need to be cooked in advance. The best way to do this is to stab them all over with a knife and bake in a microwave until they are tender (around 7 minutes for a medium baked potato). Leave them to cool before scraping off the skin with a sharp knife.

Baked sweet potato gives a better consistency to the batter than boiled or steamed sweet potato. Boiled or steamed sweet potato can be used to make sweet potato pancakes but it might make the batter a bit too sloppy as they hold more water. Any leftover cooked sweet potato can be frozen for another day or used to make soup.

Just a little note about the Slimming World syn values of this recipe. The basic sweet potato pancake recipe is free if you use the 40g oats as your Hex B.

If you make the savoury version of these pancakes and serve with raita made with fat-free yoghurt and an oil-free salad then the whole thing will be free.

If you make the sweet version, you will need to syn the 15g of sugar, which is 3 syns for whole batch. (You could swap the sugar for sweetener if you prefer - I'm not a fan of sweetener so I just syn sugar instead.) If you serve with extra honey and chopped nuts you will also have to syn those separately, but fat-free Greek yoghurt is free. It's still fairly low syn compared with regular pancake recipes. 

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Easy & Delicious Sweet Potato Pancakes Two Ways {One Sweet, One Savoury}

• Prep time:  10 minutes
• Cooking time:  10-12 minutes
• Makes:  Roughly 10 small pancakes (serves 1-2)

Basic sweet potato pancake recipe:

Ingredients:

• 40g rolled oats
• 100g cooked sweet potato (see notes)
• 2 eggs
• Sunflower oil or low calorie cooking spray for frying

Method:

1. Pop the oats into a blender or food processor and blitz to make a powder. 
2. Add the sweet potato & eggs and blend to a smooth paste. The mixture should be loose enough to drop off a spoon. (If you don't use the pancake mixture right away it will become thick and you will need to add some milk or water to loosen it.)
3. Brush a large non-stick frying pan lightly with oil (or spray with low calorie cooking spray) over a low heat and allow it to warm up. Spoon tablespoons of the batter onto the pan. (I can fit 5 in my frying pan, so I can make 10 pancakes in two batches). It's important to remember which order you put them in the pan.
4. Cook them 30 - 60 seconds. When the batter looks firm and 'set' on the top, use a spatula to carefully flip the pancake over. Cook for a further 30 - 60 seconds on the other side until golden. 

To make them sweet:

1. Add 1 tbsp soft brown sugar & 1 tsp ground cinnamon to the basic pancake mixture above and mix well. Cook as instructed in the basic sweet potato pancake recipe above.
2. Stack the cooked pancakes up and serve with a drizzle of honey, a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a scattering of chopped pecans if you like. They are extremely good.

To make them savoury:

1. Add 1/4 tsp each of the following to the basic pancake mixture above: ground ginger, cumin, coriander and chilli powder. Add extra chilli powder (if you like spice).
2. Stir well, season to taste and add a generous tbsp of fresh chopped coriander. Stir well again and cook as instructed in the basic sweet potato pancake recipe above.
3. Stack the cooked pancakes up and serve with a side salad, lime wedges and yoghurt raita if you like.