Gluten Free Potato Pancakes: A Quick Meal

Tonight was one of our "work party" nights, which basically means we call up relatives and beg them to help us work on our latest house project.  My ever loyal mother-in-law took the call and agreed to come help us paint our window trim, which is about as fun as peeling sunburnt skin.  We usually like to at least provide dinner for those who come over and offer their time, but tonight's plan backfired.  The idea was to barbeque, but we did not get it ready in time.  So not only did my mother-in-law have to spend her evening helping us paint, we had to ask her to bring vegetables from her garden.  And of course she did because she is always happy to help us out. Armed with fresh new potatoes, lettuce, and onions, we had a short amount of time to put together dinner.  The result: gluten-free potato pancakes.

What I love about potato pancakes is that they are quick, they are good for any meal, and they go with any side dish.  You also do not need a lot of ingredients or counter space, both of which we are lacking, to make them.  All you need is:

• About 1 1/2 new potatoes
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 5 eggs, scrambled 
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup of cooking oil (I used olive oil)
• Any herbs that you want to add (optional)

Wash and dry all of the potatoes.  You can peel them if you like but I prefer to leave the skins on.  Once the potatoes are dry, they need to be shredded like you would for hash browns.

Once all of the potatoes are shredded, you may need to wring them out for excess water.  You can squeeze them by the handful over the sink and place the dry potatoes in a new bowl or place them in a strainer and pat them dry with a towel.  Once all of the potatoes are wrung out, add the salt, pepper, and diced onion and mix well.  You can also add any herb that you like to the mix for extra flavor; tarragon or basil go well. Then, mix in the beaten eggs.  Make sure that the eggs coat all of the potato mixture as that is what keep the pancakes bound together.

Once the potatoes and eggs are mixed together, add about 2 tablespoons of oil to a pan.  Make sure the bottom of the pan is well-coated.  Then, put the pan on a burner and turn it to a medium-heat.  Once the oil is well-heated, add a scoopful of the potato mixture to the pan.  The pancakes can be any size that you like; ours were about 4 inches wide.  

Let them cook for about 5 minutes before flipping them over.  You want to make sure the pan does not get too hot or you will have raw potato in the middle of your pancake.  Cook on the other side for 5 minutes as well before removing them from the heat.

You want to cook all of the pancakes soon after making the batter or the potatoes start to get soggy.  Once they are all done, you can serve them with your favorite sauce.  Ketchup or salsa go nicely with them.  You can add any side dish you like to go with them or, use the pancakes as a side dish to go with your favorite meat.  We added a salad with ours so we felt a little healthier. ;)

This is an easy, inexpensive, crowd-pleasing dish when you need to make something quick to fuel your work crew! :)

Any quick, gluten-free dishes that you like?  Share the recipes in the comments section!