Adapting Recipes to what's in the fridge: Sweet Potato Cakes

When cooking an everyday dinner I prefer to use recipes as a guide, substituting ingredients for whatever is in the fridge. The other night was a prime example, I had a ton of sweet potatoes and needed a way to make them the star of the meal instead of a side. I found the perfect recipe in  the cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.  Below is the recipe, easy substiutions are marked in blue:

2 1/4lbs sweet potatoes

2 teaspoons soy sauce - omit and use salt 

scant 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoon chopped green onion - red or yellow onion very finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh red chile - cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes

plenty of butter for frying 

Sauce
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice - Lime
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro - Parsley
salt and pepper

I choose to substitute in parsley for the sauce; red onion, red pepper flakes and leaving out the soy sauce for the cakes. Cumin or cinnamon would also be a good addition to the sweet potatoes.

Peal and steam the sweet potatoes until completely soft, then leave in a colander to drain for at least an hour. I do not have a proper steamer so I just boiled them in salted water.

To make the sauce. Whisk together all he sauce ingredients until smooth; set aside. I substituted parsley for the cilantro and added a few extra tablespoons. I love parsley.

Once the sweet potatoes have lost most of their liquid, place them in a mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, except for the butter. Mix until smooth and even, the mixture should be sticky.

Melt some of the butter in a non-stick frying pan. For each cake, use a tablespoon to lift some mix into the pan and flatten with the back of the spoon to create a little sweet potato cake. Fry the cakes on medium heat for about 6 minutes on each side or until golden brown. 

Serve hot or warm with the sauce on the side.

A  quick and easy way to use left over sweet potatoes. The sauce is also the perfect complement, cutting the sweetness of the potato. In future I may use this same idea for left over mashed potatoes, although i'm not sure what kind of sauce would complement it. Maybe applesauce for a faux latke type meal?