Rootkes

Some years back, DD’s mother passed along a recipe for Passover “rootkes”, aka latkes but with assorted root vegetables other than potato (more recently, I ran across a similar recipe on PPK). Since I’d already shredded a boatload of farm share beets, rootkes seemed the obvious choice, especially since I also had the share potatoes, carrots, and onions. The original recipe called for sweet potato, but I found it worked quite well with the regular kind, too. I used flour instead of matzah meal (and cornstarch instead of potato starch) because, well, it’s not Pesach, and it was just easier this way.

I also tested two cooking methods: frying and baking. Fried was somewhat tastier (no surprise there), but baking was also quite yummy and had the advantages of using less oil and not needing to tend to a pan in front of a hot stove in the summer. These were so full of yummy that I’m ashamed to admit how many I ate in the name of testing.

Rootkes

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded beets
• 1 cup shredded potatoes (or sweet potatoes)
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fennel seed powder
• A few turns fresh ground black pepper
• Olive oil for frying

Mix together all the veggies, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Add water a tablespoon at a time until the mix is moist. Hands work great for this — it’s quite tactile! Form the mixture into small (~1″) balls (or larger ones if you prefer).

Fry: Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a pan and (once the oil is HOT!), flatten the rootke into it. Cook until crispy and browned on one side, then flip and do the same on the other.

Bake: Preheat oven to 375°. Coat a baking sheet (or foil-lined sheet) with olive oil and flatten the rootkes onto it. Spray (or drizzle if you don’t have a sprayer) the top with more oil. Bake until browned and crispy, flipping halfway through if desired for better effect.