Shredded Root Vegetable Latkes

Here is my latest recipe for latkes from Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners. Sometimes in the fall I buy a bunch of root vegetables for a particular recipe and fail to use them all up.  Suddenly there’s a lone parsnip or turnip hanging out in my vegetable drawer.  How to rescue those worthy orphans?  Use them in this recipe, in essence, nothing more than a fancy-schmancy potato latke. The key tool here is the grating disc of your food processor, which makes it a snap to grate not only the root vegetables, but the potatoes.

Traditionally, latkes are topped off with a dollop of sour cream.  You can add it or not; these taste just fine without it.

1 pound assorted root vegetables, such as turnips, beets, parsnips, and carrots
1/2 pound boiling potatoes, such as Yukon Gold or Red Bliss
1 small onion
1 large egg
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 250ºF. Peel and coarsely shred the root vegetables, potato, and onion (about 3 1/2 cups, packed, combined) in a food processor fitted with the shredding disc (or grate by hand if you don’t have a food processor). Transfer the vegetables to a small bowl. Add the egg, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and toss well.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Use a 1/4-cup measure to drop mounds of the vegetable mixture into the skillet and to flatten than to 4-inch rounds. Cook until the bottoms are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn and brown the other sides, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the latkes to a rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Repeat, adding vegetable oil as needed, until all the vegetable mixture has been cooked.

Sprinkle the latkes with salt and pepper to taste and serve them with sour cream.

Makes about 12 latkes, 4 servings
Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Total preparation time: 25 minutes