Transform Your Leftover Mashed Sweet Potatoes Into Sweet Fluffy Pancakes

One of the most versatile vegetables in your pantry is the humble sweet potato. It can go pretty much anywhere a regular potato can go, and it's equally at home as a savory side as it is baked into a sweet pie. Sweet potatoes are also relatively inexpensive, packed with lots of vitamins and minerals, and have a long shelf life in the right conditions, so it's smart to stock up when you're at the grocery store. If you really love mashed sweet potatoes and made a little too many for dinner one night, don't worry about wasting them because they are the perfect ingredient for making sweet potato pancakes.

Sweet potatoes are pretty bulletproof when it comes to reheating, but when they're already mixed with ingredients like cream and butter, things start to get a little less consistent. If you're not feeling the love of reheating last night's mashed sweet potatoes, set them aside and make a fabulous breakfast or brunch with your leftovers. All you'll need (in addition to the potatoes themselves) is a few ingredients you probably already have on hand, including flour, baking powder and soda, milk, eggs, and butter.

Sweet potatoes for breakfast? If you've only ever had sweet potatoes as a savory side, you might be surprised to know that sweet potatoes first thing in the morning are not really unheard of. Sweet potato lovers already know that the earthy tubers are delicious when diced up into a lazy sweet potato hash or baked into a quiche or frittata, so why not pancakes?

Luckily, you can be somewhat flexible with your batter. But in general, a roughly 1-to-1 ratio of sweet potatoes to flour is ideal unless you're making a vegan version of maple-cinnamon sweet potato pancakes, in which case, you can try ½ cup of mashed sweet potato to ⅓ cup of almond flour.

While you might be tempted to throw everything in a bowl and stir, be sure to mix the dry stuff together first and the wet stuff in a separate bowl. This will ensure that the baking soda and powder get evenly distributed throughout the batter and not in big clumps that will give you uneven pancakes. Then, you can gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until they're just incorporated; vigorous stirring will make your pancakes chewy, and they won't rise as well due to overworked gluten.

Once you get the hang of making sweet potato pancakes, you can experiment with some extra flavorings to jazz things up. Anything that works with sweet potatoes is on the table when it comes to add-ins. If you want traditional, sweet pancakes, try a few tablespoons of maple syrup or honey, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. If you want a more savory pancake, go with a sprinkling of chives, tarragon, rosemary, or even cayenne or cumin. Don't forget about more filling extras, like blueberries, bananas, and chocolate chips. 

Sweet potato pancake batter can also easily become waffles, all you need is a good waffle iron. If your batter is on the sweet side, serve the waffles with butter and syrup or whipped cream (or both). If they're savory, you can serve them up with a piece of crispy fried chicken or some frozen chicken tenders. You can also treat the waffle like a bun and make a sweet and savory cheeseburger.

With sweet potato pancakes in your culinary repertoire, you never have to worry about making "too many" mashed sweet potatoes for dinner; there'll always be time for tasty pancakes the next day. Plus, if you have any leftover pancake batter, you can use it to make sweet potato corn dogs.