Beet and Sweet Potato Chops

Garnished Chops

Sweet Potato Cakes sounded so tempting! The small number of ingredients made it look easy, so I went about collecting my supplies. In addition to the two sweet potatoes in the vegetable, there were 3 small beets. This was my first deviation from the original recipe.

I've recently replaced plain breadcrumbs with Japanese Panko Breadcrumbs but, for the life of me, could not find the box. Since it was being used as a binding agent, I reached for the jar of tapioca-rice starch instead, which turned out to be a 'happy accident' or serendipitous. The texture it produced was soft, yet 'bouncy', similar to turnip cakes. And this was the second deviation from the original recipe, although I eventually did find and add Panko breadcrumbs.

Serve with your choice of dip such as ketchup. I served it with kasundi, the Bengali substitute for French's mustard.

Beet & Vegetable Chops

Vegetable Chops - Beets, Carrots and Sweet Potato are boiled,
mashed and formed into patties, using besan (chickpea flour)
as a binding agent.

Ingredients:

3 medium beets

4 carrots

1 sweet potato

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup chickpea flour (besan)

2 tsp. plain yogurt or sour cream

1 tsp. salt

Cilantro, chopped

Green onions, chopped

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Method:

1. Cut root vegetables into chunks and boil in salted water for 15-20 minutes.
2. Drain vegetables and mash with a fork or potato masher until it resembles chunky mashed potatoes.
3. Add chopped onions, flour, yogurt or sour cream & salt and mix through.
4. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
5. Using a tablespoon to measure, drop vegetable mixture into hot oil and flatten to form a patty.
6. Shallow fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.
7. Drain patties on a plate lined with a paper towel.
8. Alternatively, chops may be baked on a cookie sheet (foil lined and greased) at 400F for 20 minutes.
9. Serve patties with lime and tamarind chutney. 

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