Vegan Boxty

Boxty is a traditional Irish potato cake made from a mixture of mashed and grated potatoes. It is definitely something I had heard of growing up but I never tried it. 

So today I found myself on a lazy Sunday morning with a glut of potatoes and thought 'Why not give it a try!'. 

I veganised a non-vegan recipe by adding some cornflour and a little bit of oil in place of the unnecessary egg, as well as using soya milk and vegetable oil instead of dairy-based fat and milk. 

Vegan Boxty, adapted from this recipe

4 medium sized potatoes

100ml unsweetened soya milk

1 teaspoon of salt

40g flour

2 tablespoons of corn flour

Vegetable oil- one teaspoon for the mixture, one tablespoon (or more) for frying

- Chop up 2 of the potatoes (I don't peel them as I think that it's unnecessary effort, but by all means peel them if you prefer) into small cubes and boil in a medium sized pot until soft. This should take about 10-15 minutes depending on how large the pieces of chopped potato are.

- Meanwhile, grate the other two potatoes. When grated gather up in some kitchen roll or a clean tea towel and squeeze the water out. 

- When the potato cubes are boiled, mix with 60ml of the soya milk and mash until smooth. 

- Mix the grated and mashed potato together in a mixing bowl with the flour, cornflour, salt, tsp of oil and soya milk. Mix until all combined into a thick batter.  

- Heat a frying pan (size dependant on how what size you wish to make your boxty) on medium heat with oil. Wait for the frying pan to heat up before ladling the batter in to fry. Fry on each side for about 5 minutes until browned. 

- I got 4 saucer-sized cakes out of this recipe, but obviously if you make them smaller you will get more. 

Boxty are alot like hash browns. The next time I make them I think I will add some onions or scallions, but plain they are great as a hearty base for a breakfast fry. 

I accompanied them with my take on these breakfast sausages from the Vegan Dad blog and some brown sauce, but they would be fantastic with any of the trappings of a fry, such as vegan rashers, baked beans, roasted mushrooms and tomatoes or tofu or chickpea scramble.