Sweet Potato Pancakes & Our Homestead Diet

I’ve always wanted to share more recipes and tips on food preservation on the homestead. Baking bread, preserving the harvest, and cooking a delicious dinner are some of the most satisfying elements of daily life around here, and I hope I can share that joy with you. However, I want to start by explaining a little bit about our diet, so that you can know what to expect from my recipes.

Once upon a time, I would have liked to describe my diet as "plant based", but that term has come to mean vegan and that’s now how I mean it. When I say "plant based", I mean based around plants but not excluding other foods. We eat a lot of vegetables, and our meals are often vegetarian. We eat plenty of eggs and milk - of course, considering our many poultry and dairy goats. I see no reason at all to not consume lovingly harvested and carefully raised animal products such as eggs and milk. We also will occasionally eat meat, especially chicken and seafood. We don’t raise our own meat, none of our animals are food. When we eat meat we try to ensure it is sustainably and ethically raised, and I try to avoid it to a certain extent in our diet simply because if I’m not comfortable raising it myself, maybe I shouldn’t eat it.

My philosophy on food is one of moderation. If we all eat factory farm meat from cheeseburgers every day, that is bad for the planet. But a strictly vegetarian diet isn’t sustainable or healthy for everyone, and there are environmental impacts from that as well. My rules are to eat locally as much as possible — raised or grown by my own hands whenever I can.

So without further explanation, here’s the first homestead recipe I’ve posted in a while, for absolutely scrumptious sweet potato pancakes!

I didn’t cook with sweet potatoes that often, and when I did it was usually a classic roasted sweet potato with butter, nothing adventurous. But finding myself with some leftover cooked yams I thought I’d try a sweet potato pancake recipe, which looked yummy enough.

Now that I’ve tried them — I won’t go back! These sweet potato pancakes are flavorful, melt in your mouth, and sweet as can be despite no sugar. If you, like me, are worried that a sweet potato pancake might taste just a little too “earthy” or “vegetablish” for the breakfast treat that is pancakes — you’d be wrong. It’s all sweetness and light, fluffy pancake texture with this amazing treats. Make a big batch and enjoy them with bacon, or yogurt, or bananas, and always some maple syrup!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

What You’ll Need:

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cooked sweet potato

1 large egg

1 cup of whole milk

dash of vanilla extract

dash of cinnamon

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using a blender or food processor, fully combine the sweet potato and remaining ingredients until smooth.

Pour the sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Meanwhile, heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and grease it with butter. When the skillet is hot, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure out the pancakes onto the skillet. They may need to be flattened slightly with the back of a spoon.

Cook until golden and cooked through. Enjoy!