I was inspired to make these green potato cakes by a post on Simply Recipes for green mashed potato. I love mashed potatoes but they seem more suited as a side to rich meaty stews rather than part of a vegetarian meal. I was going to add a few more herbs and some spinach to really up the flavor and green quotient but in celebration of St Patrick’s day and good, plain Irish food I decided to keep the flavours simple with just parsley, green spring onions, freshly grated parmesan and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper.

I used to make potato cakes very similar to this when I was kid but without the copious amounts of parsley.  I would roll out the potato dough and then cut it into circles with a pastry cutter. I just shaped these green potato cakes with my hands and coated them in flour just before frying them in the hot oil. (Warning – Don’t coat your patties in the flour until just before frying – the flour will soak into the patties and the they won’t fry up crisply)

I used Dutch cream potatoes , which are such a dense creamy mashing potato I just needed an  egg to bind them. Depending on the type of potato you use you may need to use a few tablespoons of flour to help bind them.

I served these potato cakes for dinner with a huge salad of greens, grated beetroot and carrot, fennel, pistachios, olives, spanish onion and some rocket and chilli caciotta from the Paesanella cheese shop in Haberfield. We also had generous dollops of  Parsi tomato chutney on the side but I tried one with just some plain old Heinz organic ketchup and that was pretty good as well.

Green potato cakes

• 900 grams (2 pounds) good mashing potatoes (Desiree, King Edward or Dutch Creams are all good)
• Salt
• 3 sprigs of thyme_
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley,  roughly chopped.
• 4 green onions (scallions) white and green parts chopped (about half a cup)
• ¼ cup of milk, cream or sour cream
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of flour (if needed)
• Salt and Pepper to taste.
• Light Olive Oil for shallow frying.

1. Peel and chop potatoes into about 4 cm pieces.  Add to a 2 litre saucepan cover with cold water add a couple teaspoons of salt and 3 sprigs of thyme. Bring to boil and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until potatoes are tender but not falling apart.
2. Place parsley and onion and ¼ cup of milk or cream into small bowl of a processor and whiz until smooth.
3. When potatoes are cooked, drain and mash potatoes well with a masher or fork.  Add parsley and onion, parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and an egg and mix through until well combined.  If you feel the potato is too moist add a few tablespoons of  flour.
4. When potato is cool, shape into patties, dip in flour and fry immediately until golden on both sides.
5. Makes about sixteen patties.
6. Serve with chutney and a nice big salad.