Vegan Potato Cakes stuffed with Mushrooms – Delicious way to use leftover mashed potatoes. Perfect for summer, fall or winder lunch, use different herbs to change the flavour.
For our first wedding year anniversary I gave my husband a fancy swiss army knife. He gave me a magazine subscription. “I thought we were doing traditional anniversary gifts, ” he said, “first year is paper.” For our second anniversary I gave him a bathrobe; he gave me jewellery. “I thought we decided to do traditional anniversary gifts, ” I said to him, “second year is cotton.” Finally, for our third year we were in sync and gave each other traditional leather gifts. Fourth year was much more difficult. Old school guides suggested that year four is the year of flowers or fruit, however, modern interpretation of that year said that it was the year for appliances. After a few weeks of hints I finally got a Slow Cooker.
And not a moment too soon. Since my oven stopped working slow cooker got a lot of use. Up until a few weeks ago I did not realize how much I rely on the oven. I don’t have a microwave, so leftovers get heated in the oven. I bake, I roast, I broil and toast. I make most of my main courses in the oven. I cook vegetables, fruit, and bread. I grill pita, make meatballs, warm stews. All of it in the oven, not on the stove.
So, for the past two weekends I’ve been slow cooking my food and trying to come up with ideas of what I could make on the stove that would be easy, convenient, and fast. These Potato Cakes popped into my head recently and I finally got a chance to make them. They are actually a traditional Russian dish called Zrazy. There are many different kinds of Zrazy, some are meat based, some are vegetarian, but the basic idea behind the name is that it is something stuffed. It could be meat roulades stuffed with eggs and fried. It could be fish cakes stuffed with dill pickles. Or, like in this case, it could be Vegan Potato Cakes stuffed with Mushrooms. This recipe works really well with leftover mashed potatoes too. Mushrooms and onions are cooked slowly for at least 15-20 minutes until all the liquid evaporated and then a few more minutes to get some colour. Herbs are then added to the mixture. I love dill, it gives the filling summery brightness. Some flour is added to mashed potatoes to make a simple dough, then cakes are stuffed and pan-fried to get golden colour. Serve these Vegan Potato Cakes stuffed with Mushrooms with some lemon, mustard or horseradish.
One of my favourite things about this recipe (besides delicious flavour) is that it is a great way to get creative with your leftovers. I love recipes that do that! Another great example for those who may have leftover kale or sweet potatoes is this Sweet Potato and Kale Paleo Frittata from My Wife Can Cook.
Vegan Potato Cakes stuffed with Mushrooms
egan Potato Cakes stuffed with Mushrooms - Delicious way to use leftover mashed potatoes. Perfect for summer, fall or winder lunch, use different herbs to change the flavour | Imagelicious
Ingredients
- 2 pounds potatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons oil or more as needed for pan-frying, divided
- 1/2 pound mushrooms
- 150 g onion
- 10 g dill
- 1/2 cup flour
- salt, pepper to taste
Instructions
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Wash, peel and dice potatoes.
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Boil the potatoes with bay leaf until fully cooked.
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While potatoes are cooking, heat one tablespoon of oil in a large pan.
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Dice the onion and coarsely chop mushrooms.
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Add the onion and mushrooms to the pan and cook on medium-low heat mixing occasionally until all the liquid evaporated. This will take about 15-20 minutes.
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Cook for another 5 minutes until mixture starts to brown.
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Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Finally chop the dill, add it to the pan with mushrooms, mix and take off the heat.
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Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them well and mash with fork or masher, do not use food processor as it'll turn the potatoes watery. Season to taste.
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Cool the potatoes.
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Add flour to the mashed potatoes and mix well.
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Take about 2 tablespoons of potato dough and flatten into a disk, place one spoonful of mushroom mixture and cover with more potato dough. Form into a disk.
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Once all the potato cakes are assembled, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Use more oil if needed.
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Place potato cakes on the pan and fry about 5 minutes until they turn golden, flip and fry another 5 minutes until golden.
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Serve with leftover mushroom mixture if any left, some lemon juice, mustard or horseradish.
Recipe Notes
- You can omit flour or add less than the recipe calls for. I like flour as it makes the potatoes easier to handle, but it certainly isn't necessary.
- Filling can vary. You can add different herbs like thyme, for example, or parsley. Or add bell peppers.
- I have a really good non-stick pan (affiliate link) so the cakes don't stick too much, but if you are worried, add more oil to make sure that they don't stick. I know some readers had trouble with the frying part. Note, that quite often food will stick to the pan until it's actually done and only once it's properly cooked, it'll get released. In any case, please add oil as needed when frying the cakes. Also, they can be baked instead of fried.
Oooooooo this looks amazing and yummy and cozy and good for you and lots of other nice things! It has been ages since I tried zrazy, must make soon!
Thank you, Lily! Yea – these are delicious. i don’t know why I don’t make them more often.
these look like pure deliciousness! Such a great new way to enjoy potatoes!
Thank you, Rachel! They were delicious!
These stuffed pancakes look great! Toss some sour cream on there and I’d probably eat the entire batch myself! Loved the story of you and your husband — too cute. I’m glad you finally got synced up! 🙂
Amanda – yeah, these are absolutely delicious with sour cream. If you don’t follow a vegan diet, then I’d also add an egg into potatoes too.
I really love the photos and this recipe sounds beyond delicious!
Thank you so much, Sandra! The recipe is delicious and also easy, especially if you have leftover mashed potatoes.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ll be making this for my gf vegan Thanksgiving meal. Have you ever used a brown gravy drizzled on top?
Hi Debra – I haven’t tried them with gravy, but I’m sure it’ll be delicious. Also, you don’t have to add as much flour to the mashed potatoes as I did, to make the cakes even healthier. Flour allows you to shape the patties easier, but it’s not necessary. If you oil your hands, then the patties would shape well too and the potatoes will not get stuck to your palms.
Can i replace with sweet potatoes? xD just prefer the taste
Quinn – I personally have not tried it with sweet potatoes, but I don’t see why not. You may need to add a bit more seasoning and spices.
Looks delicious! I’d like to make them for a party, but would have to make them in advance and freeze them – do you think they would hold up to freezing?
Thanks!
Sarah – I’m not sure if they can be frozen. Starches in Potatoes when exposed to cold turn to sugars, so they may turn sweet. Also, they may be a bit watery. But this is just me guessing. I’ve never done that.
Could you convert the items measured by grams please. I don’t know how to measure in this way. Looks absolutly scrumptious. I’d eat them all. Thanks. Good day.
For onion you need about 1 medium onion. For dill it’s about 2-3 tablespoons or about 8 stalks.
These were amazing! I made them for hanukkah. I had a problem frying them, as all my pans are pretty terrible. So I put them in the oven instead and they turned out perfect.
Zo – I am super happy you liked them. Yes, frying them is a bit tricky as they stick to the pan, so you need quite a lot of oil and a really good pan. But I’m glad you were able to bake them, and so making them even healthier!
Why are the vegetable quantities here stated by weight ( interestingly a mixture of imperial and metric) but flour by volume Measurements in this case probably don’t have to be too accurate but measuring anything apart form liquid by volume is inaccurate depending on how tightly it is packed. 1/2 cup I think is around 60 grams? A little more than 2 ounces
Hello Mary – you are correct, there’s no need to measure ingredients for the filling exactly and this is precisely why I weighed them. It’s a lot easier to weigh vegetables, than to measure them in cups.
These look delicious! I made everything according to the recipe. The oil was not specified, so I used coconut oil. I only wish I had read the comments first. The recipe calls for frying the potato cakes in the remaining oil, which would mean no more than 2 tablespoons. I had a horrible time with them sticking and, basically, falling to pieces when I tried to flip them. I’ve never made these before, so I decided to stick with the recipe. I read the comments, after my failed attempt, and learned that you need quite a bit of oil. It may be helpful to state that in the recipe. Or I could’ve just stuck to my gut and added more oil. Lesson learned I suppose. Either way, thanks for sharing your recipe.
Courtney – I am sorry you had trouble with frying them. Thank you for your comment, I added a note about extra oil for the future. Hopefully it’ll help others. I hope it won’t deter you from coming back to the site. Happy holidays!
I set out to make this recipe yesterday evening. I have made potato pancakes all my life and they are a family favorite so I think that I have some expertise here. Having said that I did add the flour as well as an egg white to the potatoes as a binder. Floured my hands and attempted to make a potato disk using my mixture. After assembling a couple I placed them in the pan of hot oil as they fell apart in my hands! I have no idea how you would form this mixture into something that can be transferred to the pan. Finally I just ended up dropping the batter by spoons full and then dropped the mushroom/onion mixture on top and pressed it into the batter. My daughter was saying, "oh just mix it all together"! Despite the challenges of making a patty that could be moved to the pan without falling apart, they were delicious! We ate them all and most likely could have eaten more. I would make them the same, drop a spoonful of batter and flatten that in the pan and top with a spoonful of mushroom mixture and flatten that into the potato mixture. NO sticking, no issues with that at all. Delish!
Narda – I’m sorry you had trouble with the mixture falling apart. I am not sure why this would happen. Could be because of the extra moisture from the egg white and not enough flour? I make mashed potato cakes and stuffed mashed potato cakes on regular basis and although I usually just eyeball the amount of flour, they don’t fall apart and if they stick, I just add a bit more flour. Again, I’m sorry the exact recipe didn’t work for you, but I’m glad you were able to still enjoy these cakes. Thank you for your comment.
Adding the egg white made them too sloopy , dry out the potatos on the stove after you drain them. Add flour to potatos and make sure mixture is cold. When you form the patties put a little oil on your hands and the mixture wont stick then cold mushroom and top layer.
What temperature are the cakes baked at and for how long? Do they need to be flipped?
Susan – I actually haven’t baked them myself but some other readers did. If I were to bake them, I’d do it in 350F oven. I’d also spray them lightly with oil so that they’d brown. Perhaps 10-15 min per side, but I’d check to make sure that they don’t burn. Good thing is that since they are vegan, there’s no need to make sure that there’s anything raw inside and at cooked. You are basically trying to firm up the mashed potatoes. Good luck.
Fabulous – Thanks very much for this recipe, I kept adding flour until I could handle the potato. The cakes were delicious !
Karen – I am so glad it worked for you. I know some readers had trouble with forming the cakes and frying them. I’m glad you added more flour. Thanks for letting me know!
looks really easy and tasty I’m going to try this
Daphne – I hope you like it. Just remember to add enough flour to make the potato mixture pliable and use more oil if they stick.
Do you think they would be any good using mashed sweet potatoes?
Steve – I haven’t tried, but I think it would work too if you like the flavour combination of sweet potato and mushrooms. You may need to add more flour since sweet potatoes are a bit more watery and more salt
Do you think mashed sweet potatoes old work?
Tried your potato cakes and they came out great, only I used a cast iron pan with a little oil and they browned up nicely. My wife and guests loved them.
I’m doing this now, I just don’t know and have to ask, when you say cook mushrooms and onions in a large pan do you mean a frying pan or a boiling pan? Thanks !:)
I did the potato cakes, they taste good but didnt cook in the inside! And if I let them cook more, they burn on the outside 🙁 What am I doing wrong? I’m sad because they were a lot of work.
If they are cooking too fast on the outside and not on the inside, then your heat is too high. Lower the heat next time 🙂
everything is cooked what do you need to cook on the inside . If you fry them on both sides till golden they will heat up inside.
I saw this recipe and knew I had to try it. I used a sweet potato and found that it needed more seasoning just overall. I think next time I will add a little more to the water as well. With the mushroom and onion I also added a bit of garlic which turned out quite nicely. I used more flour for the potatoes and it worked well. Very happy with the recipe and cannot wait to try it again. Thanks for sharing!
I will try this with another filling, maybe spinach or broccoli. Mushrooms are gross.
These look divine. I’m not a big fan of dill so I would probably use parsley instead. Do you have any idea if these would freeze well? For some reason I feel like they would be a great thing to make ahead and then toast in the oven for a quick snack/light meal.
I made those for Easter, they were really good! Thanks for a great recipe 🙂
I just made these! They look and smell great as well as taste divine. I made them with parsley instead of dill, as that was what I had on hand. Great recipe!
These look great. Do you know if they freeze well?
I think I will make them with Parsley instead of dill as well.
What a great twist to the potato pancake! Mushrooms are just a great addition to plant-based dishes, aren’t they? Thanks! I shared it all over the place!
Mmmm, So yummy. I made these today for lunch for my toddler and I and they were delicious. I also mentioned I was making this on my youtube channel and Instagram page. Totally worth sharing. #TheNeils 🙂
I am going to make these on Chinese mid autumn festival, our family love potatoes very much and mushrooms as well. Thank you
How long should they be baked and at what temperature do you recommend?
I haven’t actually baked them, I only pan fried them before. I imagine baking temperature would be 350F. I would spray them with oil so that they crisp up and bake until they are a bit brown, maybe 30 min or so, flipping once. But I haven’t tried it.
This looks super delicious. Definitely on my to-do list.
What temperature and for how long would I bake them?
I haven’t actually baked them, I only pan fried them before. I imagine baking temperature would be 350F. I would spray them with oil so that they crisp up and bake until they are a bit brown, maybe 30 min or so, flipping once. But I haven’t tried it.
On my to do list
Just wondering – when you finish cooling the potatoes, do you mash them up right away, or let some of the extra evaporate from them in the drained boiling pot? When I make regular mashed potatoes, I dry them out a bit because I don’t like water logged potatoes – but maybe for this recipe that’s needed? Just wondering before I try making these – they look yummy!
I usually cool potatoes so that I could handle them. I drain them well, but I don’t specifically make water evaporate. Potatoes need to be pretty dry or you’ll need more flour to make the "dough"
We made these last night and they turned out well. This is definitely a keeper repeat recipe. I added brown lentils for a protein boost so they could be a complete meal, and some spinach because I love greens. I also used quinoa flour (more protein) because my hubs is allergic to gluten. We fried them in an oiled cast iron skillet, and they browned up quickly and evenly.
I have several patties left which I may try baking so they have less oil. Next time, I may try to cut back or omit the floor so they taste more like mashed potatoes since you said it was optional, I just worry they won’t hold, maybe just a bit of potato scratch?
yummy! I have to try this.
Do u know how many cal have one dough please ? Thx
Unfortunately I don’t know
Just made these, quite tasty and they present very well! Think it would be great with cheese inside (vegan thing aside), like mozzarella or parmesan. I made 6 large and a baby one, but only just saw it’s meant to make 9! They still worked. I probably used 3 quarters cup of flour and a bit more oil for frying. Thanks, great to add more to the repertoire!
I agree, I bet feta or goat cheese would work wonderfully with the mushroom filling. Thanks for letting me know about flour – it all depends on the potatoes, so I’m glad you used your own judgement there.
Made these last year for Friendsgiving and this year, I will be doing them again! Totally used some gravy with them (in case anyone is wondering) and it was fabulous. Can’t wait to make them again <3
Looks great!
Do you think i can make them in advance and just refry them for warm up before serving?
I think you can make them a day before and then warm up before serving
Can I use lentil flour for this recipe?
Unfortunately I haven’t tried so I can’t know for sure. My guess is that yes, you could, but I don’t know 100%.
I will let you know how it goes.
I’m going to make this today, when you mash the potatoes, do you add butter/milk like you would regular mashed potatoes or just mash them?
Since this is a vegan recipe I don’t add anything. If you aren’t vegan then you can add a bit of butter for taste. Just remember that you are essentially making a potato “dough”, so the more butter you add to the potatoes the thinner they will get and the more flour you’d need to add later.
I made these last weekend for my husband and he was in heaven! He raved about them to everyone he talked to all week saying it was 5 star restaurant fare. I used a vegan gravy recipe over them but otherwise did it EXACTLY as the recipe said. It is definitely our new favorite recipe and as new vegans I thank you for making it feel less and less like we are giving anything up!!
Wow – thank you so much for such words!! I’m so glad both you and your husband loved the recipe! I am not vegan but I love making vegan food and this one is also one of my favourites!!
People! Read the comments BEFORE you ask a question. Good grief. Then you won’t have to waste everyone’s time reading the same thing 50 times!!! Or waste the author’s time by having to answer it 50 times. She’s way more patient than I am.
Sorry, one of my pet peeves.
Haha 🙂 thanks!
I’m having a vegan dinner party next week, can they be made a head.
I haven’t tried making them in advance, so I don’t know specifically. However, if I were to have a dinner party I would make the mashed potatoes a day ahead and mushroom mixture a day early also and keep in the fridge. On the morning of the dinner party I’d shape the patties and stack them – make sure to put a piece of parchment paper in between each patty so that they don’t stick. Then fry them just before the dinner. Again, I haven’t tried it but I think it would work.
These look so delish! I just bought some mushrooms that definitely need to be made into these.
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy them
I’m not a cook by any means. I have some vegetarian Friends coming over for dinner. Can someone tell me how much flower? Some point of measurement. Are we talking about 1 cup of flour or a tablespoon. Please give me a starting point of measurement and then if it’s still not enough the increment measurements to add. Thank you!
It says in the recipe that you need 1/2 cup flour. If the “dough” is too sticky then you can add more.
I tried once and i will always come back to this recipe – DELICIOUS. 😮
Thank you so much! I’m glad you liked it!
Great recipe. I just made a few alterations to suite my own dietary needs: subbed flour for cornstarch as I’m allergic to wheat and I steamed and used the potatoes skin-on instead of boiling them (it makes them far less watery). I also added 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder (and old trick my Gran used to give her mashed potatoes a more fluffy appearance) and baked them at 230°C instead of frying them up. Dying to try a few variations like a cottage pie version with lentils and one with broccoli and vegan cheese filling.
Thanks for the comment! I’m glad to hear about your changes . And I’m glad to know that baking them worked, I was wondering about that. I should try your baking powder trick!!