Sweet Potato Fritters or Tikki is a delicious and flavorful Indian snack made from boiled and mashed sweet potatoes mixed with Indian spices. It is a popular street food and appetizer that combines the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes with a blend of spices and herbs. The classical recipe of sweet potato fritters involve simple steps like mashing boiled sweet potatoes and mixing them with ingredients like bread crumbs, onions, green chilies, ginger, and a variety of aromatic spices. The mixture is then shaped into small patties and shallow-fried until crispy and golden brown. However, this recipe of sweet potato tikkis is made with a gentle twist by skipping the bread crumbs and adding Ragi (Finger Millet) flour to make them gluten-free and perfect for anyone who is fasting for Navratri, Ekadashi or follows a gluten-free diet for health reasons. I have always loved sweet-potato ever since I can remember. Being in India, you can never miss the popular shakarkandi chaat, made by slowly roasting raw shakarkandi over the burning coals. Though I love deep fried tikkis, you may shallow fry or pan fry them as well for making their healthy version. Find More Appetizers/ Side Dishes: Onion Fritters, Rice Fritters, Hara Bhara Kabab, Roasted Green Beans and Potatoes. More Ragi Recipes: Ragi Banana Pancake, Ragi Paratha.
Why Would You Love This Recipe?
Gluten Free Healthy Snack Kids friendly Super Indulging as each bite of the browned crust in ghee melts in mouth! Rich in Savory, Spicy and Tangy Flavors. Can be made in advance Simple ingredients Two-ways Recipe: Pan-Fried and Deep-Fried The Best Sweet Potato Fritters Ever!
Ingredients
Sweet Potato- is the prime ingredient of this recipe. I have boiled and mashed pink sweet potato. The white one would work well too. The same recipe can be used with potatoes to make Aloo Tikki. Indian Spices- include Red Chilly powder, Garam Masala, Amchur (Raw Mango Powder). You may skip or adjust red chilly powder as per your taste. These are mildly spicy fritters. But as I understand, my level of spicy may not match with yours. If you don’t have amchur, you may use lemon juice (1 tsp). Green Chilly- Freshly chopped green chilies add amazing spicy kick to these tikkis. You may skip them if you don’t like the heat. Salt- Use Sendha (Rock) Salt if you are making these tikkis on a fasting day. The table salt works well too. Ragi Flour- Using Ragi Flour makes these tikkis gluten free. Other gf flours that can be used in this recipe are: buckwheat and gram flour. You may use APF as well if you are not making it gluten free. Ghee- is my favorite when it comes to pan-frying. You may use mustard oil or any other vegetable oil for deep frying as frying in ghee can be very smoky. Mustard Oil (Optional)- Use mustard oil or any other oil for deep frying.
How To Make Sweet Potato Fritters
Step 1 Wash, Boil & Mash
Wash sweet potatoes under tap water. Remove the mud. Boil sweet potato for 1-2 whistle. Once it cools off, drain water and keep it in sieve/colander. Peel off the boiled sweet potato and mash it in a bowl with a fork or spatula.
Step 2 Spice It
Add spices like red chili, green chili, salt, Ajwain, Garm masala, Lemon juice, to it. Gradually add ragi flour (or any other flour) and make a smooth mixture. Mix really well. Add ragi flour as required. Make sure the mixture is not very soft or very hard. It should be smooth enough to make a flat tikki by hands. It could make around 8 tikkis.
Step 3 Fry It
You can pan fry or deep fry these tikkis. I have done both. Since I am a foodie, I loved the fried version. You may choose this as per your preference. In case you pan fry these tikkis, use less flour and make thin tikkis so that its not raw in the middle. This is because when we deep fry, everything gets cooked easily. Also for deep frying, add tikkis to hot desi ghee / mustard oil, not cold (or else they might break), slow the flame and cook on slow flame for 5 min and then flip. For pan fried, you may cover the pan with a lid for better cooking. Each side takes 3-4 min on simmer for cooking. 5) Serve hot sweet potato tikki with green dhaniya chutney and saunth. Enjoy with tea!
Expert Tips
Make sure to make thin round balls if you are pan frying. Use less of ragi flour to bind them or else the flour might be raw when cooked in a pan. You may close the pan with a lid to enhance better cooking. While deep frying, the oil/ ghee should be hot or else the fritters would fall apart. Once placed in the oil for frying, let the flame be slow so that fritters are well cooked from within.
Stories from Kitchen
Do you also love going to tikki wala bhaiya in local markets and binge eating chaat, tikki, gole gappe? Shakarkandi Chaat is my favorite and we still go to local markets where they are roasted over coals and topped with spicy masala and lemon juice. You may also like:
Cucumber Radish Salad Amla Murabba Recipe- Indian Gooseberry Jam Makhana Chaat Recipe Sweet Potato Chaat (Shakarkandi Chaat) Easy Vegan Latkes (Potato Pancakes)- Gluten Free! Spiced Walnuts Recipe
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