When life gives you lots of leftover mashed sweet potatoes, what do you do? Make air fryer Sweet Potato Fritters!
Every year around Thanksgiving, our neighbors, who farm sweet potatoes here in Eastern North Carolina, give us a bushel box of their harvest.
While I am very appreciative, my small family cannot consume those potatoes quickly enough. Therefore, I cook, mash, and freeze sweet potatoes every year.
When I get in the mood for sweet potatoes, I pull a package out of the freezer and heat them up. Most times, I don’t add anything but a little dollop of butter.
We love the flavor and don’t want to mask it with cinnamon or brown sugar as many people do. Not to mention, adding all that sugar is unhealthy—they are sweet enough already!
This year, I froze my packs of sweet potatoes in bags that were too large. Now I wonder: what was I thinking?
As a result, every time I pull out a pack, we eat them as mashed sweet potatoes one evening and I make air fryer sweet potato fritters another day.
If you don’t yet have an air fryer and would like to read up on the best air cookers, this should help.
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fritters
Ingredients
- 2 cups of plain mashed sweet potatoes
- ½ cup white flour
- 1 egg + 2 tbl cold water
- 2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- Pump bottle avocado oil or olive oil
Instructions
- 1. Place the sweet potatoes and flour in a mixing bowl, stir to combine. The flour will firm up the potatoes and bind them together.
- 2. Roll the sweet potato mixture into 15 small balls. Make sure they are evenly sized.
- 3. Whisk the egg in a shallow bowl with 2 tbl of water.
- 4. Put 2 cups of bread crumbs into a second shallow bowl.
- 5. Dip each sweet potato ball into the egg wash, then roll to coat in the bread crumbs.
- 6. Place into your air fryer basket in a single layer.
- 7. Set your air fryer to 400° for 10 minutes. Shake the basket to roll the fritters over halfway through the cycle.
- 8. Remove when the time is up and enjoy!
Nutrition
Tips for Success When Making Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fritters
Give your fritters space to breathe
Your air fryer contains a heating coil that cooks the food and a fan that blows air around the food to ensure fast, even cook times. If you put too many fritters in the basket, you won’t have optimal results.
It’s better to run them in the air fryer in two separate batches than to stuff too many into the fryer at one time.
Only use pump spray, never an aerosol
Cooking sprays come in two varieties: pump or aerosol. While the aerosol may work well when you’re baking, they should not be an option for air frying.
The aerosol variety of oil creates an ultra-fine mist that will clog the inner workings and prematurely wear out your air fryer.
Add flour a little at a time
Although the recipe calls for a half cup of flour, add it a little bit at a time. If the potatoes get too stiff, they are difficult to work with. This ingredient can vary depending on how moist your mashed sweet potatoes are.
If your mashed sweet potatoes are very thin, you might even need a bit more flour. I try to use the minimal amount to cut down on unhealthy forms of carbs.
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fritters—You’ll Be Glad You Tried Them!
Air fryer sweet potato fritters are a go-with-anything dish. I especially love them with chicken but have been known to serve them with sliders, as well. They can be dressed up and presented on a fancy plate or passed around the table as an appetizer.
Air fryer sweet potato fritters will be a hit with everyone and are a versatile recipe to keep in your back pocket.
Interested in more air fryer recipes? Check out our other air fryer recipes.
