Summer Sweet Potato Cakes

Sweet potatoes are my new favourite thing. They not only taste great, and are actually really good at lowering stress levels due to the fact that they are very rich in vitamin C, iron and magnesium, they contain vitamin D, which helps to support your immune system and your thyroid gland, as well as keeping your bones, heart, nerves, skin and teeth healthy. It also helps to boost our energy levels and mood!

Because they are so good for you, I've been trying to incorporate sweet potatoes into my diet more. However, just having them as wedges or as mash can be pretty boring. So, I decided to experiment a bit and make sweet potato cakes, and they came out suprisingly well. Quick, easy and delicious, they make the perfect summer meal and are one of my new favourite recipes!

Ingredients
- 3 sweet potatoes
- Half a red onion
- 4 small carrots
- 1 tablespoon of paprika
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil (for frying)

Method
1) First, you need to boil the sweet potatoes, to make them soft enough to mash. To do this, put some water (enough to cover the potatoes) and a pinch of salt into a pan and bring to the boil. Cut the sweet potato into smallish chunks and place them in the pan. Boil for about 10 minutes, or until relatively soft.
2) When the potatoes have finished boiling, remove the water from the pan using a colander (or a sieve), and place them into a large bowl. Mash with a fork, (don't attempt to blend them - I tried and failed miserably) and leave to cool.
3) Whilst the potatoes are cooling, peel and grate the carrots into another bowl. Dice the onions finely and place that into the bowl. Mix the two vegetables together, and add to the sweet potato mash, along with the paprika. Mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly, you may want to use your hands to do this and ensure everything is incorporated.
4) Next you need to fry the cakes. To do this, place the oil in a frying pan and place that over a high heat.

5) Use your hands to form the first cake (you want about two heaped tablespoons of the mixture in each cake, and you want each cake to be about 1.5cm high), and place it in the pan. Fry the cake for a minute and a half on both sides before serving. Don't worry if they look a bit burnt (like mine do) they'll still taste great!
5) Repeat step 5 until all the mixture is used up, you should be able to make about 7 cakes. If you don't want that many, you can scale down the amount of each ingredient, or, alternatively, you can make as many as you need and keep the excess mixture in the fridge for about 3-5 days. Remember to cover it with tin foil or a cloth to keep it fresh.

Makes 7 cakes - Each cake contains approx. 70 calories