Chickpea and sweet potato spiced latkes

By latkes I mean fritters with potato in, but I quite like the word latke. These, then, are spiced sweet potato and chickpea fritters! With a little mint yoghurt dressed salad they were quite divine. Makes about 9 fritters.

Olive oil, for frying

Extra virgin oil

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground

Juice of 1/8th of a lemon

1 small sweet potato, cubed

1/2 can chickpeas, drained

1 beaten egg

Chickpea flour, for thickening

For the salad:

Spinach, baby leaf

Cucumber

Red pepper

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp greek yoghurt

Black pepper

1 - 2 tsp finely chopped fresh mint

Seasalt, pinch of

Set up a steamer over some simmering water, and steam the sweet potato until tender. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil and lemon juice together with the mint, pepper and salt until somewhat emulsified. Stir in the yoghurt (at this point I recalled curdling, but due to the emulsification I think this is avoided.) Add sliced cucumber and red pepper, and set to one side. Rinse spinach and leave to drain.

In a second bowl, combine a few teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, the onion and garlic, spices, and sweet potato. Mash the potato until blended in with the other ingredients. Stir in the chickpeas, beaten egg and lemon juice. Mix well, and if a little on the thin side add a few spoonfuls of chickpea flour until more manageable.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan to a medium heat, and then drop in spoonfuls of the fritter mix. Flatten to about 1cm thickness, and let cook for a few minutes. When it's looking golden brown on the edges, flip and cook the other side. Once cooked remove to a plate lined with kitchen towel, and leave to blot while cooking remaining batches.

Serve up fritters alongside the cucumber and red pepper salad, over some fresh spinach. Also went very well with a side dish of cauliflower salad, and some garlic fried portobello mushrooms.