Sweet Potato Rosti with Bacon

Ingredients Needed

Smoked streaky bacon. You can use unsmoked if you prefer or even back bacon. You could even leave it out if you would prefer to keep the rostis vegetarian.

Sweet potatoes. Make sure your sweet potatoes are fresh and firm. Choose medium sweet potatoes.

Onion. You can use white onion, red onion or even diced spring onions.

Coconut flour. You can swap for an all-purpose gluten-free flour but coconut flour is hydroscopic (basically means will absorb a lot of water) and it helps keep the rosti crisp and dry.

Eggs. This recipe uses medium size, about 60g each with shell (50g each without shell). These are often classified as large eggs in the US. I recommend weighing your eggs to ensure the correct amount.

Seasoning. We're keeping it simple with salt and pepper

Fat. I really like using ghee here as it has all the flavour of butter but a higher smoking point. But you can swap for olive oil or coconut oil if it's easier for you to get hold of (or you need it to be dairy-free). Or you could cook them in the bacon fat (see Tips and Troubleshooting below).

How To Make Sweet Potato Rosti

For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post.

Grill the Bacon: Place the bacon rashers under the grill and cook until crisp.

Prepare the Vegetables: Peel and grate the sweet potatoes and onion while the bacon is grilling.

Mix the Ingredients: Combine the grated vegetables with coconut flour and eggs in a bowl.

Add the Bacon: Cut the grilled bacon into small pieces and mix it into the sweet potato mixture until evenly distributed.

Bind the Mixture: Use your hands to mix thoroughly, squeezing to help it bind together.

Heat the Pan: Melt ghee in a griddle (large frying pan) over low-medium heat.

Shape and Cook the Rostis: Scoop half a handful of the mixture, squeeze into a ball, and flatten slightly into a circle. Cook a few at a time, depending on the pan size.

Fry Until Golden: Cook for about 4 minutes until the bottom is lightly golden brown, then flip and fry for another 3 minutes.

Drain and Serve: Place on kitchen paper to remove excess grease, then serve or keep warm in the oven.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Grating the sweet potato. You can use a box grater but my favourite is to use the grating attachment of the food processor for perfectly uniform shreds.

Squeeze out excess moisture. After you have add the sweet potato and onion together, then you can place in a clean tea towel or strong kitchen paper and squeeze out the excess moisture to keep the rosti crisp and dry.

Bacon fat alternative. If you want, you could fry the bacon on the griddle pan instead of grilling. Then remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and cook the rosti in the bacon fat.

Keep a low-medium heat. You need to cook the rosti on a low-medium heat so they cook evenly throughout.

Perfect shapes. To be honest these rosti are just cooked free form and actually most of the time that's how I do it. In the photo above you can see I've used a ring to cook them in - it's not really necessary.

Keeping rostis warm. Pre-heat the oven to 110°C / 90°C fan assisted / gas mark 1 /200°F and place a wire rack or lined baking tray inside. As each batch is ready, transfer the rostis to the tray, keeping them in a single layer. If you like you can loosely tent with foil to prevent drying out while maintaining crispiness. Serve the rosti as soon as all batches are done.

Recipe Variations

Fresh herbs. You can add your favourite fresh leafy herbs to these rosti (and I often do). Parsley, chives or coriander work particularly well.

Swap out the bacon. You can use vegetarian bacon, crumbled sausage or even grated halloumi.

Chilli. You can add fresh diced red chilli or red chilli flakes for something a little bit spicier. Maybe then a pinch of ground cumin and coriander too!