These Vegan Cheese Stuffed Spinach Potato Cakes are easy to make and so delicious, you absolutely have to try this recipe! They are crispy on the outside, tender inside, and stuffed with a gooey cheese filling. The perfect plant-based side dish for lunch or dinner that can also be made gluten-free!
The Best Spinach Potato Cakes
Melty, gooey vegan cheese encased in mashed potatoes and a savory garlic-spinach mixture, then fried to golden-brown and crispy perfection. These savory vegan patties are the best way to sneak in those healthy greens into your kid’s meal without all the fuss. They will be too busy munching on these crunchy and cheesy delights to even notice.
This recipe is also a great way to make use of leftover jacket potatoes! Make the patties ahead of time so you can enjoy them for lunch, dinner or even for breakfast the following day. They are also ideal as party appetizers or snacks and as a side dish paired with your favorite entrees.
I like to serve mine with Vegan Aioli on the side, but feel free to use other dips too. You can simply go with ketchup or:
Ingredients Needed
- Potatoes: use the waxy variety like new potatoes, French fingerlings, Charlotte, Maria and Annabelle. They have thin skins with a firm texture and hold their shape well during cooking.
- Olive oil: or you can use other vegetable oil that you prefer.
- Spinach: I used fresh spinach for this potato cake recipe, but you can also use frozen. Make sure to squeeze out the excess moisture after thawing it. You can use other greens like collard, swiss chard, arugula, or kale as alternatives.
- Garlic: for aromatic flavor.
- Flour: you can use all-purpose, spelt, or gluten-free flour for this recipe.
- Nutritional yeast flakes: gives the patties a savory and cheesy flavor.
- Salt and pepper: for seasoning.
- Vegan cheese: you can use your favorite type of dairy-free cheese such as homemade vegan cheese, vegan cheddar, vegan mozzarella, or whatever you have.
- Breadcrumbs: are used to coat the patties to give them a good crunch once fried. You can use a gluten-free brand if necessary.
- To serve: I garnished the Spinach Potato Cakes with scallions rings and fresh parsley and served them with a side of vegan aioli.
How to make Spinach Potato Cakes
As always, I recommend checking out the recipe video and these step-by-step instructions first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Cook potatoes & sauté garlic and spinach
First, boil whole potatoes until fork-tender (or use leftover jacket potatoes from the day before). Next, heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the garlic for a few seconds. Then add the chopped spinach and sauté for about 2 minutes until is has wilted.
Step 2: Make the potato dough
Now peel the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher or a fork. Add flour, nutritional yeast flakes, the spinach-garlic mixture, salt and pepper and mix to combine.
Step 3: Form patties
Form the potato dough into about 6 patties, pressing a mold into the center and adding some cheese. Seal the potato cakes as shown in the step-by-step photos or in the recipe video and. Then roll them in breadcrumbs.
Step 4: Cook until crispy
Heat some oil in a large pan and fry the potato cakes for about 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. Garnish with scallions and parsley and serve with vegan aioli. Enjoy!
Tips when making Spinach Potato Cakes
- To make this recipe gluten-free, you can use a gluten-free flour blend as well as gluten-free breadcrumbs.
- Aside from nutritional yeast flakes, you can use other spices and herbs to season your spinach potato patties. Try adding cumin, curry powder, paprika, parsley, coriander, nutmeg, onion powder or whatever you like.
- If the potato dough is too moist, you can add more flour until you get the right consistency. Make sure to add only 1-3 teaspoons at a time and mix gently before adding more. Too much flour will make your patties dry, and they will crack or crumble when cooked.
- Please do not overwork the potato dough, or it will get sticky and gooey.
- Make sure that the oil is hot before adding the patties in the pan. Otherwise, the cakes will absorb the oil and turn limp and soggy instead of crisp.
- Place the cooked Spinach potato cakes on a plate lined with paper towels after frying to get rid of excess oil and keep them as crisp as possible.
Storing Leftovers
Leftover potato cakes can be kept covered in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. They can be either heated briefly in the microwave or, better yet, baked in the oven or air fryer at 356 °F (180 °C) for about 10-12 minutes so that they become crispy on the outside again.
These Vegan Cheese Stuffed Spinach Potato Cakes are:
- Quick and easy to make
- Dairy-free
- Eggless
- Can be made gluten-free
- Nutritious & healthy
- Crispy on the outside
- Soft and cheesy on the inside
- Perfect for lunch, dinner and meal prep
- So delicious!
More Recipes for Vegan Burgers, Fritters & Co
- Zucchini Corn Fritters
- Sweet Potato Falafel
- Vegan Cevapcici
- Tofu Nuggets
- Cauliflower Wings
- No-Fish Nuggets
- Broccoli Cheese Tots
- Pulled Jackfruit Burger
- The Best Vegan Burger
- Pumpkin Quinoa Burger
- Veggie Beet Burger
- Broccoli Burger
If you try this recipe for stuffed potato cakes with spinach and vegan cheese, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a picture of it, feel free to tag me on Instagram @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka so I don’t miss your post! Enjoy! 🙂
Vegan Cheese Stuffed Potato Cakes with Spinach
Author:Ingredients
- 14 oz (400 g) potatoes waxy
- 1 tbsp olive oil plus more for frying
- 3 cups (90 g) fresh spinach chopped (or frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed)
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped
- 2 tbsp (30 g) flour all-purpose, spelt or gluten-free flour, *see notes
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- ⅔ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2-3 tbsp (30 g) vegan cheese
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs gluten-free if needed, *see notes
To serve (optional)
- scallions sliced
- fresh parsley
- vegan aioli
Instructions
*Note: Feel free to check out the recipe video + step-by-step pictures above!
- Boil the potatoes with their skins until fork-tender. Then drain the cooking water and let the potatoes steam out until dry (or use leftover jacket potatoes from the day before).
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the garlic for a few seconds. Then add the chopped spinach and sauté for about 2 minutes until it has wilted.
- Peel the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher or a fork.
- Add flour, nutritional yeast flakes, spinach-garlic mixture, salt and pepper and mix to combine.
- Form the potato dough into about 6 patties, pressing a mold into the center and adding some cheese. Seal the potato cakes as shown in the step-by-step photos or recipe video above. Then roll them in breadcrumbs.
- Heat some oil in a large pan and fry the potato cakes for about 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy.
- Garnish with scallions and parsley and serve with vegan aioli.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- If the potato dough is very moist, you can add a little more flour.
- Please do not overwork the potato dough or it will get sticky and gooey.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, you can use a gluten-free flour blend as well as gluten-free breadcrumbs.
- Leftover potato cakes can be kept covered in the refrigerator and then either heated briefly in the microwave or better baked in the oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for about 10-12 minutes, so that they also become crispy on the outside again.
- More information and tips on the recipe are mentioned above in the blog post!
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These were quick, easy and so delicious!! I did not use vegan cheese though;)
They were also very filling,& great as a snack or side dish too!
Glad you enjoyed them! Thank you! 🙂 ♡
I liked it very much, especially the combination of cheesy flavour with spinach and soft potato texture. I will definitely make these cakes often. I did not add the cheese in the middle of cakes, I just added it to the whole mixture.
That’s great! Thank you very much! 🥰
Glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Greetings,
Bianca ❤️
This recipe looks delicious. I would like to cook in my air fryer, can you tell me what temperature and time to cook them? Thank you for your time.
Hi Vickie,
I haven’t tried to cook them in the air fryer yet so I can’t tell you that.
If you give it a try, let me know how it turned out!
Greetings,
Bianca
Good day – how can I copy/paste the Spinach Potato Cake recipe as I would like to print it?
Thank you for your reply
Best wishes
Ingrid
Hi Ingrid,
just click on the “print” button in the recipe card!
Greetings,
Bianca 🙂