#WildernestMealPrep: Sweet Potato & Steak Fritters

Last week’s meal was definitely one the whole family enjoyed and I’ll be keeping it as a dinner staple for when they’re older - Sweet Potato & Steak Fritters!

When my mom caught wind of my struggles with chopping foods for a lot of these recipes, she let me borrow her older-than-me food processor, which has made things so much easier. Thankfully this recipe didn’t have a ton of veggies to prep, but it does include steak that I attempted to cut into teeny chunks before surrendering to the food processor quickly. 

With that said, the first thing you’ll want to do is cook your beef chunks so you can prep the rest of the recipe while they’re cooking. I used my instant pot for this, starting off by browning the chunks in a bit of olive oil using the “sauté” method on the Instapot. Once they were browned, I pressure cooked them (on high) with 1 cup of water for 15 minutes, then did a quick release after about 5 minutes. 

As the meat was cooking, I worked on the most time consuming part of the meal, which was peeling and then shredding 6 sweet potatoes. Typically I’ll use my instant pot to avoid peeling potatoes (the skins practically fall off), but because you have to shred them to get that fritter shape, they can’t be cooked until it comes time to put them in the oven. Just when I finished peeling and thought the worst was over, it was time to shred these babies using the large holes of your cheese grater. I’ve never worked out a day in my life until this moment, and may have even lost a few pounds by the time I was done. I contemplated calling my husband over about midway through, but decided to stick it out - if I can birth 3 babies, I can certainly grate some potatoes, no? Barely. Once I was out of potato hell, it was time to use good old technology to make the rest of this recipe a cinch.

If you’ve read through my other recipes, you might remember my mentioning of how we grocery shop once a month and how I buy a lot of frozen fruits/veggies in bulk so they’ll keep. This was the case for my cauliflower and spinach, so it required a bit of defrosting in a saucepan on the stove before I could toss it into the food processor. Following suit were the onion and carrots, which were tossed into a large mixing bowl with the sweet potatoes.

Once the steak was cooked, I threw those into the food processor until shredded, added them to the rest of the ingredients, and started mixing it all together. 

The only remaining step was adding in the egg and cheese! In a separate bowl, I cracked and whisked 6 eggs until they were yellow, the poured it over the giant bowl of mixed ingredients along with the cheese. The egg is what binds all the other stuff together, and I attempted to use a wooden spoon to mix it all until resorting to my hands because it felt like it was binding it better. 

Once everything was mixed, I scooped it out on to a baking sheet (three actually, because I made so much hahaha) in a somewhat thin layer, pressing down until flattened. In the future I’d probably make it thicker, since it didn’t really change the final outcome and I probably could have saved a pan. 

Some people fry their fritters, but I went the baking route to avoid any of the crispy burnt edges I typically get from frying. Everything is already cooked aside from the sweet potato, so around 10 minutes on 350 degrees seemed to have done the trick.      

Each baby gets 1/4-1/2 cup of food per meal, which when combined x3, usually fills up one of my smaller tuppaware containers. So I portioned out 7 of those and cut the rest into a glass container for my husband and I. There was no freezing necessary for any of these, as they stayed good in the fridge for the week (I would not keep them longer than a week, however).

There was no fuss at all from the triplets for this meal. They were shoving fist fulls into their mouths faster than I could scoop it on to their trays. Because of the crumbly nature of fritters, they definitely made a mess, but it was thankfully more of a “dry” mess vs the kind you really have to scrub down your floors afterward. A bit of vacuuming took care of it.

sweet potato and steak fritters

SERVES
3 cookie sheets

INGREDIENTS

• 6 sweet potatoes, peeled

• 1 bag of frozen cauliflower (or 1lb fresh)

• 1 cup spinach

• 1 onion

• 1lb beef chunks

• 1 1/2 cups of carrots

• 2 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese

• 6 eggs

METHOD
Cook the beef chunks using the method of your choice. I sautéed mine in the Instant Pot until browned, then cooked with 1 cup of water on high pressure for 15 minutes with a quick release after 5 minutes.

While the beef is cooking, peel and grate your potatoes using the large holes on your cheese grater, putting it all into a LARGE mixing bowl as you go.

Use a food processor or blender to finely chop the carrots, onion, cauliflower, and spinach and toss all of them into the bowl the sweet potatoes are in. When the beef chunks are done, finely chop or use a food processor to shred them before adding them to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix everything together.

In a separate bowl, crack and whisk 6 eggs before pouring them over the bowl with the rest of the ingredients, adding in the cheese as well. Mix well with a spoon or your hands, making sure the egg binds everything together.

Scoop out onto baking sheets and flatten like a pancake. Cook in the oven for roughly 10 minutes on 350 degrees or fry on the stovetop using olive oil.