A Latke Recipe for Each Night of Hanukkah (and Then Some)

Chef John's Classic Potato Pancakes

We'll start with this classic recipe and a very important lesson when it comes to making latkes. You've got to squeeze out the liquid from potatoes because the success of your latkes depends on it. The less liquid, the crisper the latkes. Chef John serves his with smoked salmon, sour cream, and dill. But we'll leave the toppings up to you. If you're going to add apple sauce, just leave the cayenne out of the recipe.

Baked Potato Latkes

Nothing too far from the original here. You've still got your onion, egg, and seasonings, but instead of grating raw potatoes, this recipe uses baked and mashed potatoes. When you bake potatoes, a lot of the moisture is naturally evaporated and you are left with a drier potato. And as we've learned already, the drier the potato, the crisper is the latke.

Cajun Potato Latkes

Let's kick up the latkes with a bit (or a lot) of Cajun spices and add some sliced green onions for both the color and flavor. Allrecipes member CC Bombet who shares this recipe offers a great time-saving tip: purchase frozen shredded potatoes, thaw them completely, and squeeze out all the liquid before mixing in the remaining ingredients.

Curried Sweet Potato Latkes

Allrecipes member Baritone Bob who shares this recipe, calls it "a spicy-sweet potato version of a traditional Jewish favorite." The shredded sweet potatoes are further sweetened with white and brown sugar and seasoned with curry powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper. When frying these, be mindful of the sugar content and watch the temperature of the oil — you don't want these latkes to burn.

Apple Potato Pancakes

In this recipe, Allrecipes member HeidiS combines shredded potatoes with a shredded apple. The use of Granny Smith apple is an excellent choice as that particular variety is crisp, sweet-tart, and is perfect for baking and cooking. We are fans of serving these latkes with apple sauce and sour cream.

Mexican Potato Pancakes

These spicy, jalapeno potato latkes are served with a homemade tomato sauce. For extra heat, do not seed jalapeno peppers. A cooling Mexican crema will go perfectly with these pancakes.

Vegetable and Feta Latkes

With this recipe, we welcome zucchini and carrot to the latkes party. There's still a bit of shredded potato and eggs, but instead of flour, this recipe adds matzo meal and crumbled feta as two additional binding ingredients. We love the step of salting the vegetables first to extract moisture. And to make sure all of the moisture is extracted, Edna, the Allrecipes member who shares this recipe, repeats the step twice.

Chorizo Latkes

Traditionally, chorizo is made from pork, but this recipe uses beef chorizo, which is still packed with a lot of spices and herbs to bump up the flavor and add heat to these potato latkes. We love suggestions from our community of cooking the chorizo with the onion first or trying soyrizo for a vegetarian version.

Delicious Stuffed Potato Pancakes

Double the latkes, double the fun. These crispy potato pancakes are stuffed with seasoned ground beef! Use this recipe as a base and play around by adding your favorite spices and herbs.

Potato Leek Latkes

Parmesan cheese and leeks are mixed in with grated potatoes here, but the real star of the recipe is flaxseed meal. Not only does it boost the recipe's nutritional value, by offering fiber and Omega-3 essential fatty acids, but it also acts as a binder, replacing the flour, and making this recipe gluten-free. You could bake these latkes as written in the recipe, or mix in the Parmesan together with the batter and fry for a more traditional preparation.

• More Hanukkah Latke Recipes
• A Traditional Menu for Hanukkah