Crispy Potato Balls {Clean Eating}

These loaded crispy potato balls are properly delicious, a perfect weekend treat dinner that's a cross between nibbles you can share whilst snuggled up watching a movie with the kids or as one of a few plates you can put on the table if you've got people over. The kids go wild for these, I mean who wouldn't: Cheesy, crunchy coated oven baked mashed potato balls loaded with crispy bacon, homemade Cranberry sauce and warm Feta cheese. Really, what's not to love?

Crispy Potato Balls

The main part of this recipe is the mashed potato balls, and they're so easy to make. If I'm making a dinner involving mash, I try and make extra so I can make these in the coming couple of days.

But...these are very worth making a batch of mashed potato especially for, and you can freeze any leftover balls, ready to go straight into the oven the next time to you need to whip up something yummy.

The crispiness comes from the breadcrumbs the potato balls are coated and cooked in. These are oven baked. I love fried food as much as the next person, but only when it really enhances the recipe: these crisp up beautifully in the oven, and I add a little shredded parmesan cheese to the crumb coating, and this is better, and a little healthier, cooked in the oven.

What's In These Crispy Potato Balls?

This dish just works:

Leftover Mashed Potato

This is probably the best, maybe along with salmon cakes, way that I know of to use leftover mashed potato. You want your mashed potato be be cold, fridge cold, before you start to make the potato balls, so using a leftover bowl of mash that's been in the fridge overnight is perfect.

Seasoned mash is good, so you don't need to separate the cooked potato if you're already seasoning the mash you're making. And there is no set quantity of potato you need to make these crispy potato balls, whatever you're left with is what you can use. Be warned though, these are Moreish: with a capital M.

A small plate of these won't do, so the more mash the better!

The other great thing about this dinner is that you can match the size you roll the potato balls to the size of the hands eating them.

Reheating Your Crispy Potato Balls

You can easily make these ahead of time. Follow the recipe right up until the part where they go in the oven, and put them in the fridge instead to keep them firm. When you want to reheat them, just put them in the oven and follow the recipe instructions from where you left off.

This recipe is really good for a crowd. The plate when it's finished is super pretty and colorful thanks to the homemade cranberry sauce and it's easy to adapt this to make enough for as many people as you need to.

Freezing Crispy Potato Balls

If you'd like to freeze these, instead of putting them in the fridge as you could if you were making ahead, just put them in the freezer instead. So you'll be putting the potato balls made up to the coating stage, so coated balls go in the freezer.

Make sure they're in a container like this one so they stay flat and don't get squashed. You can layer them on top of each enough if you've made a lot, they're light enough to not crush the layer below, but I woudn't freeze them more than two layers deep.

When you're ready to cook these, leave them out to defrost until thawed and then continue with the regular recipe instructions to cook them. Don't leave the balls out after they've thawed for too long, it's the cold that keeps the potato in a ball shape, so the warmer they get, the more they're going to loose their shape.

More Clean Eating Potato Recipes

• Bacon fried potatoes
• Mashed potatoes and leeks
• Crispy crushed potatoes
• Spicy roasted red potatoes
• Clean Eating Potato Recipes

How To Make Crispy Potato Balls

Ingredients

• 6 Large Potatoes - peeled and diced for mashing
• 2 Wholemeal rolls - breadcrumbed, I use a blender like this one
• ½ Cup shredded Parmesan
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 2 Eggs - whisked for dipping before crumbing
• Salt & pepper
• 6 Rashers smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces
• 1 Cup frozen cranberries
• ¼ Cup Maple syrup
• ¾ Cup Feta cheese

Process

• Cook and drain the potatoes, and season well, then mash whilst the potatoes are still hot
• Leave the potato to cool and then refrigerate for a couple of hours minimum, as the potato needs to be fridge cold for you to be able to work with it
• Heat the oven to 180/350
• Get a baking sheet and line with a non stick baking sheet, or foil, lightly oiled
• Make the potato balls to whatever size you like, and put them on a plate until all the potato has been rolled into balls
• Mix your breadcrumbs and shredded parmesan cheese and out into one bowl
• Put the whisked egg into another bowl
• Put the flour into another bowl
• One by one, dip the balls into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, making sure they're each fully covered in crumb, then place them on the baking tray making sure they're not touching
• Once all the balls are coated with the parmesan crumb, put them into the oven for 20-25 minutes until they're golden and crispy. Take them out and out them to one side
• Put your cranberries and maple syrup into a small pan and heat in a low heat until the gently simmering. Using a fork, break the cranberries up and let simmer for 5 minutes. Then take the pan off the heat and let the cranberry sauce cool down
• Fry your bacon pieces until crispy
• Put your crispy potato balls onto a large plate, sprinkle the crispy bacon over them, dollop your homemade cranberry sauce around the plate and then crumble the Feta cheese over everything. The Feta will start to warm and melt over the hot bacon and potato

Potato Balls Recipe