Transform your leftover mashed potatoes into yummy loaded mashed potato cakes!
Mix leftover spuds with crispy bacon bits, green onions, and lots of cheddar cheese, and then panfry them until golden brown and crisp.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream & chives, a squeeze of ketchup, or top them with leftover turkey and gravy.
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We Love These Mashed Potato Cakes (and so will you!)
- Transform leftover mashed potatoes into fried potato patties with a few extra ingredients and seasonings.
- Mashed potato cakes are budget friendly, and kids love ’em.
- Mix and match the cheese and other add-ins to create new flavors and use up your leftovers.
- Fry them up in bacon grease and top with a runny fried egg for a great breakfast (or use them as a base for eggs benedict).
- These potato cakes can be served alone as a light dinner or as a side dish to meat or chicken.
Ingredients for Mashed Potato Cakes
Mashed Potatoes – Use leftover mashed potatoes if you have some or use instant mashed potatoes (or pre-made) if you don’t have any. Even cauliflower mashed potatoes can be used for a low-carb recipe.
Cheese – Experiment with different types of cheese, such as cheddar, parmesan cheese, Mexican blend, or pizza mozzarella.
Bacon – Bacon and mashed potatoes go hand in hand. Bacon can be oven baked or use real bacon bits.
Leftovers – As a variation, you can add leftovers like chopped chicken or turkey, leftover roasted veggies, etc.
Seasonings – Green onions are a favorite, add in other fresh herbs if you have them.
How to Make Mashed Potato Cakes
- Fry bacon until crispy. Cook onion and garlic in the bacon grease (per recipe below).
- Add the remaining ingredients and form into potato cakes.
- Pan fry in bacon fat or butter until golden brown on both sides.
Serve hot with extra green onions, sour cream, or ketchup.
Leftovers & Reheating
- Keep leftover mashed potato pancakes in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Reheat them in the microwave, oven, or air fryer until heated through.
- Mashed potato cakes made in batches can be chilled and frozen for up to 6 weeks in zippered bags. Simply crisp them up on the stovetop or in the air fryer!
More Leftover Mashed Potato Recipes
Did you enjoy these Loaded Mashed Potatoes? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon
- ½ cup finely diced white onion or ¼ cup sliced green onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups prepared mashed potatoes chilled
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or ½ teaspoon dried
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour *see note
- 4 tablespoons butter for frying
Instructions
- In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels and once cooled, crumble.
- Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the frying pan. Cook the onion and garlic over medium heat until translucent. (If using green onion, no need to precook).
- In a medium bowl, combine crumbled bacon, mashed potatoes, cooked onion, shredded cheese, basil, parsley, eggs, salt & pepper. Mix well and add flour a bit at a time until the potato cakes hold together. You may not need all of the flour.
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter (or leftover bacon fat) in a clean skillet over medium heat.
- Scoop about ¼ of a cup of the potato mixture and form it into a ball. Place it in the hot pan and flatten it with a spatula until it’s about ½ – ¾″ thick. Repeat with remaining potato cakes (cooking in batches if needed).
- Fry for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until the potato patties are golden brown and crisp.
- For best results, serve immediately while hot and crispy.
- Top with green onions, sour cream, or ketchup.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
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Can’t find the recipe for loaded mashed potatoes! Where is it?
Just scroll up from the comments and you will see the recipe on this page.
These would be gluten free without the flour!
Next time when I have leftover mashed potatoes, I’m going to surprise my family with this recipe!
mmmmm I will try this for sure looks yummy
I want to save on pin wouldn’t let me
You can Repin this recipe here.
I’d forgotten my mom made these when I was growing up. They were delicious. I’m going to give them a try.
Can you freeze these potato patties before your fry them or even after for later use …
I haven’t tried freezing these so I can’t say for sure. While it would likely work, the texture of potatoes can sometimes change once frozen.
Took the bacon out so they can be kosher
“I had forgotten about ‘Potato Pancakes’.”
“Thanks for the ‘memory nudge’.”
Would this recipe work with mashed sweet potatoes? I’ve got leftover smoked turkey to use up and was thinking this might be modified for southwestern flavors.
I haven’t tried it but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. You may need to cook them on a slightly lower temperature for a little bit longer to have them caramelize without burning.
Yummy. We have left over mash filled with vegetables including cabbage I think this might be a good use for them
That would be wonderful with this recipe!
I went and made up the batter and am going to refrigerate to make tomorrow or the next day so I can take them into work. Hoping this works but I think the flavors will simply just blend as sitting…..I’ll let you know how it all works out….
These are great – a fantastic way to use left over mashed potato – and all winners with the flavors! My family will love these!
So glad it was a hit with your family, it’s one of our favorites too!
I love finding and trying new recipes.
We always made cakes with leftover mashed potatoes! You can freeze for soup thickening and my grandmother made the best mashed potato doughnuts and pioneer candy.
Using them to thicken soup is such a great idea Annie! Thank you for sharing!
Love this recipe! My fave restaurant serves Parmesan potato cakes with dill sauce. So yummy to use those ingredients with it.
I confess that I cheat. I use bob Evans prepared mashed potatoes. Just add some extra flour since they’re a bit thin otherwise.
I grew up on these made in a simply fashion: left-over mashed potatoes, egg, & enough flour to thicken. They were fried in bacon grease (kept in a tin container on the back of the stove) so therefore didn’t need to actually add the bacon bits.
I will have to try this!!! Sooo delicious!
50 years ago, as starving students and new graduates we used to “Dine” off a version of these. Mashed Potato, Flour, Raw Egg, and ITALIAN HERB SEASONING. Formed into thin, maybe 1-3 rd ” thick patties then fried till golden brown. Meanwhile also fry; sunny side-up or easy-over, one egg for every two patties. Sandwich an egg between the patties and enjoy. Liz
That sounds fantastic!!!
Love them with apple sauce