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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I tried making these potato cakes and they didn’t hold their shape- do you think I need more flour. I used pre- made mashed potatoes.
Yes, a little more flour should do it Heidi!
So delicious. I kind of eyeballed the flour to ensure the mixture thickens enough to fry.
Love trying new things but these were a terrible waste of time and ingredients for me. There seemed to be way too much flour leaving the texture and flavor way off.
So sorry to hear that! We have made this recipe many times with great success. When measuring the flour you will want to scoop it from the container into the measuring cup and level off your measuring cup, this keeps the flour light and airy, and prevents you from ending up with too much flour in your recipe. Hope that helps!
I am a pretty follower to your page, loving every recipe I have tried so far including these.
Thank you for sharing all these great recipes with us. Its hands down my favorite go too place!
So happy to share them with you Jenny! Thanks for checking them out.
I see that the recipe calls for 4 T butter, but only 1 T is used in pan to fry. Where does the other 3 T go?
Great question Nancy. Use the butter to fry each batch of potato cakes. Enjoy!
All your recipes look so good!
Why thank you Terry! :)
This was excellent. My husband loved them.
Glad to hear that Teresa!
Looks very good can’t wait to try
Let us know what you think Bobbie! Enjoy!
Can’t wait to try the loaded potato cakes.
I hope you love them Jo!
I have never made potato cakes, but I’m really looking forward to making these. Thank you.
I hope you love them Margaret!
I really enjoy your recipes. This potato cake recipe really sounds good. I make potato cake with leftover potatoes, but not with all the items listed in your recipe. This recipe will be used very soon.
I hope you love this recipe Edna!
I did not care for the flavor of the cakes but that’s just me ! I’m definitely going to try your other seasoning suggestions. Very good idea for using up mashed potatoes. Love your recipes ! .
Thank you Betty. I regret that you didn’t love the flavor, but I am sure you can find some variations that better suit your taste buds! I would love to hear what seasonings you go with to inspire my next batch of these.
I make potato cakes all the time and now I will be adding lots to them.
I hope you love the recipe Margaret!
Will make these for dinner.
Such a good idea Valeriano!
Yummy
I second that Tamara! So good!
Like vegan and vegetarian recipes
While we don’t have recipes that are specifically vegan or vegetarian, there a lot of delicious healthy recipes you may love!
my mother was a dab hand at producing something out of nothing during the war years , But have never found the recipe for her potatoes cakes which she would roll out like a scone mixture and me only being 10 yrs was allowed to with a cutter make round scones and then put into the oven to bake. I have thought of using part of your receipt but nowhere do you roll out and bake. Increasingly supermarkets sell much too many bagged veggies and at 88 yrs often have throw out. Some of course can freeze Help!!!
What a great memory Jean! This recipe doesn’t need to be rolled, they can simply be shaped by hand. Your mother’s recipe sounds so yummy, I hope you find something similar!
I remember my mom making these when I was a child. I have tried to recreate these over the years and have not been successful…..until this recipe. These were so good. I did add a few more garlic cloves than called for, and used seasoned salt. Yummy. they are rich; I can only eat one. I read a comment where they were going to freeze some. I didn’t think potatoes froze well, but may try, as I made a bunch. I may try to make these in the oven next time to cut down on the butter, but frying them was really good. Thanks for the recipe
Such great memories Carole, I’m glad they turned out well for you! Please let us know how they freeze for you as I’m sure other readers would love to know as well!
Far exceeded my expectations. Yum and easy.
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Keith!