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My hubby Vadim recreated these parmesan herb mashed potato cakes which turned out great! They work for breakfast, lunch or dinner and it’s a perfect use for left over mashed potatoes. Vadim cooked up mashed potatoes just to make these pancakes and he took all the photos; isn’t he wonderful? I married a good man. It will be so nice to know our son is getting homemade food while I’m working 12-hour shifts back-to-back.
Anyway, this recipe is so versatile; feel free to add to the recipe and let me know if you discover something awesome.
Ingredients for Parmesan Herb Potato Pancakes:
3 cups of mashed potatoes
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
6 Tbsp of flour divided
1 Tbsp of grated onion or green onion
1 Tbsp of fresh chopped parsley
Canola oil to saute
How to Make Potato Pancakes:
1. In a mixing bowl combine potatoes, cheese, egg, 3 Tbsp of flour, onion and parsley.
2. In a separate plate add 3 Tbsp of flour for dredging the pancakes. Fill an ice cream scoop or heaping Tbsp with the mixture, shape the pancakes in yours hands and dredge them in flour.
3. Add 3 Tbsp of canola oil to a non-stick skillet and saute them about 2-3 min on each side over medium/high heat or until golden brown. Add more oil if needed.
4. Remove mashed potato cakes to a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up excess oil. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
Parmesan Herb Potato Pancakes

Ingredients
- 3 cups of mashed potatoes
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 6 Tbsp of flour divided
- 1 Tbsp of grated onion or green onion
- 1 Tbsp of fresh chopped parsley
- Canola oil to saute
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl combine potatoes, cheese, egg, 3 Tbsp of flour, onion and parsley.
- In a separate plate add 3 Tbsp of flour for dredging the pancakes. Fill an ice cream scoop or heaping tbsp with the mixture, shape the pancakes in yours hands and dredge them in flour.
- Add 3 Tbsp of canola oil to a non-stick skillet and saute them about 2-3 min on each side over medium/high heat or until golden brown. Add more oil if needed.
- Remove mashed potato cakes to a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up excess oil. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
I’m sorry to leave a negative review, but I made this tonight according to this recipe exactly and they were not very good. They didn’t have much flavor at all apart from the canola oil that I used to fry them in and the taste of plain mashed potatoes. I couldn’t taste any of the herbs. Also, they were very messy to make and fell apart in the pan. And even once they were finished frying and had a crispy crust on the outside, they were still very mushy on the inside. I am curious, though, if people are supposed to only use boiled potatoes that are then mashed when making these or if they’re supposed to use the typical “mashed potatoes” that are mashed with butter and milk added (similar to when making mashed potatoes that are served). I’m actually surprised by the amount of positive reviews for this recipe, because both my husband and I agreed that these were not very good and did not really have any flavor. Again, I am sorry for the negative review. I’m glad others here had a better experience with this recipe than I did. 🙂
HI Claire, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. If your potatoes are very creamy, it may be a struggle to keep them together. Leftover cold potatoes thicken up more and I would not recommend starting with warm creamy potatoes for this recipe. Also, make sure to use a non-stick skillet or the potatoes can stick. Lastly, you might love our more recent Potato Pancakes post:
Delicious and so easy to make. We made these exactly as written for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. We used regular olive oil and some butter to fry these. This recipe makes 2 pancakes per person.
Hi Cherie! So glad you loved the recipe.
As usual Natasha you knocked it out of the park! My Irish husband absolutely loved it!! I did use cheddar instead of Parmesan because I didn’t have Parmesan on hand, it was still amazing ❤️
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Made these for breakfast for my wife and I. Wow! No leftovers. Best potato recipe I ever found. Thanks. These are awesome
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review
Best potato pancakes ever! I made these for my wife and I, gorged ourselves. No leftovers. Love them, thanks!
Aren’t they so good!! I’m happy you enjoyed this recipe Gene.
I made these 3 days ago. They are delicious! Since there are just 2 of us, I froze half the recipe for later. They reheated in the oven beautifully.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing that with me Sue!
Very good and easy! Thank you
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Pam!
Hi Natasha – These are fabulous! Have you ever frozen them? Thanks
Hi Sue, I have not tried freezing them but I think it would work. If you’re making them the next day, it might be better to just refrigerate them overnight.
I used Mochiko, a Japanese rice flour for the flour in the recipe – it is gluten free and worked great. I also added some sugar to the sour cream (my grandmother always did that). The recipe was great and super easy – I did not have 3 cups of mashed potatoes – probably less than 2, used 1 egg, dried chives, onion powder and Parmesan cheese – love it and will make it again – probably skip the sour cream and use a fried egg with a runny yolk. Very easy to make and very tasty
Thank you for sharing those changes with us, Karen, & for that awesome review! We’re glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Hi Natasha,
I made these for the first time today for brunch. Had to cook them for much longer than your recipe called for, and the insides stayed kind of soft and mushy. Is that normal? Just wondering if my potatoes were too wet because I used Yukon gold instead of white or russet potatoes. They tasted great though. Didn’t have fresh herbs on hand, so used herbs de provence.
Hi there! That could be why was anything else changed besides the type of potatoes? 🙂
Russet and Idaho potatoes are gmo, so it’s good you didn’t use them. To take care of the extra moisture in the potato, after you drain them, put them back in the pan on low heat and let the moisture dry out. It takes about 2-3minutes.
Hi Natasha,
Thanks a lot for sharing these recipes. They’re wonderful. Hope you’re enjoying your time arranging stuff at your new home these days. May you and your family be blessed with love and happiness..!
I’ve a question on this recipe: can I use Cheddar instead of Parmesan?
Thank you for this awesome review! I haven’t tried this with cheddar but it may work. If you experiment please let me know how you like it!
Sure, will do.. :o)
Daughter was gluten free. Morning after Thanksgiving, eggs I suggested potato pancakes, with leeks and a little almond flour and an egg. She and her husband thought they were fabulous. Old recipe from my mother to use up leftover potatoes (never any cheese).
Yum, I’m happy to hear that Nan! Thanks for sharing!
This looks great! Can olive oil be used instead of canola? Thank you
Hi Shannon, yes that should work fine. I probably wouldn’t use extra virgin though since it doesn’t have a very high smoke point and will add flavors that might not meld well.
This is an old depression recipe back then you made something new out of your leftovers. Mom fixed us these back in the 1950, so that tell you it a recipe to keep!
It’s definitely a classic!
My mom made these frequently. My father loved mashed potatoes. I think she used cracker crumbs instead of bread .