Mayim Bialik’s Potato Latkes Put a Vegan Twist on the Hanukkah Treat
Hanukkah is here and one of the holiday’s most popular dishes has to be the humble and famed potato latke.
Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik shared her spin on the crunchy, crispy, fabulously greasy potato fritters, including the toppings she and her family prefer most on their latkes.
Mayim Bialik has a strong connection to her faith
The Call Me Kat actor is, as she calls herself, an “observant Jew” who is not shy about the faith she holds dear.
“Being a person who is observant in Hollywood is very different,” she told The Jewish Journal. “I work with a lot of people who don’t observe the way I do or believe the things about Israel I believe. Among the people who know me, I try to be consistent and compassionate in explaining where I come from.”
Bialik also explained how her faith and culture inform who she is, from her sense of humor to her energy level.
“I feel very motivated by my religious and cultural tradition,” she added. “My humor has been touched by people who come from my history. I don’t drink caffeine. I half-jokingly say that I am powered by the Lord. It’s kind of true.”
Bialik’s latkes reflect her vegan approach to food
The actor, who is almost as well-known for her doctorate in neuroscience as for her work as an entertainer, embraced a vegan diet after many years of trying to tweak her diet for health reasons. And so, for the Hanukkah holiday, even her potato latkes are modernized to mirror how she eats.
Of course, Bialik injected a bit of her humor into her video demonstrating the recipe on her YouTube page.
“Let’s not make the same old recipe the Jews have been making for thousands of years,” she said. “We are going to modernize the latke.”
Using boxed latke mix, (“They taste like they’re just out of your bubbe’s kitchen”), Bialik starts veganizing the recipe from the start. While the traditional recipe calls for the beating of two eggs, she instead makes “an egg replacer.” Although she doesn’t identify the powder she’s using as the binder in this recipe, it appears to either be ground flaxseed or, more likely from the color, psyllium husk powder. She mixes the powder with six tablespoons of water.
More water is mixed in, followed by the contents of the boxed latke mix. “You allow it to sit for about three or four minutes and basically it starts to thicken.”
Bialik heats up two skillets of oil while telling viewers what she knows they’re thinking: “I know you’re like, ‘Oh, oil! It’s so unhealthy.’ Yeah, we just do it once a year. We make latkes once a year, so just chill out.”
The batter is dropped in by the spoonful and the sound of bubbling oil can be heard in the video: “For anyone who grew up in a home that made latkes, this is literally the sound and smell of Hanukkah right here. It makes me a little emotional,” she continued.
Flip them and let them continue cooking, then drain on paper towels or paper bags.
How Bialik and her family like to top their latkes
“Latkes are delicious, and they are especially delicious when you top them with things like applesauce or sour cream,” Bialik says.
Other suggestions from the actor? In the video, she prepares avocado-toast style, placing mashed avocadoes and chives on the fritters. She also recommends Buffalo sauce style with Buffalo sauce and slivers of celery.
Finally, as Bialik told Make It Grateful, in her family, it’s “[Vegan] sour cream and ketchup for me and my older son (think hash browns), and my younger son just does ketchup because he thinks ketchup makes everything epic. My mom ate hers first night with diced pimentos, red onion, and a pineapple slice, and I almost disowned her,” she joked.
