Name: Llapingachos: Ecuadorian Cheese and Potato Patties
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Ecuadorian
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons or so of cooking oil such as canola (or for authenticity use annatto oil if you can find it or make it); 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and quartered (4 medium sized potatoes); 1 cup of farmer cheese or substitute shredded queso fresco or Monterey Jack cheese; 6-7 green onions, minced, white and light green parts only, mince the dark parts separately to sprinkle on the finished dish.; Kosher salt; Fresh ground black pepper; Tomato Onion Avocado Salad; 1 head butter lettuce, washed and torn (optional); 1 1/2 -2 pounds of ripe tomatoes, halved and thinly sliced - I suggest heirloom tomatoes, if you can find them; 2 ripe avocados, thinly sliced (wait until the last minute to slice the avocados, so they don't turn brown); 1 small red onion, halved, thinly sliced, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, and drained; 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (the juice of 1 lime); 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 small garlic clove, peeled and pressed or finely minced

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Llapingachos, pronounced (yah-peen-GAH-chos), are Ecuadorian scallion, cheese and mashed potato patties. So simple to make, crisp on the outside, tender inside, these cheese scallion mashed potato cakes will make everyone at the table happy.

If you like potato pancakes, you're going to love llapingachos!

How to make Llapingachos: (cheese and potato patties)

Making Llapingachos is easy, with just 3 ingredients: potatoes, cheese and scallions. Boil and mash the potatoes, mix in chopped scallions and cheese (farmer, queso fresco or Monterey Jack), form the mixture into thick pancakes, and cook them on a griddle or in a skillet until they're heated through and crispy brown on the outside. Serve them right away or keep them warm in the oven until ready to serve.

Serving Suggestions for Llapingachos:

There are all sorts of ways to eat this popular Ecuadorian dish

In Ecuador you might find Llapingachos served a la carte, as an appetizer.
For breakfast lunch or dinner, they're commonly eaten with a fried egg on top and chorizo sausages on the side.
Or they might be slathered with creamy peanut sauce and topped with tomato-onion salad and sliced avocado.

The good new is, Llapingachos are already amazing before you even add anything to them.

When I first taste-tested these Ecuadorian potato patties on my family, I served a tomato avocado onion salad on the side. We loved the pairing of the potato patties with colorful, juicy tomatoes, red onion, avocado and a light lime-garlic dressing. It was such a delicious satisfying vegetarian meal, I decided to include the tomato salad in this recipe post. However I also sautéed up some sliced spicy chicken sausage for one of my sons, because he's not a fan of tomatoes. The sausage and Llapingacho combo is also pretty great. Depends on what kind of mood you're in.

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You might also enjoy Venezuelan Arepas which are gluten free corn cakes that have some similarities to Llapingachos.

Before researching this post, I could not have named a single Ecuadorian recipe. You don't hear a lot about Ecuadorian cuisine. Ecuador has other claims to fame: it contains The Galapagos Islands which is one of the worlds best destinations for viewing wildlife; it's got the equator running through it (hence the name Ecuador). Now that I've tried Llapingachos I think it's definitely a claim to fame that the rest of the world should know about.

Here's the Llapingachos recipe. If you try this, I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!