The first time I made these, I burned the first batch because I would not stop leaning over the pan.
Cumin had just hit the hot ghee and the whole kitchen smelled like a street cart.
That smell is the reason I keep making them.
Shakarkandi is sweet potato in Hindi, and a tikki is a small patty crisped flat in a pan, not deep fried.
These particular ones come out of a fasting tradition.
During Navratri and other vrat days, a lot of Indian households cook without onion, without garlic, and with rock salt instead of table salt.
Sounds like a list of restrictions, but it produced one of the best snacks I know.
Take those things away and the sweet potato has nowhere to hide, so the ginger, green chili, and roasted cumin have to carry everything.
They do.
I make a batch most Sundays in the fall, usually with a cup of chai and no religious occasion whatsoever.
My wife eats them standing at the stove, straight out of the pan, with chutney she has already decided is hers.
The texture is the sell: a thin crisp shell that shatters slightly, then a soft, almost creamy middle.
Thirty five minutes start to finish, plus a short chill that I promise is not optional.
Make them once and they turn into a regular thing.
What Is Shakarkandi Ki Tikki?
It is a pan crisped sweet potato patty, seasoned like Indian street food. Shakarkandi means sweet potato. Tikki means a small round patty, the same word you know from aloo tikki.
So yes, shakarkandi and sweet potato are the same thing. The word is just the Hindi one.
The mash is boiled or roasted sweet potato, bound with a starch, spiked with ginger, green chili, roasted cumin, and something sour.
Then it gets shallow fried in ghee until both faces are dark gold.
What you are aiming for is crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside, with heat and tang fighting the natural sweetness the whole way.
They are a snack, a starter, or the base of a chaat. Not a side dish.
Why These Are a Vrat (Fasting) Food
The rules explain the recipe. On Hindu fasting days, many families avoid grains, onion, garlic, and regular table salt.
That is why the traditional version uses sendha namak, rock salt, and binds with arrowroot flour, water chestnut flour (singhare ka atta), or buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta) instead of wheat flour or cornstarch.
Sendha namak is unrefined rock salt, sold in every Indian grocery and increasingly on Amazon. It tastes cleaner and slightly milder than table salt.
None of this is required if you are just making a snack on a Tuesday.
Use fine sea salt and cornstarch and nobody will stop you.
But I keep the fasting version as the default here because it is the honest one, and because it genuinely tastes better without the onion muddying things.
Ingredients You'll Need
Almost all of this is pantry stuff once you cook Indian food twice. The two worth a special trip are amchur and kasoori methi.
- Sweet potatoes (2 pounds, about 4 medium). Boiled or roasted, then cooled completely. Cold mash holds together, warm mash does not.
- Arrowroot flour (3 tablespoons). The vrat friendly binder. Water chestnut or buckwheat flour work identically. On a non fasting day, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch does the same job.
- Fresh ginger (1 teaspoon, grated). Non negotiable. It is the sharpness that keeps these from tasting like dessert.
- Green chili (1 serrano, minced). Or a Thai chili if you want real heat.
- Roasted ground cumin (1 teaspoon). Toast whole seeds in a dry pan until they smell nutty, then grind. It is a different spice than the jar version.
- Kashmiri red chili powder (1 teaspoon). Color more than heat.
- Garam masala (½ teaspoon). A little goes a long way here.
- Chaat masala (1 teaspoon). The funky, salty, sour street food blend. Also excellent dusted over the finished tikki.
- Amchur, dried mango powder (½ teaspoon). This is the sourness. Lemon juice alone is thinner and wetter.
- Kasoori methi (2 teaspoons, crushed). Dried fenugreek leaves. Crush them between your palms as they go in.
- Cilantro (⅓ cup, chopped). Stems included.
- Sendha namak (1 ½ teaspoons). Or fine sea salt.
- Ghee (3 to 4 tablespoons). For shallow frying. Ghee browns the outside better than oil and tastes like more.
Do You Need Flour in the Patties?
You need it less than you think, and more than you want to admit. The argument goes like this.
If your sweet potatoes are dry, roasted rather than boiled, cooled completely, and mashed without adding a drop of liquid, they will hold together on their own.
If they are boiled, they carried water into the mash and they will slump in the pan.
Here is how I decide. Squeeze a spoonful of the mash in your fist.
If it holds a shape and your palm stays mostly dry, skip the binder.
If it smears, add the arrowroot a tablespoon at a time.
Pro tip: When in doubt, add it. Three tablespoons of arrowroot across two pounds of sweet potato is invisible in the finished tikki and it is cheap insurance against a pan full of orange mush.
How to Make Shakarkandi Ki Tikki
Step 1: Cook and Dry the Sweet Potatoes
Roast them whole at 400°F for 45 to 55 minutes, or boil them whole in their skins for 25 to 30 minutes.
Roasting is better, and it is not close. Boiling adds water you then have to fight.
Cool completely, peel, and mash. If the mash looks wet, spread it on a plate and give it 15 minutes in the fridge uncovered.
Step 2: Season the Mash
Add the arrowroot, ginger, chili, roasted cumin, chili powder, garam masala, chaat masala, amchur, lemon juice, kasoori methi, cilantro, and salt.
Mix with your hands, not a spoon. You will feel the moment it comes together.
Taste it raw. Sweet potato absorbs salt, so it usually needs more than you expect.
Step 3: Shape and Chill
Divide into 8 portions and roll each into a ball, then flatten to about ½ inch thick and 3 inches across.
Smooth the edges with your fingers. A cracked edge is where a tikki starts falling apart.
Chill on a plate for 20 minutes. This is the step people skip and then complain about.
Step 4: Shallow Fry
Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a flat pan or tawa over medium heat.
Lay the tikki in with space between them and leave them alone for 4 to 5 minutes.
Flip once, add the rest of the ghee around the edges, and cook another 4 minutes until both faces are deep gold.
Drain on a rack, never on paper towels. Paper steams the bottom crust soft.
Oven and Air Fryer Versions
Both work, and neither is quite as good. The ghee is doing real flavor work, not just cooking the outside.
- Oven. 425°F on a parchment lined sheet, brush both sides generously with ghee, 20 minutes, flip, then 10 to 12 minutes more.
- Air fryer. 380°F, brushed with ghee, 12 minutes, flip, 6 to 8 minutes more. Do not crowd the basket.
- What changes. You get a drier, more uniform crust instead of the crisp shell and creamy contrast. Still good. Just different.
Expert Tips
- Dry mash, always. Every failure with these traces back to moisture.
- Cold patties into a hot pan. Chilled tikki hold their shape while the crust forms.
- Medium heat, not high. High heat scorches the sugars in the sweet potato before the inside heats through.
- Do not crowd the pan. Four at a time in a 12 inch skillet, maximum.
- Flip once. Every extra flip breaks the crust you just built.
- Salt harder than feels right. Sweetness needs salt to read as savory.
What to Serve With Them
These want something sharp and something cool. Ideally both.
- Green chutney. Cilantro, mint, green chili, lemon. The default and the best one.
- Tamarind chutney. Sweet and sour, which doubles down on the sweetness, so use it alongside yogurt rather than alone.
- Plain yogurt. Whisked smooth with a pinch of roasted cumin and salt.
- As chaat. Break two tikki into a bowl, spoon over yogurt and both chutneys, then top with sev, red onion, and a dusting of chaat masala. This is how they get eaten at street stalls.
- With chai. Honestly the best pairing, and the least complicated.
Storing and Freezing
- The mash. Refrigerates for 2 days before shaping, and it actually improves as the spices settle in.
- Shaped, uncooked. Up to 24 hours in the fridge on a covered plate.
- Cooked. 3 days refrigerated in an airtight container.
- Freezer. Freeze shaped raw patties on a tray, then bag them for 2 months. Cook straight from frozen over medium low heat, adding about 3 minutes per side.
- Reheating. A dry skillet or the air fryer at 350°F for 5 minutes. The microwave turns the crust to leather.
Recipe
Shakarkandi Ki Tikki (Indian Sweet Potato Cutlets)
Ingredients
For the Tikki
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes (shakarkandi) about 4 medium, roasted or boiled and cooled
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot flour or water chestnut flour, buckwheat flour, or 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1 serrano or green chili minced
- 1 teaspoon roasted ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala
- ½ teaspoon amchur (dried mango powder)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) crushed
- ⅓ cup cilantro chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons sendha namak (rock salt) or fine sea salt
To Cook and Serve
- 3 tablespoons ghee or neutral oil, for shallow frying
- ½ cup cilantro mint chutney to serve
- ¼ cup plain yogurt to serve
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
Instructions
Cook the Sweet Potatoes
- Roast the sweet potatoes whole at 400 degrees F for 45 to 55 minutes, or boil them in their skins for 25 to 30 minutes. Roasting gives a drier mash and a better tikki.
- Cool completely, peel, and mash smooth. If the mash looks wet, spread it on a plate and chill uncovered for 15 minutes.
Season and Shape
- Add the arrowroot, ginger, green chili, roasted cumin, chili powder, garam masala, chaat masala, amchur, lemon juice, kasoori methi, cilantro, and salt to the mash.
- Mix with your hands until the mixture holds together when squeezed. Taste and add salt as needed.
- Divide into 8 portions, roll each into a ball, and flatten to about ½ inch thick and 3 inches across, smoothing the edges so they do not crack.
- Chill the shaped patties on a plate for 20 minutes.
Fry
- Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a flat pan or tawa over medium heat.
- Add the tikki with space between them and cook undisturbed for 4 to 5 minutes, until the underside is deep gold.
- Flip once, add the remaining ghee around the edges, and cook 4 minutes more. Drain on a rack and dust with extra chaat masala.
Notes
- Dry mash is everything: Roast rather than boil, and cool completely before mashing. Wet mash is why tikki fall apart.
- Vrat version: Sendha namak and arrowroot, water chestnut, or buckwheat flour keep this fasting friendly. On a regular day, use sea salt and cornstarch.
- Oven: 425 degrees F, brushed with ghee, 20 minutes, then flip and bake 10 to 12 minutes more.
- Air fryer: 380 degrees F, brushed with ghee, 12 minutes, flip, 6 to 8 minutes more.
- Freezing: Freeze shaped raw patties on a tray, then bag for 2 months. Cook from frozen over medium low heat, about 3 minutes longer per side.
