Loksa are thin, crepe-like potato pancakes from Slovakia, where they’re a traditional dish on Christmas Eve.

They’re also easy to make with mashed potatoes leftover from holiday dinners. That’s how Daniel Hart does it. He got the recipe from his late grandmother, Mary Tcaks, an immigrant from Slovakia. Today, loksa remain a favorite in his family, especially for the holidays.

Instead of serving them like a crepe, rolled or folded and filled or topped with something sweet or savory, it’s tradition in Hart’s family to tear up the tortilla-like flatbreads, turning them into a small noodle-like dumplings which he serves with cabbage and onion. The traditional Slovakian cabbage and noodle dish is called halušky.

“The final product should resemble a rough noodle, saturated in butter, with a delightful salty taste contrasting the sweet cabbage,” Hart wrote to Too Many Cooks.

Because he often works with leftovers, he doesn’t have precise measurements for the mashed potatoes and flour. The amount of flour depends on the amount of leftover mashed potatoes you have. And, he wrote, “You'll be surprised at just how many cups will absorb in to the potatoes.”

Mary Tcaks's Loksa

From Daniel Hart of Chattaroy

Leftover mashed potatoes, made with butter and sour cream, at room temperature

All-purpose flour

1 large head of green cabbage, thickly chopped

1 large onion, chopped

4 to 5 tablespoons butter

Salt, to taste

Combine leftover mashed potatoes with as much all-purpose flour as you can work into them. When you have a stiff dough, let the mixture rest while you prepare the cabbage.

In a heavy skillet, gently sauté cabbage and onion in butter until soft and golden, Add salt to taste. Set aside.

Form  lemon-sized balls of dough, then roll them out on a generously floured surface to a thickness of 1/16 to 1/8 inch (not too thin or they will disintegrate during the noodling process).

Bake the sheets of dough on floured baking pans at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until patches of golden brown appear. When cool enough to handle, rip the crepe-like loksa, into irregular 50 cent-size pieces, then place them in large bowl.

Bring a large stock pot full of water to a boil. Pour the boiling water into the loksa pieces. Stir them once and then quickly – after about 10 seconds, according to Daniel Hart – drain them in a colander.

Place drained loksa back into bowl, add the sautéed vegetables and salt to taste, stir sparingly and serve.

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