Baked Whole Wheat Panko Crusted Potato Croquettes with Tomato Basil Dipping Sauce

Made some potato skins the other night. Post to follow on that but in the meantime, of course I had all these potato insides left that I needed to use up.
Decided to make potato croquettes and baked ones to boot. These were made for a very nice lazy Sunday lunch, will definitely be making these again. Also, a great use of leftover potatoes. Wonder if this would work w sweet potatoes as well... Will have to explore that one.

INGREDIENTS FOR CROQUETTES:
4-5 Russet Potatoes
2 tablespoons of shopped chives
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 cup shredded cheese (I used part skim mozzarella)
4 tablespoons of whipped cream cheese
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 chopped red onion (regular onion or whole shallot fine too)
1 cup whole wheat panko (regular panko or bread crumbs would also work)
2 eggs
salt to taste

FOR DIPPING SAUCE
1 4 oz can of tomato paste
6-8 leaves of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic minced

FOR SALAD
2 cups of butter lettuce mix (any lettuce ok)
1/4 cup pine nuts toasted on pan
about 1 ounce of aged parmesan shaved
For Dressing: 2 tablespoons aged vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey

If you are starting from scratch, peel and wash potatoes. Cut into thick slices and boil in salted water till can easily piece with a knife. Basically same like when you are making mashed potatoes. It should take about 20 minutes. My potatoes were already cooked so I skipped this step.

In the meantime, in a bowl, combine chives, onion, melted butter, cream cheese and salt.

Once potatoes are cooked, mash them. 

Add cheese and the cream cheese mixture from the step above. 

Beat an egg and fold into your mixture. At this point, if the mixture is too sticky, add some flour.

Preheat oven to 450. Place parchment paper over your baking sheet. Brush it with oil. I used grape

Roll your mixture into balls. Mine were about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Try to keep size consistent.

Add panko to a plate. Add your second egg to a bowl. One at at time, dip the balls into egg and then into panko.  Add to your baking sheet. Allow a bit of space in between.

Bake about 15 minutes, flip over and bake another 15. They should be nice and crunchy on the inside. Soft and cheesy on the inside.

I served mine with tomato sauce-- heated up some tomato paste, add a bit of minced garlic and basil leaves.

These were very nice with a salad. All I used for this one was about 2 cups of butter lettuce mix, 1/4 cup pan toasted pine nuts and shaved parmesean cheese.

For dressing, I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey and 2 tablespoons aged vinegar.

Recipe adapted from http://www.aflockinthecity.com/