Carrot Zuchinni Fritters

Hot damn!

These fritters are a happy surprise of incredible taste and great satiety. While visiting my lovely vegetarian friends in Whitehorse this summer, I took to making the dinners for us each evening. So I turned my vegetarian brain full-on and played with a bunch of ideas and recipes based on what they already had in their kitchen. Enter zuchinni, carrots, fresh herbs, old white cheddar cheese and the brainchild of a veggie pattie gone rogue.

Quick and easy for any meal of the day!

The concocton I came up with was a banger and illicited a comment of, “these are the best fritters I’ve ever eaten” from the troops, So I thought it deserved to be shared with you folks. Zuchinni fritters are lovely, but what to do when you have a ton of carrots looking lonely in the fridge and only 2 small zuchinni? You improvise. So the first iteration of this recipe was actually more carrot-centric, which was quite delicious and I never looked back. In fact, carrots, my new favourite crush, are becoming my new BFF vegetable in the kitchen this summer. *More recipes to come on this point, making carrots the star where I never thought possible.

Cross-section of these bad boys. I like to make my fritters a little thicker, like a pattie.

If you’re wondering what and how to pair them, consider a multitude of sauteed or roasted vegetables, a light salad with seeds and nuts, or even a summer salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh herbs, and feta.

If you have a food processor, the food prep will be super fast! I’d love to see your home-created version, so feel free to tag me on IG when you try this recipe. Enjoy!

Here’s a quick visual step-by-step of the recipe to help you get going. Bon appetit!

Grate the vegetables, add salt, mix together, and let sit for 20-30 minutes. This process removes some of the water from the veggies so the fritters don’t come out soggy.

*Don’t miss this step!

After squeezing the vegetables ‘dry’, add the rest of the ingredients until you have a resonably thick mixture. Take a small handful and gently form into patties to be ready for frying. This batch amount usually yields about 16 fritters about 2 heaping tablespoons each.

Fry time! You don’t need a lot of oil, but make sure oil covers pan and is hot. Fry for about 4-5 minutes each side, until browned and cooked halfway through before flipping to the other side.

Can you smell the goodness cooking in the pan? So hearty and satisfying…

Et voila! Zuchinni carrot fritters with cheese deliciousness and hearty fresh flavours. Serve with yogurt or sour cream.

Yield: 4

Author: Catherine Ratusny

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ZUCHINNI CARROT FRITTERS

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 50 Min

A delicious way to get more veggies into your diet with this main course fritters. Crispy and textured, and full of flavour! Try it for any meal of the day. Serve with yogurt or sour cream.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of grated zucchini
• 2 cups of grated carrots
• 1 white or red onion, finely minced
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced (optional)
• 3 scant teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 cup of chopped fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup of chopped fresh dill, plus exra for garnish
• 1 1/2 cups grated old white cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup spelt or white flour (you may use a little more)
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 6 tbsp of grapeseed or olive oil (for cooking the fritters)

Instructions

1. Combine the grated zucchini, carrots, onion and sea salt. Mix well and let sit for 20 minutes to extract water from the vegetables.You can stir it a few times throughout the 20 minutes to ensure even distribution of salt and water extraction in the mixture.
2. In the meantime, mix cornmeal, flour, spices together in a separate bowl.
3. After 20 minutes, mix again the grated veg and take by handfuls and squeeze out excess water between hands. Take the extracted vegetables and place them in a new bowl. Discard extracted water. Complete the process with all the vegetable mixture, it should be fairly dry.
4. When grated veg have all been extracted, add in the 2 eggs and mix gently. Gently fold in grated cheese.
5. Add the flour-spice mix to the vegetables and gently mix together all ingredients until flour mixture is evenly distributed. If at this point the mix is a little too damp to put into patties, you can add 1/4 cup more flour.
6. Heat a large skillet or cast-iron pan to medium heat.
7. Take by heaping tablespoonfuls into palm and form into palm-sized patties. You should be able to make about 16 medium-sized fritters.
8. When pan is hot, Add 3 tbsp of grapeseed or olive oil and roll around pan. Lower heat to med-low. Gently place patties in the pan, leaving about an inch around their diameter and cook on the stove for about 4-5 minutes each side, or until golden brown and cooked through. Complete the process again until all fritters have been cooked.
9. Serve immediately. Top with plain yogurt and fresh dill.

PRO-TIPS:

1. You can easily increase the carrot content to 3 cups of each zuchinni and carrots if you like!
2. Make sure to keep an eye on the heat, as fritters can burn easily if too high (or take forever to cook if too low) in temperature
3. A flatter fritter will ensure a quicker cook time than a thicker fritter
4. Great if served with roasted veggies or a side salad (try my favourite go-to tomato cucumber summer salad for a beautiful side accompaniment
5. Fritters are delicious cold also!

* Nutrition data is approximate and is for informational purposes only.