Recipe: Zucchini Fritters

If your vegetable garden (or nearby farmer’s market) is half as generous as mine, you’re still collecting zucchinis, and perhaps running out of ideas of how to prepare them. Here’s one of our favorite options: zucchini fritters!

Ingredients

• Zucchini, 400g
• Potatoes, 4 regular sized
• Flour, 200g
• Eggs, 3
• Baking soda, ½ teaspoon
• Grated cheese, 100g
• Milk, a splash
• Vegetable oil, a splash
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dried oregano
• Powdered garlic

Instructions

Grate the zucchini and salt it before letting it sit in a sieve to drain, occasionally squeezing it to extract excess liquid.

Grate the potatoes and add to the drained zucchini. (Note: Your pile of grated content should be mostly zucchini. Add just enough potato to give the patties structure—about ¾ zucchini ¼ potato.)

Add all of the other ingredients (flour, eggs, baking soda, a splash of milk, vegetable oil, salt and pepper, dried oregano, powdered garlic, and grated cheese) and mix everything together.

Note: Use any cheese you have on hand, as the flavor won’t pop. It’s more about giving consistency to the patties. No need to go for a fancy or pricey cheese! (My husband used his prime Dutch cheese and decided that would be a one-off!).

While delicious, zucchini isn’t packed with flavor, so get creative with added ingredients to give it a kick: additional herbs or spices, lemon zest, etc.
If the mixture is too liquid, add flour or Maizena (cornstarch) to thicken it.

Take a handful of the mixture and start making paddies, flattening them a bit to make sure they can cook through more easily.

In a skillet, heat up olive oil on medium-high (not full blast) and start cooking your paddies, letting them get nice and golden before flipping them. Add a touch of oil between batches of paddies to avoid sticking/burning.

Serve as desired.*

*We like to put sauces out on the table: mayo, aioli, sriracha (delicious when mixed with the mayo!), sweet and sour sauce. Fritters can be eaten solo or with a side of fries, rice, or whatever else makes your heart sing.

A few extra notes

First of all, know that this recipe is the one we landed on after a few different trials. It will keep evolving, so it is absolutely not the end-all-be-all. A friend (the one who first made us discover the glory of zucchini fritters) uses a recipe that includes ricotta – also delicious, but not our go-to, simply because the instructions are in Italian. I’ve also used beer in batter for crepes to make it fluffier, but have yet to apply that to zucchini fritters… the sky is the limit!

Second, this is one of many ways to enjoy zucchini. Another easy favorite is to stir-fry them with onions, lots of garlic, lemon zest, and whichever other veggies you love (chickpeas, eggplant, you name it), and then add lemon juice just before serving.

What are some of your go-to zucchini recipes?