Zucchini Fritters

A few weeks ago, we were blessed with a good portion of home-grown zucchini (we live in an apartment, so anything home-grown is fantastic). When it comes to zucchini, the options are practically limitless – you can do so much with this versatile vegetable! Normally, what we like to do with zucchini is make beef n’ zucchini burgers but this time, we wanted to try something new.

As usual, I consulted with my two favorite hotspots for inspiration: pinterest.com and foodgawker.com. All I had to do was type in “zucchini” and the options poured in, hundreds of different kinds of things to do with zucchini. Thing is, we wanted to stick with the health factor – zucchini is very good for you, and I wanted to make sure that whatever we did with all this zucchini, we’d make sure that the healthiness wouldn’t be all for not – ya know what I mean? Thus came the idea: zucchini fritters!

I looked over many different recipes, and settled on two that I thought fit the bill. I’d like to give a shout out to these two chefs, who made zucchini fritters of their own and inspired me to make my own. Thank you, ladies, for sharing your talent with the rest of the world!

• Natasha, blogger of Natasha’s Kitchen
• Michelle, blogger of That’s So Michelle

And when all was said and done, these fritters were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and with every bite you could taste freshness. Only one word of caution about those of who you have never had fritters (like me, before making these)…if you have an issue with texture, be warned, the texture of these will be like sprouts. Because of all the shredded veggies, you will be getting in some of that texture. At first, it threw me off because I didn’t expect it. But after a few more bites, I got used to the texture and began to really enjoy them.

One HUGE lesson I learned while doing this: never peel zucchini and then handle it with your bare hands. Not only does it become super slippery but the zucchini has this strange residue it gives off, this strange juice that when it comes in contact with your skin, it will instantly make your skin harden as if glue was on your hands, and then your hands will peel. I had no idea this was going to happen until after the fact. It was pretty gross…Andrew thought so too, so I began to have fun with it and chased him all over the apartment with my hand outstretched. It really creeped him out lol. I looked this up on google and apparently, I’m not the only one who has made this mistake. So, whatever you do, don’t peel the zucchini unless you have a towel ready to wrap around it instead of using your bare hands.

Here’s what you’ll need:

4 medium to large zucchini, shredded finely, unpeeled
2 russet potatoes, peeled and shredded finely
2 eggs
1/2 of a red onion, chopped very finely
Zest from one lemon
Fresh thyme
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup parm cheese
1 tbsp. salt
2 sprigs of green onions, the green part only chopped
Italian seasoning
Pepper

1. Lay out all the shredded zucchini and potato on several hand towels. Wrap it all up and wring each one over the sink, to get as much of the juice out. Then lay back down opened up on the counter to air dry. Sprinkle some salt over the top. Let them rest on the counter for another half hour, then wring again one last time to get more moisture out.

2. Place shredded veggies in a large bowl. Add red onion, your choices of herbs, 2 eggs, green onions, lemon zest, panko, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Combine well.

3. Heat up large heavy skillet over medium-high heat, and drizzle a little bit of oil in the pan. Take a palmful of the zucchini mixture and form into a well-fitted ball. Place on the pan and let it cook for about 1 minute, then flatten it into a patty. Cook until golden brown (maybe another minute more) and flip it. Cook other side until brown.

(Inside tip: it’s always good to test this out before cooking the whole batch – just cook one and then taste it, if you like it, continue cooking the rest, but if not, you can always adjust the flavors of the mix)

You can serve these with anything really, you can make up your own little sauce to drizzle on top. In the picture, I used my own spaghetti sauce and the white sauce is simply sour cream (and a little bit of milk) mixed in with some of my onion soup mix . We definitely enjoyed the spaghetti sauce with the fritters, the flavors blended wonderfully together. But the options are endless, I saw some other options where people make a lemon sauce, or a spicy peanut sauce – and they all looked delicious! Enjoy 🙂